A significant ruling by Lady Hale yesterday in the Supreme Court is being reported and commented on today, which (if I understand correctly) will  have significant impact on how the Court of Protection undertakes its role in future.

The most important article has appeared here on the Court of Protection Handbook website under the headline “Best interests, available options, and case management before the Court of Protection – the Supreme Court pronounces”.

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Expert on disability law and (currently occasional) blogger Lucy Series has just posted her initial thoughts on the law Commission proposals for the replacement of the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). These may be found on here on her Small Places website.

As Lucy says, there is a lot to think about… but her thoughts on the implications of the proposals for human rights issues are very interesting. Below I reproduce an excerpt from the blog article . The emboldening and underling of text is mine – an attempt to highlight what  parents and family carers may find particularly interesting. 

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We are aware that many UK residents and British  citizens  have family ties or other links to the Republic of Ireland, and may be interested in the new legislation relating to learning disability and capacity enacted in December 2015.  The (ADMC Act) provided a long-overdue update and reform of legislation in the Republic.

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Note: The following article is awaiting update on legislation enacted after 2012.

For information on the most recently enacted legislation, i.e. The Children and Families Act 2014 and  The Care Act 2014, please see the individual articles under the ‘Legislation & Policies’ menu, or follow the links at the end of this article.

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This guide first appeared in Resnews 2015.2.  

The EHC reforms  discussed are the  consequence of  the Children and Families Act 2014.

A Guide to Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans

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To accompany our Guide to the Care Act – recently posted to the Legislation & Policies section of our website, after first being published in 2015 editions of our newsletter Resnews – we have decided to publish other ‘user guides’ first published in Resnews during 2015. This guide appeared in Resnews 2015.3.  Note one of the benefits of membership of Rescare is receipt of Resnews on a quarterly basis.

A Guide to Learning Disability and Work Related Benefits

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To accompany our Guide to the Care Act – recently posted to the Legislation & Policies section of our website, after first being published in 2015 editions of our newsletter Resnews – we have decided to publish other ‘user guides’ first published in Resnews during 2015. This guide appeared in Resnews 2015.4. Note one of the benefits of membership of Rescare is receipt of Resnews on a quarterly basis.

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This ‘User Guide’ to the Care Act 2014 appeared in four parts in consecutive editions of Resnews 2015-16. (Resnews is the quarterly newsletter to our members). The Guide was generally well-received, and we publish it here in the hope that it will inform and help a wider audience.

The Care Act – What will it Mean for You? (Part 1 – from Resnews Summer ’15)

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The Care Act 2014 was enacted in 2014. As of April 2015, the Act and supporting guidance place a series of new duties and responsibilities on local authorities about care and support for adults.

The Act has been described as the most significant legislative change affecting care provision ‘in the last 60 years’ or ‘since the introduction of the Welfare State in 1948’. It supersedes much previous legislation and associated statutory guidance.

(The Care Act applies only to England, but other UK legislation has much in common with it: residents of Wales will be affected by the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 , and of Scotland by the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013). Continue reading →

The Health and Social Care Act 2012, enacted on 27^th March, is the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It proposes the abolition of NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs). Thereafter, £60 to £80 billion of “commissioning”, or health care funds, would be transferred from the abolished PCTs to several hundred “clinical commissioning groups”, partly run by the general practitioners (GPs) in England. Continue reading →