Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
What are the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards?
The Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) were introduced into the Mental Capacity Act 2005 through the Mental Health Act 2007. The safeguards come into force on 1 April 2009.
Under DoLS, a Managing authority (care home or hospital) must apply to its Supervisory Body (local authority or primary care trust) to have someone assessed where it is believed that they should be deprived of their liberty in order to prevent them from harm.
The Supervisory Body arranges assessments to see whether it would be in the person’s best interests, and either grants or denies the Managing Authority authorisation to deprive the person of their liberty.
Who does the scheme apply to?
The safeguards apply to anyone aged 18 or over:
- who suffers from a mental health problem or disability of the mind – such as dementia or a profound learning disability
- who lacks the capacity to give informed consent to the arrangements made for their care and / or treatment and
- for whom deprivation of liberty is considered after an independent assessment to be necessary in their best interests to protect them from harm.
The safeguards cover patients in hospitals, and people in care homes registered (or which should be registered) under the Care Standards Act 2000, whether placed under public or private arrangements. They are designed to:
- ensure people can be given the care they need with as little restriction to their liberty as possible
- prevent arbitrary decisions that deprive vulnerable people of their liberty
- provide people with rights of challenge against unlawful detention in a home/hospital
How can someone be assessed?
The hospital or care home where the person is based must make an application to its Supervisory Body when it believes it will be necessary to deprive them of their liberty. They can apply up to 28 days in advance of the date deprivation would begin. The Supervisory Body will then commission 6 assessments:
- age (whether the person is 18 or over)
- mental health (whether the person suffers from a mental disorder)
- mental capacity (whether the person lacks capacity to decide where they should be)
- no refusals (whether there is conflict with an advance decision, lasting power of attorney or deputy)
- eligibility (whether the deprivation would conflict with an existing order under the Mental Health Act)
- best Interests (whether deprivation would be in the persons best interests, is necessary to prevent them from harm and is a proportional response to the risk and seriousness of harm)
These assessments will be completed by at least two professionals.
If all the assessments support the authorisation it can be granted for up to 12 months. Once authorisation has been given, a representative (usually a relative or friend) has to be appointed who has the right to appeal against the decision. The representative must be in regular contact with the person and will represent and support them in all matters relating to the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. This includes, if appropriate, triggering a review, or using an organisation’s complaints procedure on the person’s behalf.
Who is the responsible Supervisory Body?
Where the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are applied to a person in a care home, whether situated in England or Wales, the supervisory body will be the Local Authority for the area in which the person is ordinarily resident, which means the Local Authority funding their care.
If the person is funding their own care and living in a Barnet care home, then Barnet is the responsible Supervisory Body, regardless of where they may have been living before moving to the care home.
Where a Primary Care Trust (such as Barnet NHS) is fully responsible for funding a person’s care, please seek advice from the DOLS office before submitting an authorisation request.
What is happening in Barnet?
In Barnet we have trained staff to undertake these assessments and are working with Care Homes to ensure that they are aware of their new duties. We have set up a DoLS Office to administer applications under this scheme (see contact details on the left side of this page).
Voicemail advice line 07932 612 979: you can leave a message on this number for enquiries such as what constitutes deprivation of liberty, whether authorisation should be sought and how to adapt care plans so that they do not constitute deprivation of liberty. Please leave a telephone number and email address if possible, along with the name of your place of work, and your enquiry will be answered as soon as possible. Alternatively you can email the DoLS Office and the enquiry will be passed to someone who is able to advise on these topics.
Please be aware that the main telephone line for the DoLS Office is not able to give advice on what constitutes deprivation of liberty but can advise on what procedures and forms must be used and the status of applications.
Procedures, forms and letters
Barnet Council is using the forms created by the Department of Health for administration of DoLS applications. You can find copies of these forms on the Department of Health’s Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards webpage (external link). You are strongly advised to read all the guides on this page as they are very helpful in understanding how to use the forms. The forms and guidance ensure you are supplying all necessary information – failure to do this could cause a delay in your application being processed.
It is necessary to password protect forms that are sent electronically, as they contain sensitive information. To do this, you can open the Rich Text Format (RTF) version of the forms in Microsoft Word. Type the information onto the form and go to “Tools”, “Options”, select the “Security” tab and enter a password in the “Password to open” field. Then save the form on your computer for your records, and if necessary you can then email this secure copy.
You will need to phone the DoLS Office to notify it of the password - do not send the password by email. The DoLS Office will send forms back to you using this password, so it is advisable to keep a note of passwords in a secure place.
If you have any difficulties with securely emailing forms, contact the DoLS Office before continuing.
DoLS Forms overview flowchart
There are many forms involved in this process. We have developed a flowchart which can help in understanding where they all fit in. Forms completed by the managing authority are in yellow boxes and forms completed by the supervisory body are in peach boxes. Please read the text at the bottom of the flowchart before using.
- DoLS Forms Flowchart
(PDF: 124KB)
For managing authorities
If you wish to make an application for a standard authorisation, you must fill in blue form 4* and send to the DoLS Office along with any relevant information. You are asked to type onto forms and email them to the office, so that applications can be processed easily and without delay. Forms sent by email must be password protected (see instructions above).
If you need to give yourself an urgent authorisation, you must fill in blue form 1* and send this along with blue form 4* to the Supervisory Body immediately. An extension to an urgent authorisation is requested using blue form 2*, having contacted the DoLS Office first.
* all of the above link to documents on the Department of Health website.
There are other forms for suspending an authorisation and requesting a review – see the Department of Health’s document, standard forms for managing authorities (external link) for more details.
For others
The Department of Health has issued templates for letters that can be sent to Managing Authorities and Supervisory Bodies:
Letter 1* is to send to a Managing Authority if you believe that they are depriving a person of their liberty without authorisation
Letter 2* is to send to a Supervisory Body if you have sent Letter 1 and believe the Managing Authority has not responded to it within a reasonable time
Letter 3* is to be sent by a person being deprived of their liberty to the Supervisory Body to request a review of their authorisation
Letter 4* is to be sent by a deprived person’s representative to the Supervisory Body to request a review of the person’s authorisation
* all of the above link to documents on the Department of Health website.
Copies of these can also be found in the Department of Health’s document, standard forms for supervisory bodies (external link).
North Tyneside Deprivation of Liberty Indicator Tool
This tool has been developed by NHS North of Tyne for managing authorities to use when assessing whether a person is subject to deprivation of liberty. Please refer to the credits, disclaimer and instructions before using.
- North Tyneside Deprivation of Liberty Indicator Tool
(EXCEL: 162KB)
More information
The Department of Health has released helpful guides for some of the parties involved in this process and electronic copies can be downloaded from their website. They include the Guide for Hospitals and Care Homes (external link) and Relevant Person’s Representative (external link).
Adult Social Services homepage
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Email this pageLast modified by: Dawn Rowe on 18/06/2009