OPG suspends early intervention step

The Office of the Public Guardian has suspended the early intervention step introduced to allow contact with prospective financial guardians.

Introduced in September 2015, the practice involved contacting a financial guardian prior to appointment, or asking solicitors to provide contact details for the financial guardian. The purpose was to explain the duties expected from a financial guardian and more about the OPG's supervision role.

After piloting and monitoring this approach for seven months, the OPG has decided to suspend it. In a statement it said: "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."