The council delivers many services, everyone knows about roads and bins, but few have heard about the important work of our Deputyship and Appointeeship Team.

They are one of the more unusual functions of the Royal Borough, providing support to some of its most vulnerable residents by helping them to manage their finances and benefits, when they can no longer do that themselves and no one is willing or available to help.

The team helps anyone deemed to lack capacity to manage their finances, irrespective of their age.

The team acts in the best interests of the clients. Sometimes this means taking steps to protect the finances of vulnerable residents where the council has suspicions of financial abuse by close relatives. For example, the team was involved in helping to protect the finances of an elderly man in a care home from such abuse. His daughter was recently jailed following a court case.

Find out more about the team by watching its video on Facebook and Twitter.