What is the purpose of Guardianship?

Guardianship can be used for service users who are 16 years of age or over who have a mental disorder or nature of a degree which warrants their reception into their Guardianship and that it is in the interests of the service user’s welfare or the protection of the others that they should be received into Guardianship.

Guardianship can also be used for those with a learning disability who do not also have mental disorder. However, there needs to be evidence of abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct.

Guardianship has 3 powers. These are residence, attendance and access. Unlike other sections of the Mental Health Act, Guardianship is a local authority power. The local authority has the power under Guardianship to ensure the person resides in a place that will meet their needs, to give access to certain professionals to check on their welfare. It can also require people to attend places for education, employment or treatment, however, treatment cannot be enforced.

The process of Guardianship is via application. They can be made via an Approved Mental Health Professional (which is in the majority of cases) or via a court. Via the Approved Mental Health Professional it is accompanied by two medical recommendations like any other applications in the Mental Health Act. 

A big part of the application process is a case conference which must involve all relevant professionals, the service user, relative / carers and other important people to the service user so that a really detailed conversation about whether the grounds are met, how the persons needs are going to be met and whether the Guardianship is in fact the right piece of legislation to used.

The application for Guardianship must be accepted by the Local Authority before the person is officially under Guardianship.

Guardianship must be renewed like other sections in the Mental Health Act. It is very much like a section 3 in terms of time scale. There is the initial 6 months, a further 6 months and further 12 months if it is renewed. The renewal must happen within the last 2 months of the Guardianship period and is led by the Responsible Clinician. This is best done at a multi-disciplinary review and the care plan must be reviewed by the Care Co-ordinator.

Guardianship can be discharged and at every renewal point the professionals must consider whether Guardianship can be discharged. The discharge must be accepted by the Local Authority. The Responsible Clinician can recommend the discharge, the Local Authority itself could recommend discharge or the Tribunal could recommend discharge.

It is really important that servicer user has access to their rights whilst they are subject to Guardianship. They have right to ask for a tribunal and also a right to an Independent Mental Health Advocate, but whereas in hospital there is a Mental Health Act administrator process this is not the case in the Local Authority. 

The responsibility to trigger an appeal is with the Care Co-ordinator or Social Worker responsible for the case. They are the link person between the service user and the tribunal office.