Ms Joanne Condon:

We have had experience of supporting some people who were completely discharged from wardship and deemed to have capacity to manage their own affairs. However, this can be nuanced. Sometimes, the ability recognised for somebody to have the capacity, for example, to manage their own funds versus the level of experience they have had in managing their own funds can be very different. We have experience of people being fully discharged from wardship who then regain control over very large funds but have never had the experience to practise what it is to manage your own money and have therefore needed support. Ironically, they put in place a codecision-making arrangement of their own volition but they did not have any family members. The current setup only allows for somebody to be appointed from the decision-making representative panel through the Decision Support Service because there is no specific panel for codecision-makers. While this person must act in accordance with the code of practice for codecision-making and make joint decisions with the person, it would be great in the future to see specific panels developed for that purpose and to recognise some of the nuances of people being discharged from wardship. It is a big transition when people come out of wardship. They have been accustomed to people making decisions for them and supporting them with everything and then they start doing that for themselves. There are supports required very often in making that transition.