Autonomy and the Lawyer’s Role
Enabling Choice or Exercising Control? Insights from Adult Social Care Practice
Abstract
This note examines the tension between autonomy and protection in adult social care law and practice. Drawing on the authors’ experiences and the legal frameworks governing care, support and mental capacity, it explores how efforts to promote welfare and manage risk may restrict autonomy and liberty. Particular attention is given to the role of local government lawyers in advising social work professionals on the legality, necessity and proportionality of interventions, and in shaping applications before the Court of Protection and under the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction. It argues that meaningful person-centred practice requires critical reflection of the exercise of power when balancing risk, protection and individual choice.
Keywords: adult social care; Mental Capacity Act 2005; Care Act 2014; Court of Protection; inherent jurisdiction; safeguarding; autonomy; deprivation of liberty; fluctuating capacity; local authority lawyers.
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