Hello wise people. Our son is autistic with SLD. He is approaching 18 and as such we have started to fall under adult social services. We were put onto the idea of Welfare Deputies when our newly appointed Transition worker from Adult Services gave us a 'Permission to Share' form relating to our son's medical and other details. We realised that there was nowhere on the form for us to sign unless we were a Welfare Deputy - if we are not a WD then the form got signed for our son by someone in social services, with no doubt other decisions being taken without our input. My question is - are there any downsides (apart from the initial cost) of becoming a welfare deputy? Does it make it harder for example to get financial support from the local authority?