Version: 4
Last Amended: 5 October 2022
Next Review: 5 October 2023
An ILF Scotland Award Manager is the person who manages the award.
The Award Manager is responsible for:
ILF Scotland recipients should, if possible, manage their own award. We will always start from the assumption that a recipient has the ability to do so. Please see section 7 and 8 below for more detail.
If there are exceptional reasons why a recipient cannot manage the award themselves, ILF Scotland can agree to one of the following acting in this role, and in order of preference:
For recipients specifically without legal capacity, the Award Manager should be a person appointed as Guardian / Controller / someone with active Power of Attorney (POA) or Social Work Department.
An Award Manager should not normally be the paid Personal Assistant to the recipient or have any commercial interest in the provider service (purchased by the award). ILF Scotland expects that a person who is a Power of Attorney / Guardian / Controller, Benefit Appointee or relevant (court appointed) replacement relating to the recipient to be the Award Manager and therefore, not normally the paid Personal Assistant. If someone is concerned that such a situation already exists, or may exist, they must notify ILF Scotland as soon as possible. In this circumstance, ILF Scotland will support the Award Manager to make alternative arrangements within a reasonable timescale.
Award Managers should use ILF Scotland funding to engage with providers of support or to employ Personal Assistants. In some circumstances, Award Managers can employ someone they know e.g. a close relative or family member of the recipient as a Personal Assistant but must only do so with the express agreement of ILF Scotland. See Policy 31 - Relatives Living with a Recipient as a Paid Personal Assistant.
The ILF Scotland Agreement Form requires a signature from the recipient or their nominated representative to confirm that they agree to manage their award in line with their obligations in the Your Responsibilities Guide.
ILF Scotland will assume that a person has the legal capacity to sign unless it establishes otherwise.
If a recipient has the legal capacity to agree to their obligations but cannot physically sign, then a third party may as witness be signatory of the recipient’s acceptance, providing details of the reason for doing so.
The person who in this circumstance accepts the Agreement Form is the Award Manager, rather than a third-party witness signatory.
If a recipient lacks physical ability to sign the Agreement but has legal capacity, we will accept signatures from a third party on the recipient’s behalf.
Where the recipient lacks legal capacity, those with active Power of Attorney or Guardianship (Scotland), or Power of Attorney or Controllership (Northern Ireland) should be the signatory as Award Manager.
It should be made clear, on any document that a third-party signs, why they are signing on the recipient’s behalf.
ILF Scotland reserves the right to require a change in Award Manager if, for any reason, we have concerns about their fulfilment of the role.
ILF Scotland must inform recipients about what will happen to their personal data and will only request data that is necessary to process the award. Assessors can provide more detailed information at review visits. ILF Scotland staff will be able to advise recipients, if they contact the office directly, about how their data will be processed and provide further advice if necessary.
The ILF Scotland Agreement Form is a contract between Recipients / Award Managers and ILF Scotland. ILF Scotland routinely shares recipients’ personal information with other organisations to confirm identity and in accordance with their duties as a public body managing a health and social care system[2]. If ILF Scotland wishes to use a recipients’ data for another purpose, not related to the award, they will not do so without the recipient’s consent.
Recipients deemed to have legal capacity must sign forms required by ILF Scotland. If they cannot physically sign, then a third party may sign to witness their acceptance and detail why.
Third parties signing on behalf of a recipient deemed not to have legal capacity must have the authority to do so. Assessors will establish if a recipient has, at that time, the capacity to accept the terms of the agreement, with assistance or not, and to fully understand what data ILF Scotland will process for the purpose of administering their award.
The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, and the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 both define what capacity is and provide ways to help safeguard the welfare and finances of people who lack capacity.
The definition of capacity in the ‘Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000’ and its associated statutory guidance[3] is:
‘Capacity is the ability to understand information relevant to a decision or action and to appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of taking or not taking that action or decision. The starting point for assessing someone's capacity to make a particular decision is always the assumption that the individual has capacity.’
The definition of capacity as given by the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 is:
‘A person lacks capacity in relation to a matter if, at the material time, the person is unable to make a decision for himself or herself about the matter because of an impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain.
A person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision for himself or herself about the matter unless all practicable help and support to enable the person to make a decision about the matter have been given without success.’
We do not require that a recipient must have an extensive knowledge of employment law and financial management to have capacity specifically to manage their ILF Scotland award. If a person knows there are areas of managing an award that they need support with and they get that support, then we can consider them to have the capacity to manage an award.
In the context of this policy, ILF Scotland considers a recipient to have capacity if they understand, at the time:
An ILF Scotland Assessor will establish if a recipient has the capacity and therefore the capability to manage an ILF Scotland award either on their own or with assistance. If they establish a recipient to have capacity, then they will determine that they can be responsible for managing their award appropriately in line with ILF Scotland guidance. In considering legal capacity, ILF Scotland Assessors will pay due regard to the Adults with Incapacity Guidance and will use a number of questions to help indicate if a recipient has capacity to manage an award. This judgement only relates to the management of the ILF Scotland award. These include:
If there are any doubts over a recipient’s capacity, ILF Scotland will contact the relevant Social Work Department within an HSCP / HSCT to ask them to arrange a capacity assessment. ILF Scotland will keep a record of this information and will use this to support any decision to agree a suitable Award Manager.
1 July 2015
15 April 2021
5 October 2022
31 March 2024
Policy 31 - Relatives Living with a Recipient as a Paid PA
Policy 41 - Use of ILF Scotland Funding
Employer Support Information Note
[1] As defined in the Data Protection Act 2018
[2] This will include eligibility checks with other Government agencies.
[3] Adults with Incapacity: Guide to Assessing Capacity. (2008). Scottish Government.
