Welcome to Caroline Bielanska Consultancy

Caroline is a practising solicitor with over 35 years experience of advising older and vulnerable adults, and recognised as a leading expert on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and health and social care law.  

Caroline has been providing advice and support services for law firms to troubleshoot in complex cases involving vulnerable clients, where the interplay between their capacity, care arrangements, care funding, safeguarding and disputes may arise. She will retire from providing this service at the end of 2024.

She is an experienced mediator and is  a member of the Civil Mediation Council and specialises in Court of Protection and health and social care mediation. She has mediated in a wide range of disputes, ranging from contact, residency, deputyships, attorneyships and health and social care funding. 

Caroline is trained to use Makaton signs and symbols for clients who struggle to use spoken language, and writes Easy Read legal information to empower those who struggle to otherwise access legal services.

She is a full member of The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and a member of their Mental Capacity Special Interest Group. Caroline won both the Trusted Advisor of the Year and the Vulnerable Client Advisory Practice of the Year at the STEP Private Client Awards 2017/18  and  was a finalist in the 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 Vulnerable Client Advisory Practice Category. She was given an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2023 Modern Law Private Client Award for her policy and practice work on lasting powers of attorney.

Caroline is the former Chief Executive and former Chair of Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE), an organisation she helped to found in 1999. Caroline was given a Life time Achievement Award by SFE in their 20th year and remains a full accredited member. 

Caroline is an honorary member of the Professional Deputies Forum and a member of the National Mental Capacity Forum.

Caroline was a Director of the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce, now known as the Consumer Duty; a Community Interest Company with the aim of promoting greater understanding, encouraging appropriate behaviours and establishing good practice in respect of consumer vulnerability for those working in the personal finance industry.
 

Caroline is well known nationally as being an engaging and highly regarded public speaker.  She delivers legal training for many legal CPD providers, including Central Law Training International, MBL, The Solicitors Group, Professional Conferences and STEP, as well as In House for Legal 500 practices.   

Caroline is editor, author and contributor of numerous leading legal text books on capacity and advising the older client:

• The Practitioner's Guide to the Court of Protection (Bloomsbury)
• Cretney & Lush on Enduring and Lasting Powers of Attorney (Lexis Nexis) 
• The Elderly Client Handbook (The Law Society)  
• Elderly Clients- A Precedent Manual (Jordans Publishing)
• Elderly People and the Law (Jordans Publishing)
• Contributor to Heywood and Massey’s Court of Protection Practice (Lexis Nexis)
• The Health and Social Care Handbook (the Law Society)
• Contributor to Finance & Law for the Older Client  (Lexis Nexis)
• Technical Editor of Coldrick on Personal Injury Trusts (1st edition) (ARK Publishing)
• A Safeguarding Strategy for Recognising, Preventing and Dealing with the Abuse of Older and Vulnerable People (Solicitors for the Elderly)
• STEP Advance Certificate in Advising Vulnerable Clients
• Caroline was previously on the Editorial Board of The Elder Law Journal (Jordans Publishing)

• Law Society's Mental Health & Disability Committee
• Court of Protection Users’ Group
• Member of the Court of Protection’s Rules Review Committee, recommending changes to the court rules, practice directions and forms
• Caroline was a key stakeholder to the Public Guardianship Office and subsequently the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) from 2000-2012, and was heavily involved in the development of the 2009 LPA prescribed forms and guidance and continues to work with the OPG on various issues, including  guidance on disclosure of the mentally incapacitated client’s will 
• Panel expert convened by the Law Commission to input into drafting the consultations on the reform of adult social care