Law Commission consultation on disabled children's social care law

We provisionally propose that legislation should provide that children (of any age) who have the ability to do so, can:

1. (1) request an assessment of social care needs (see further Chapter 3);
2.  
3. (2) make representations in the course of the assessment of those needs (see further Chapter 4);
4.  
5. (3) make representations about the content of any plan developed to meet those needs (see further Chapter 11);
6.  
7. (4) opt-out of advocacy support where a duty to provide such advocacy is engaged (see further Chapter 22);
8.  
9. (5) request that services are provided by way of direct payments (see further Chapter 10); and
10.  
11. (6) make use of the relevant remedies that are available where a local authority has failed to assess or meet their needs appropriately (see further Chapter 18).

Do consultees agree?

We invite consultees’ views as to whether legislation should provide that the test for whether a child aged under 16 is able to make the decisions set out in Consultation Question 75 is:

1. (1) competence (and not provide any further definition of the term); or
2.  
3. (2) the child’s ability to understand, retain, use and weigh the relevant information, and to communicate their decision.