The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act (the AWI Amendment Act) consultation.
We consider this a valuable opportunity to comment on the proposals and the importance of reform to mental health legislation. It is positive that the proposals align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and incorporate some of the recommendations of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review (SMHLR).
However, whilst we acknowledge the fact that the Scottish Government have stated that this is an initial step towards longer term and larger changes in the law, we do not think that the proposed amendments go far enough to truly introduce positive change for people subject to the Act.
The ALLIANCE have concerns about the amendments approach being taken. Instead, we recommend that the Scottish Government legislate for a rights based system of supported decision making that will replace guardianship and which is in line with the UNCRPD.
We do not believe that the proposed new principles can be fully realised without a new supported decision-making framework that is robustly resourced, implemented and independently scrutinised to support them.