Council denied 1,000 of liberty
MORE than 1,000 people were unlawfully deprived of their liberty by Cheshire East Council, a new investigation has found.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found the council had ‘significant’ delays in processing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS).
DOLS are a legal tool used to ‘ensure people who cannot consent to their care arrangements in a care home/hospital are protected if those arrangements deprive them of their liberty’, according to the Social Care Institute for Excellence.
The investigation said: “Mr X complained about the council’s delay issuing a DOLS authorisation for his father and about issues relating to financial assessment.
“There was no fault in the way the council handled issues about financial assessment. But the council was at fault for a significant delay in making a standard DoLS authorisation for Mr X’s father. Mr X’s father was not caused significant injustice by this.
“The council is also at fault for failing to process DoLS applications for other people and there is potential injustice to them.”
According to communitycare.co.uk, investigators found the council’s ‘triaging’ of DOLS authorisations created a backlog of 1,032 uncompleted ‘low or medium priority’ cases.
Councillor Laura Jeuda, cabinet member for adult social care and health, said: “We have agreed to remedy any injustice to those affected and to prevent similar problems in future.
“We will produce an action plan for dealing with DOLS cases and that will reflect the changes in law and government guidance resulting from the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019.
“The action plan will include a mechanism for addressing cases where a request is not approved, and unlawful deprivation of liberty could have a potentially harmful impact on that person.
“The action plan will be submitted to the Ombudsman by February 18.”