Court of Protection and Deputyship

Trusts Discussion
1

Hello

I have just received a COP order appointing my clients as Deputies. The Court have made separate Directions (without any request from me regarding the same) stating that,

“it appears that arrangements for P’s care may amount to a deprivation of liberty but that there is no indication that such has been authorised either by standard or urgent authorisation…”

They go on to say that the applicants shall file a statement in COP24 which shall address the following

a an account of the circumstances in which P came to be living in her current placement (ie the residential care home)
b an explanation of such steps as have been or will be taken in respect of any deprivation of liberty (with a copy of any urgent or standard authorisation exhibited)
c the date of the proposed application if authorisation is required but no application has yet been made

Matter to be referred to a Judge in 2 weeks time for further consideration so as to make a final order or give such further directions as may be appropriate.

It has been a while since I last completed a COP deputyship application but I have never needed to be explicit relating to these circumstances in the past. I have briefly explained how P came to be in the care home to the court when I completed COP3 and COP1/COP1A.

Is this normal?
Do I need to take further action - do we need to actually respond to the court?
Unfortunately, it is impossible to get any quick response from the court whether by phone or email.

You comments would be appreciated.

2

Yes you do need to respond. A copy of the DOLS should be available if it has been applied for but not completed you can give a copy of the court order to the Local authority and ask for them to expedite the DoLS.

3

As Rachel said. I had this last year though thankfully the DOLS was in place so sent to COP quickly, in this case the cars home were able to provide it.

Problem is, despite COP acknowledging receipt in mid Sept, I am still waiting for the Order. They don’t answer the phone, often hanging up, and I’m still waiting or a response to an e-Mail requesting an update.

4

We have had several orders made which appointed the deputies but did not give permission to sell the property until a DOLS has been made. It took a lot of chasing for the DOLS to be made. Unfortunately even if you get a reply from the court to say the order has been made but not issued, you don’t know what the order actually says.

We are trying to avoid any more professional deputy appointments but if we make applications on behalf of others we would expect to put in the application that DOLS application has been requested. With both this process and the deputyship application process being so achingly slow, it is debatable which would come through first.