Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986

Title and introductory text

Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 1986 c. 33 An Act to provide for the improvement of the effectiveness of, and the co-ordination of resources in, the provision of services for people with mental or physical handicap and for people with mental illness; to make further provision for the assessment of the needs of such people; to establish further consultative processes and representational rights for such people; and for connected purposes. [8th July 1986] Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

4 Services under s. 2 of the 1970 Act: duty to consider needs of disabled persons.

(1) When requested to do so by— (a) a disabled person, (b) his authorised representative, or (c) any person who provides care for him in the circumstances mentioned in section 8, a local authority in England shall decide whether the needs of the disabled person call for the provision by the authority of any services in accordance with section 2(4) of the 1970 Act (provision of welfare services). (2) ... This section applies only if the disabled person is aged under 18.

5 Disabled persons leaving special education : England.

(1) Where— (a) a local authority in England have made a statement under section 7 of the Education Act 1981 section 168 of the Education Act 1993 or section 324 of the Education Act 1996 (statement of child’s educational needs) , or have maintained an EHC plan under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014, in respect of a child ... and (b) the statement or plan is still maintained by the authority at whichever is the earlier of the following times, namely— (i) the time when they institute a review of the statement or plan prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph, and (ii) any time falling after they have carried out the review prescribed for the purposes of sub-paragraph (i) when they institute a re-assessment of his educational needs, the authority shall at that time require the appropriate officer to give to the authority his opinion as to whether the child is or is not a disabled person. (2) Where— (a) a local authority in England make any such statement , or secure the preparation of an EHC plan, in respect of a child after he has attained the age of 14, or (b) a local authority in England maintain any such statement or plan in respect of a child in whose case the appropriate officer has, in pursuance of subsection (1), given his opinion that the child is not a disabled person, but the authority have become aware of a significant change in the mental or physical condition of the child giving them reason to believe that he may now be a disabled person, the authority shall, at the time of making the statement , securing the preparation of the plan or (as the case may be) of becoming aware of that change, require the appropriate officer to give to the authority his opinion as to whether the child is or is not a disabled person. (3) In the following provisions of this section and in section 6 a person in respect of whom the appropriate officer has given his opinion that he is a disabled person is referred to as a “disabled student”. (3A) The responsible authority shall give to the appropriate officer written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) of the date on which any disabled student will cease to be of compulsory school age, and the notification shall state— (a) his name and address; and (b) whether or not he intends to remain in full-time education and, if he does, the name of the school or other institution at which the education will be received; and shall be given not earlier than twelve months, nor later than eight months, before that date. (3B) Where, in the case of a disabled student over compulsory school age who is receiving relevant full-time education, that is— (a) full-time education at a school; or (b) full-time further or higher education at an institution other than a school; it appears to the responsible authority that the student will cease to receive relevant full-time education on a date (“the leaving date”) on which he will be under the age of nineteen years and eight months, the responsible authority shall give written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) to the appropriate officer. (3C) That notification shall state— (a) his name and address; and (b) the leaving date; and shall be given not earlier than twelve months, nor later than eight months, before the leaving date. (4) If at any time it appears to the responsible authority— (a) that a disabled student has ceased to receive relevant full-time education or will cease to do so on a date less than 8 months after that time, and (b) that no notification has been given under subsection (3B), but (c) that, had the responsible authority for the time being been aware of his intentions 8 months or more before that date, they would have been required to give notification under that subsection with respect to him, that authority shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable, give written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) to the appropriate officer of his name and address and of the date on which he ceased to receive, or will cease to receive, that education. (5) When the appropriate officer receives a notification given with respect to a student under subsection (3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4), he shall (subject to subsections (6) and (7) make arrangements for the local authority of which he is an officer to carry out an assessment of the needs of that person with respect to the provision by that authority of any statutory services for that person in accordance with any of the welfare enactments, and any such assessment shall be carried out— (a) in the case of a notification under subsection (3A) or (3B), not later than the end of the period of 5 months beginning with the date of receipt of the notification, or (b) in the case of a notification under subsection (4), before the date specified in the notification, if reasonably practicable, and in any event not later than the end of the period referred to in paragraph (a) above. (6) If— (a) a notification has been given to the appropriate officer with respect to any person under subsection (3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4), but (b) it subsequently appears to the responsible authority that the person will be receiving relevant full-time education at a time later than the date specified in the notification, the authority shall give written notification of the relevant facts to that officer as soon as is reasonably practicable; and on receiving any such notification that officer shall cease to be required under subsection (5) to make arrangements for the assessment of the needs of the person in question (but without prejudice to the operation of that subsection in relation to any further notification given with respect to that person under subsection (3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4)). (7) Nothing in subsection (5) shall require the appropriate officer to make arrangements for the assessment of the needs of a person— (a) if, having attained the age of 16, he has requested that such arrangements should not be made under that subsection, or (b) if, being under that age, his parent or other person who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him has made such a request. (8) Regulations under paragraph 7 of Schedule 27 to the Education Act 1996 (assessments and statements of special educational needs) may, in relation to the transfer of statements maintained under section 324 of that Act, make such provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient in connection with the preceding provisions of this section. (8A) Regulations under section 47 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (transfer of EHC plans) may make such provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient in connection with subsections (1) to (7) of this section. (9) In this section— “the appropriate officer”, in relation to the child or person referred to in the provision of this section in question, means such officer as may be appointed for the purposes of this section by the local authority for the area in which that child or person is for the time being ordinarily resident; “child” means a person of compulsory school age or a person who has attained that age but not the age of 19 and is registered as a pupil at a school or as a student at an establishment of higher or further education; “establishment of higher or further education” means an institution which provides higher education or further education (or both); and “prescribed” means prescribed in regulations made by the Secretary of State. ... ... “the responsible authority”— in relation to a child at school, means the local authority who are responsible for the child for the purposes of Part IV of the Education Act 1996 or (as the case may be) Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014; in relation to a person receiving full-time further education or higher education at an institution within the further education sector or the higher education sector, means the governing body of the institution; and in relation to a person for whom a local authority ... ... has secured full-time further education at an institution (other than a school) outside the further education sector or the higher education sector, the local authority ... ... in each case whether any such opinion as is mentioned in subsection (3) was given to that authority or not; and other expressions used in this section and in the Education Act 1996 or the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (and not defined in this Act) have the same meaning in this section as in those Acts. (10) This section applies to England ... only.

6 Review of expected leaving dates from full - time education of disabled persons.

(1) The responsible authority shall for the purposes of section 5 above keep under review the date when any disabled student is expected to cease to receive relevant full-time education. (2) Subsection (9) of section 5 shall have effect for the purposes of this section as it has effect for the purposes of that section.

8 Duty of local authority in ... Scotland to take into account abilities of carer.

(1) Where— (a) a disabled person is living at home and receiving a substantial amount of care on a regular basis from another person (who is not a person employed to provide such care by any body in the exercise of its functions under any enactment), and (b) it falls to a local authority in ... Scotland to decide whether the disabled person’s needs call for the provision by them of any services for him under any of the welfare enactments, the local authority shall, in deciding that question, have regard to the ability of that other person to continue to provide such care on a regular basis. (2) Where that other person is unable to communicate, or (as the case may be) be communicated with, orally or in writing (or in each of those ways) by reason of any mental or physical incapacity, the local authority shall provide such services as, in their opinion, are necessary to ensure that any such incapacity does not prevent the authority from being properly informed as to the ability of that person to continue to provide care as mentioned in subsection (1). (3) Section 3(7) shall apply for the purposes of subsection (2) above as it applies for the purposes of section 3(6), but as if any reference to the disabled person or his authorised representative were a reference to the person mentioned in subsection (2).

9 Information.

In subsection (2)(b) of section 1 of the 1970 Act— (a) for the words “any other of those services” there shall be substituted the words “any other service provided by the authority (whether under any such arrangements or not)”; and (b) at the end there shall be inserted the words “and of any service provided by any other authority or organisation which in the opinion of the authority is so relevant and of which particulars are in the authority’s possession”.

10 Co-option to committees etc. of persons representing interests of disabled persons.

Where any enactment provides for the appointment or co-option to any council, committee or body of one or more persons with special knowledge of the needs of disabled persons, such appointment or co-option shall only be made after consultation with such organisation or organisations of disabled people as may be appropriate in each case.

11 Reports to Parliament.

(1ZA) In this section, ... subsection (1) extends to Scotland only. (1ZB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) The Secretary of State shall annually lay before Parliament a report containing the following information, namely— (a) such information as the Secretary of State considers appropriate with respect to the development of health and social services in the community for persons suffering from mental illness or mental handicap who are not resident in hospitals; (b) information with respect to— (i) the number of persons receiving treatment for mental illness as in-patients in health service hospitals, and (ii) the number of persons receiving treatment for mental handicap as in-patients in such hospitals, in each case analysed by reference to age and length of stay; and (c) such other information (if any) as the Secretary of State considers appropriate be included in the report. (2) In this section— “health service hospital” has the same meaning as in the 1978 Act, except that it does not include a State hospital; “learning disability” means a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind which includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning.

12 Amendment of the 1970 Act and the 1968 Act, 1948 c. 29

(1) In section 29 of the 1970 Act in subsection (2) (which extends the Act to Scotland) for paragraph (a) there shall be substituted the following paragraph— (a) any references to functions under section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948 shall be construed as references to duties to— (i) chronically sick or disabled persons; or (ii) persons suffering from mental disorder, (being persons in need) to whom section 12 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 applies; . (2) In section 2 of the 1968 Act (social work committees and functions referred to them) in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) after the word “Act” there shall be inserted the words “as read with sections 1 and 2(1) of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986”. (3) The foregoing provisions of this section extend to Scotland only.

13 Disabled persons leaving special education: Scotland.

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14 Assessment and recording of children and young persons.

(1) The 1980 Act is amended in accordance with the provisions of this section. (2) In section 4 (duty of education authorities to provide child guidance service)— (a) for the words “a child guidance service in child guidance clinics” there shall be substituted the words “a regional or island authority psychological service in clinics”; and (b) in sub-paragraph (c) the words “child guidance” shall be omitted. (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (7) The foregoing provisions of this section extend to Scotland only.

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16 Interpretation.

(1) In this Act— “the 1948 Act” means National Assistance Act 1948; “the 1968 Act” means the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968; “the 1970 Act” means the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970; ... “the 1978 Act” means the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978; “the 1980 Act” means the Education (Scotland) Act 1980; “the 1983 Act” means the Mental Health Act 1983; “the 2003 Act” means the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (asp 13); “the 2006 Act” means the National Health Service Act 2006; “authorised representative” has the meaning given by section 1(1) above; “disabled person”— in relation to England, means— in the case of a person aged 18 or over, a person who has a disability within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010; in the case of a person aged under 18, a person who is disabled within the meaning of Part 3 of the Children Act 1989; in relation to Wales means a person who is disabled within the meaning of section 3 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014; and in relation to Scotland, means— in the case of a person aged eighteen or over, one chronically sick or disabled or one suffering from mental disorder (being, in either case, a relevant person for the purposes of section 12 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968; and in any other case, a disabled child (“disabled child” being construed in accordance with Chapter 1 of Part II of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995); “guardian” (except in section 1(6))— in relation to England and Wales, means a person appointed by deed or will or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction to be the guardian of a child; and in relation to Scotland, means a person ap pointed by deed or will or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction to be the tutor, curator or guardian of a child; ... “Health Board” means a Health Board within the meaning of the 1978 Act; “hospital”— in relation to England and Wales, means— a health service hospital within the meaning of 2006 Act or the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006, or any accommodation provided by any person pursuant to arrangements made under section 12(1) of the 2006 Act or section 10(1) of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 (voluntary organisations and other bodies) and used as a hospital; and in relation to Scotland, means a health service hospital within the meaning of the 1978 Act; “local authority” (except in section 2(7))— in relation to England and Wales, means a council which is a local authority for the purposes of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 or the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 or, so long as an order under section 12 of the 1970 Act is in force, the Council of the Isles of Scilly; and in relation to Scotland, means a council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 on whom functions are imposed by section 1 , as read with section 2, of the 1968 Act or any of the enactments mentioned in section 5(1B) of that Act; “Local Health Board” means a Local Health Board established under section 11 of the National Health Services (Wales) Act 2006; “mental disorder”— in relation to England and Wales, has the meaning given by section 1 of the 1983 Act; and in relation to Scotland, has the meaning given by section 328 of the 2003 Act; “modifications” includes additions, omissions and amendments; “parent”— in relation to England and Wales, means, in the case of a child who is illegitimate, his mother, to the exclusion of his father; and in relation to Scotland, means, in the case of a child whose father is not married to the mother, his mother, to the exclusion of his father; “parental responsibility” has the same meaning as in the Children Act 1989; ... “services” includes facilities; “Special Health Authority” means a Special Health Authority established under section 28 of the 2006 Act or section 22 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006; “special hospital” means a special hospital within the meaning of the 1977 Act; “State hospital” means a State hospital within the meaning of the 2003 Act; “statutory services”— in relation to England and Wales, means services under any arrangements which a local authority are required to make by virtue of any of the welfare enactments, and in relation to Scotland, means services which a local authority find it necessary to provide themselves or by arrangement with another local authority, or with any voluntary or other body, in connection with the performance of the local authority’s functions under the welfare enactments; ... “voluntary organisation” means a body the activities of which are carried on otherwise than for profit, but does not include any public or local authority; “the welfare enactments” means ... — in relation to England, section 2 of the 1970 Act, Part 3 of the Children Act 1989 and Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, in relation to ... Wales, ... Parts 4 and 6 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, and in relation to Scotland, section 27 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947, the 1968 Act , sections 25 and 26 of the 2003 Act and Chapter 1 of Part II of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. (2) In this Act as it applies in relation to England, any reference to a child who is looked after by a local authority has the same meaning as in Part 3 of the Children Act 1989. (2ZA) In this Act as it applies in relation to Wales, any reference to a child who is looked after by a local authority has the same meaning as in Part 6 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. (2A) In this Act as it applies in relation to Scotland, any reference to a child who is looked after by a local authority shall be construed in accordance with section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

17 Financial provisions.

There shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament any increase attributable to this Act in the sums payable out of money so provided under any other Act.

18 Short title, commencement, regulations, orders and extent.

(1) This Act may be cited as the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986. (2) This Act shall come into force on such date as the Secretary of State may by order appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions or different purposes, and different provision may be made under this subsection for England and Wales and for Scotland. (3) Any regulations or order made under this Act shall be made by statutory instrument and (except in the case of an order under subsection (2)) shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament. (3A) As regards any regulations or order made under this Act by the National Assembly for Wales, subsection (3) shall have effect without the words after “statutory instrument”. (4) This Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.