Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2020 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)          The Assistant Director Countywide Services briefly introduced the report by saying that since January 2020 there had been one Guardianship order accepted and that this had subsequently been renewed twice. In addition, there had been a renewal of one other guardianship order.  There were currently two people subject to guardianship in Kent. 

(2)          The Assistant Director Countywide Services then said that Kent County Council was required to provide the Department of Health with data on those subject to guardianship on a bi-annual basis. The last submission of data had been on 11 June 2018 for the period 1^st April 2016 to 31^st March 2018.  The collection of data for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2020 which had been due in April 2020 had been postponed until 2021 due to pressure from the covid-19 pandemic.  However, as numbers of new Guardianship cases had reached very low levels nationally, consultation was underway on the future of data collection and subsequent statistical publication.  She added that the decline in the use of Guardianship orders might, in part, be due to the availability of other mental health legislation.

(3)       The Assistant Director Countywide Services said that the working party, made up of four officers from the Directorate of Adult Social Care and Health had met on three occasions since January 2020.

(4)       RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted together with

the current Guardianship register and the activity between January and December 2020 set out in Appendix 1 to the report.