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It’s a funny phrase “we won’t allow that”. It’s something people hear all across the public sector:
I’m by no means suggesting that there aren’t potentially valid reasons for professionals wanting to discourage any of the above choices in certain circumstances but to “disallow”, that’s a different ball game altogether.
In the NHS, this all comes under the category of “informed consent”. Ultimately, a health professional’s role is to provide you with all of the information that you need, in a format that you can understand, to enable you to make an informed decision about your own care. It is not a health professional’s role to allow or disallow anything. Pretty clear cut, albeit challenging when you think how much we’re all conditioned to go along with whatever recommendations doctors and other professionals might make.
It gets a little more complicated when we start to talk about the criminal justice system. Obviously, in the criminal justice system the courts are able to disallow. They are able to remove your freedom by sending you to prison, they are able to ban you from visiting certain people or places, they are able to force you to pay a fine or participate in a certain programme. These are all options defined in law. They all have a legislative basis and are enforceable.
The problems start when professionals in the criminal justice system blur the lines between the restrictions that have been placed on you by a court, following legislative and sentencing guidelines, and those additional restrictions they might want to place upon you under the rationale of “risk management”.
We hear, time and time again, of justice social workers and specialist police officers using veiled threats to try to coerce people into complying with demands that do not have a legal basis.
Unfortunately, wading through the quagmire of what is and isn’t “allowed” is a nightmare and therefore knowing, with absolute certainty, whether the demands being placed on you have a legal basis or not, is far from simple.
This lack of transparency, coupled with the overwhelming fear that many going through the criminal justice system experience, means that many people end up complying with demands that are not proportionate and, in some cases, directly violate the human rights of the individual.
I wish I had the answer on this one. I don’t. It’s not going to be an easy fix. However, helping people to understand their rights and the avenues they have available to them if they feel their rights are being violated is why Next Chapter Scotland exists. This is therefore a topic that we will continue to help people with via our support helpline and we’ll also keep trying to organise additional resources that can support as many people as possible to navigate these particular challenges.
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