Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 30 January 2013 were noted, having been previously approved at the Regulation Committee meeting on 18 June 2013. 

(1)       The Learning Disability and Mental Health Officer set the scene for the work of the Panel. She explained that amendments to the Mental Health Act in 2007 had introduced a requirement for elected Members to “audit the effectiveness of receipt and scrutiny of documents.  The Panel’s role was to discharge this function.

(2)       The detailed work in this field was undertaken by a Working Party consisting of three officers from the KCC Families and Social Care Directorate and two co-opted independent members with recent operational management experience within mental health.  The Working Party scrutinised the relevant papers to ensure that the Guardianship Register was correct in terms of the names on it, of the legal requirements having been met and of the grounds for guardianship continuing to apply.

(3)       The work undertaken had resulted in the introduction of robust processes and guidance as well as a thorough review of the Guardianship Register to correct any administrative errors.  The Working Party also intended to introduce a more robust process for monitoring the number and outcome of applications to the Mental Health Review Tribunal during 2014.

(4)       The Learning Disability and Mental Health Manager reported that since the last meeting of the Sub-Committee in January 2013, 3 guardianship orders had been discharged, 4 had been renewed and five new guardianship orders had been accepted.  There were currently eight people subject to guardianship in Kent. 

(5)       KCC was required to provide the Department of Health with annual data on those subject to guardianship. In April 2013 KCC had reported that four new orders had been accepted and one discharged during the previous 12 months. The next submission was due in early April 2014.

(6)       The Learning Disability and Mental Health Manager then gave a presentation on guardianship orders. The slides from this presentation are contained within these minutes.

(7)       The Sub-Committee agreed that it would wish to see the ages of those subject to guardianship orders in future.

(8)       RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted together with the details of the presentation, the list of closed cases since January 2013 (set out in Appendix 1) and the current guardianship register (set out in Appendix 2).