The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is responsible for investigating allegations of attorneys abusing their position of trust whether that is in relation to finances, property, and/or health and welfare.

Financial abuse is the most common form of abuse of vulnerable adults and we hear accusations of such quite frequently, sadly. The OPG does need to have some sort of evidence that abuse is occurring – they will not investigate with only an allegation. Sometimes friends or family have a ‘feeling’ that there is something untoward happening regarding money/assets but without proof, the OPG is not going to look into the matter.

If someone is acting as power of attorney or Deputy for finances, their job is to protect the donor’s money and assets. Of course there may be differences of opinion around areas such as home care vs care in a home. The former tends to be cheaper but if the homecare package is failing to meet needs then a care home may be the only other option. Attorneys do not have to submit accounts to the OPG unless they are requested, but a Deputy will be submitting accounts at least initially so it would be less likely that they would be misappropriating money/assets.

All attorneys and Deputies should be acting in the best interests of the person with dementia. Lately we have had a number of calls involving someone acting as attorney for Health and Welfare instructing a care home to bar certain family members and or/friends from visiting the person with dementia. I had heard so many stories in this vein that I took a question about it to the White Paper Conference on the work of the Court of Protection. The speaker I put my question to stated that the OPG ought to investigate instances where relatives or close friends were being denied access to the person with dementia due to them instructing the care home to send them away. In my experience the OPG does not take an interest in all of these cases however, possibly due to the large volume of paperwork they deal with nowadays.

I understand that an attorney for Health and Welfare has some authority in terms of access by third parties, but on the other hand,  any visitor to a care home causing problems would be asked to leave and not return. I appreciate that families are complicated but would hope that when someone is in care, their friends and family would rally round and put behind them past grievances.  These cases however, are often probably more complex than that, involving blended families and/0r challenging historic issues. It reinforces the fact that we must really think about the people we choose to be our attorneys and what may motivate them to make certain decisions further down the line…

If you suspect abuse or are concerned about the behaviour of an attorney or Deputy towards a vulnerable adult you can:

  • Report the situation to the OPG either by phone or email: 0300 456 0300/    customerservices@publicguardian.gov.uk
  • Report the matter as a safeguarding issue to social services if there is immediate danger
  • Report any possible criminal behaviour to the police

For further support or information call us or email:

0203 405 5940

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