Get up to speed to protect vulnerable people’s rights
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Get up to speed to protect vulnerable people’s rights

Wendy Johnson Associate director of safeguarding, Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Swindon

Nurses should be aware of changes being implemented in spring 2022, when Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards will be replaced

In the UK we are afforded freedoms that people in some countries do not enjoy. Under the European Convention on Human Rights we have many rights, including that of liberty and freedom of expression. These rights are protected under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), designed to protect people’s rights if they are deprived of their liberty in a hospital or care home in England or Wales and lack mental capacity to consent.

Learning Disability Practice. 24, 3, 9-9. doi: 10.7748/ldp.24.3.9.s3

Published: 03 June 2021

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Picture credit: Istock

These procedures came into force in 2009 following the Bournewood case, which involved a man on the autism spectrum who was deprived of his liberty in a mental health hospital and unable to object to the detention because he could not speak. A protracted legal process and his family’s struggle changed the way vulnerable people are treated in law.

Wider scrutiny of the proposed detention

If you work with vulnerable people you need to be aware that DoLS are being replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). This has come about through the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 and will apply from spring 2022 to those living in England and Wales.

As part of the process there will be greater involvement for families and wider scrutiny of the proposed detention, and it will apply from the age of 16.

LPS will create new roles for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS trusts in authorising arrangements. In England, if the arrangements mainly take place in an NHS hospital, in most cases what is called the responsible body will be the hospital manager.

In Wales, in most hospital cases the responsible body will be the local health board. If the arrangements that result in a deprivation of liberty are carried out mainly through NHS continuing healthcare, or the equivalent in Wales, the responsible body will be the relevant CCG in England or the local health board in Wales.

If all of this is news to you, I urge you to speak to your managers and get up to speed..

Find out more

Equality and Human Rights Commission (2016) Bournewood Case tinyurl.com/Equality-Bournewood

Department of Health and Social Care (2020) Liberty Protection Safeguards factsheets tinyurl.com/Gov-Liberty-Safeguards

Mind (2019) Mental Capacity Act (Amendment) Bill – An Update on the Liberty Protection Safeguards tinyurl.com/Mind-amendment-bill

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