Power of Attorney? Or something else..

[handmademitlove]

My autistic dd is about to turn 18. What options do we have to continue advocating / managing her affairs if she has capacity but simply doesn't want to manage her own affairs as she struggles with communication in all forms outside of family?

If she has capacity then the route is POA. My daughter does not have capacity and so my husband and I are Court of Protection Health and welfare deputies and I am her DWP appointee.

Just to add, it is crucial to get some form of legal protection in place for any young person with additional needs who turns 18 as medical staff and social care no longer have to consult with parents.

@vjg13 we already have experience of this in A&E. Not good. She is quite capable of managing her affairs from an intellectual point of view, but struggles with phone calls / forms / emails and decision making due to slow processing. PoA seems a bit excessive but I can see that legally there aren't really other options. Just wondered if I had missed anything but I don't think so..

POA is a much quicker, cheaper and easier route than the Court of Protection health and welfare deputy route. We got my daughter's in place for dealing with social care but I am very glad we have it.

We are just starting out on this though ds doesn’t have capacity. I was thinking we’d start out by contacting a solicitor. How long is it all likely to take? I think Mencap do some help pages.

I used a solicitor for my health and welfare deputyship application, the process took well over a year and cost around £2000. There are limited judges that deal this and it does result in large waits and backlogs. You do need a solicitor who has done it before, many have no idea what it is!

Thanks @vjg13 the timescale is very helpful as ds is going to be 18 next year and I will stop dawdling. I am a terrible procrastinator.

Very glad to help. The actual forms are fairly quick to fill in although you do need to do a detailed summary of the young person's needs. There is a psychological evaluation which needs to be completed too by a health care professional and that can also hold up your forms before they get filed depending on how quick your chosen professional is. The timescale may be longer now because mine was in the system pre Covid.
Once all that is done, it is just a waiting game as it progresses through. The initial court fee was about £300 and then I paid the solicitor when it was finally complete.

I doubt there will be any doubt he needs this level of support. Do we pay for the psych assessment or does it have to be through the nhs? Sorry to bombard you with questions. I’ve never met anyone who’s actually done it and while obviously we will take professional advice it’s always nice to hear from the users side what was hard and what was a doddle. Is it the same info as the PIP form? We did transfer to PIP from DLA last year and it took 9 months!!!!!

greenchurchlegal.co.uk
This was the solicitor I used who was recommended to me by a parent at my daughter's college who also had used her. She was excellent and I would also recommend without hesitation. She gave me an initial clear but detailed explanation and the timeline. She isn't local too me so also used a local solicitor just to validate the initial proof of identity documents to send.

The summary of needs is from birth and an outline of their needs etc.
I used the college clinical psychologist for the report, he didn't charge but I could have used my GP who I think would have charged. It's a form to fill in for whoever does it.

There was also a poster on here who had not used a solicitor and prepared all her own documents.