Fundamental changes in many aspects of society have taken place since the policies, practices and procedures of the Public Trustee, the Accountant General and the Court of Protection were last radically reviewed. Amongst the most obvious ones are:-
people are living longer and therefore more likely to develop degenerative mental incapacity;
improvements in medical science have meant that babies, children and adults alike are surviving incidents which leave them with significant brain damage but (in some instances) many years of life ahead of them;
damages awards, whether through the Court or by way of private settlements, involve sums of money on a scale that could not have been envisaged even ten years ago;
more people, often through home ownership, possess assets of at least £5,000 (the level at which for nearly fifteen years the Court of Protection has been required to consider full Protection or Receivership action);
changes to the tax regime and other developments within society have meant a reduction in the use of Trusts;
a paternalistic and interventionist approach to protecting people with mental incapacity is resented rather than welcomed. As the LCD Consultation Paper demonstrated, the strong wish of such individuals, their families and representative groups is for the state to avoid getting involved in their financial affairs unless its intervention is genuinely required. Even when it is, the balance must be carefully struck between allowing people to manage their own finances with the support of individuals or organisations of their choice and ensuring their often irreplaceable financial assets are not being abused;
terminology is extremely important nowadays and titles like 'Patient of the Court' and ‘the Lord Chancellor's Visitors' hamper rather than help the essential support that Ministers and the Court aim to provide. Even ‘the Court of Protection' is a term regarded by many as obscure and off-putting rather than reassuring.