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Lasting Power of Attorney

LPA health and welfare: decisions about your care and treatment

An LPA health and welfare lets you appoint people you trust to make decisions about your care, medical treatment and daily wellbeing if you become unable to make them yourself. Our solicitors prepare and register it correctly, from our South Wimbledon office.

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What is an LPA health and welfare?

An LPA health and welfare is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people you trust, called attorneys, to make decisions about your personal welfare if you lose the mental capacity to make them yourself. It covers your day-to-day care, your medical treatment, and where you live. Unlike an LPA for property and financial affairs, it can only be used once you can no longer decide for yourself.

When you make the LPA, you make one important choice: whether your attorneys are allowed to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment on your behalf, or not. Your decision on this is recorded in the document itself, and it can only be used after it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.

When you might need one

  • If an illness or injury such as a stroke or dementia leaves you unable to make decisions about your own care.
  • To make sure someone who knows your wishes can speak for you about medical treatment.
  • To decide in advance who chooses where you live if you ever need residential care.
  • So that your family are not left guessing what you would have wanted at a difficult time.
  • To sit alongside an LPA for property and financial affairs, covering the decisions that money cannot.

What your attorneys can decide

Your day-to-day care

Your diet, how you dress, your daily routine and the activities you take part in.

Medical treatment

Giving or refusing consent to treatment on your behalf, always acting in your best interests under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Where you live

Whether you stay in your own home with support, or move into a care home or other supported accommodation.

Life-sustaining treatment

Your attorneys can make these decisions only if you specifically grant them that power in the LPA. If you do not, doctors decide in your best interests.

Who can make one, and who you can appoint

You can make an LPA health and welfare if you are 18 or over and have the mental capacity to understand it, as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Your attorneys must also be 18 or over. You can appoint a single attorney or several, and where you appoint more than one, you decide whether they act together, separately, or together for certain decisions only. You can also name replacement attorneys who step in if an original attorney can no longer act. An independent certificate provider, who can be a solicitor, confirms that you understand the LPA and are making it freely.

We prepare and register lasting powers of attorney from our South Wimbledon office at 191 Merton Road, London SW19 1EE. Please call 020 8543 3302 to arrange an appointment. This service is not currently offered from our Balham and Tooting branch.

What the process involves

1. Choose your attorneys

Decide who will act for you, whether they act together or separately, and name any replacements.

2. Complete the LPA

Set out any preferences and instructions, and make your choice about whether your attorneys can decide on life-sustaining treatment.

3. Sign in the correct order

The donor, certificate provider and attorneys must sign in the sequence the law requires. Signing out of order is a common reason the OPG rejects an LPA.

4. Register with the OPG

The signed LPA is sent to the Office of the Public Guardian. Under the current rules, only the donor can apply to register it.

5. Wait for registration

The OPG carries out its checks and a statutory waiting period before the LPA is registered. This currently takes several weeks.

How we help

  1. 1

    Free short initial phone call

    We talk through your circumstances and confirm which type of LPA you need.

  2. 2

    Draft your LPA correctly

    We choose the right options and wording for you, including the life-sustaining treatment decision, which reduces the risk of rejection.

  3. 3

    Guide the signing

    We make sure every party signs in the right order and that the document is properly witnessed.

  4. 4

    Register it for you

    We help you submit the LPA to the Office of the Public Guardian and deal with any queries that arise.

What is included in our service

  • A free short initial phone call, of up to five minutes about your needs
  • Advice on choosing your attorneys and replacements
  • Drafting your LPA health and welfare
  • Guidance on the life-sustaining treatment decision
  • Checking the document carefully before it is signed
  • Help registering the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian

The OPG registration fee of £92 per LPA is payable to the government and is separate from our fee. You can see our own charges on our fixed fees page. Most people put a health and welfare LPA in place at the same time as an LPA for property and financial affairs, so that both their care and their finances are covered.

Common questions

An LPA health and welfare lets your attorneys make decisions about your personal welfare. That includes your daily care, your diet and routine, the medical treatment you receive, and where you live. If you choose to grant the power, it can also cover decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It does not cover your money or property.

Only once you have lost the mental capacity to make the decision in question yourself. This is different from an LPA for property and financial affairs, which you can allow your attorney to use while you still have capacity. A health and welfare LPA sits ready and is used only if and when it is needed.

Only if you specifically give them that power when you make the LPA. You choose either to let them make these decisions on your behalf, or to keep them out of your attorneys' hands so that doctors decide in your best interests. We talk you through this choice carefully before you make it.

There are two parts. The Office of the Public Guardian charges a registration fee of £92 for each LPA, paid to the government. A 50 percent reduction or a full exemption may apply on a low income or certain benefits. Our own fixed fee for preparing and registering your LPA is shown on our fixed fees page.

Yes, if you want your care and treatment covered. The two LPAs do different jobs. One deals with your money and property, the other with your health and daily life. An attorney appointed only for your finances has no authority over your medical care, so most people put both documents in place together.

An advance decision lets you refuse specific treatments in advance, but it does not appoint anyone to speak for you. A health and welfare LPA appoints attorneys to weigh up decisions as circumstances change. The two can interact, so it is worth taking advice if you have made, or want to make, both.

No one automatically gains the right to decide about your care. Doctors and social workers make decisions in your best interests under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and your family may have limited say. A welfare deputy can be appointed by the Court of Protection, but the court grants this only rarely, which is why an LPA is the safer route.

Last updated: July 2026.