In September 2015 we implemented an early intervention step to allow us contact with prospective financial guardians. The purpose of this type of contact was to explain the duties expected from a financial guardian and more about our supervision role. This approach was piloted and monitored for 7 months, however a decision was recently taken to suspend it. This means that we will no longer contact a financial guardian prior to appointment or ask solicitors to provide us with contact details for a financial guardian.
We recognise that a form of early intervention with financial guardians is essential to ensure and guarantee that they are well informed of their role and the expectations to be able to perform their role adequately. Work is currently underway to learn from the pilot and to develop a new and improved early intervention step. A further update will be provided in due course.