Adult social care law is a complex and confusing area, and people struggle
to understand their basic legal rights.
That is the experience of many of the 231 respondents to the Law Commission’s February 2010 consultation, Adult Social Care.
The respondents strongly backed retaining key legal rights, maintaining duties to cooperate between social services and other agencies and introducing a duty to investigate in adult protection cases.
Frances Patterson QC, the public law commissioner responsible for the review, says: “We have been struck by the widespread positive support for our adult social care project, and the strength of agreement we are seeing that this area of law must be reformed as a matter of priority.”
The commission’s final report is due to be published in May 2011, with potential legislation scheduled for 2012.
Ed Mitchell, general editor of the Journal of Community Care Law, said that the Law Commission has carried out a very impressive consultation and outreach programme.
He added: “Most of the consultation responses have not come from lawyers—this is not a bill with an exclusively legal audience. To achieve their aims, therefore, it is vital that the Law Commission produce a bill whose structure and language delivers messages that can be grasped by those without legal expertise. Otherwise, the good work done so far risks being undone.”
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