The applicant may explain that there is no other person who meets all of the criteria below:

• has parental rights and responsibilities for the child
• looks after the child
• is willing and able to act on the child’s behalf in place of the applicant.

If this is the case, the case manager should explain, at this stage, that Social Security Scotland may appoint the applicant to act on behalf of the child. The following should be explained to the applicant in order the for the applicant to make an informed decision about whether they would like to ask to be appointed on the child’s behalf:

• Social Security Scotland may only appoint a person on behalf of a child if there is no person who meets all of the following:

1. parental rights and responsibilities for the child
2. lives with, and looks after, the child
3. is willing and able to act on behalf of the child in place of an appointee

• Insofar as possible, Social Security Scotland must seek the views of the following people before making the appointment:

1. the child
2. persons with parental rights and responsibilities for the child
3. any adults who live with, and look after, the child anyone who appears to have interest in the welfare of the child, including any social worker who is currently allocated to the child, the lead professional in the child’s plan (if the child has a child’s plan),
4. the requirement to seek these people’s views “insofar as possible” means Social Security Scotland will not seek the views of a person if doing so would put anyone at risk of harm or the person would find it very distressing. Social Security Scotland will not seek the views of a child if Social Security Scotland thinks this would worry, upset or confuse the child.

After this has been explained to the applicant, the case manager should ask the applicant if they would like to request that they are appointed on behalf of the child. In exceptional circumstances, it might be the case that there is no one who meets all of three of the criteria above but there is someone who has parental rights and is willing and able to act for the child but does not actually living with the child and / or looking after the child. In which case, instead of the applicant requesting an appointment, the applicant may decide to arrange for that person to take over responsibility for the application. In which case, the case manager should follow the guidance in paragraph 36 of the chapter.