Home > Hub article > Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Overview
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Overview
Created: 28/02/2025, Bright Futures @Ruils
Who by? Bright Futures @Ruils
Why might it be of interest?
First thing to say is that this is nothing to be scared of! The name of this process is scary – depriving someone of their liberty is a serious business but this is a process to ensure that freedoms are NOT taken away from our young people unless there is no alternative to keep them safe and well.
Our young people need to be kept safe wherever they are living. This might be at home, in supported living, in residential care or in a hospital. While we want our young people to live their lives freely there may be circumstances when to do so will be detrimental to their safety and their wellbeing. A DoLS actually specifically refers to people in residential care situations such as care homes or hospitals.
To ensure that measures taken are appropriate and proportionate an organisation responsible for the young person should apply for a DoLS. This means there is a process that scrutinises the situation and determines whether a DoLS is appropriate or whether the organisation should be looking at other methods to support the young person to maintain their health and wellbeing. In fact, this is what should be done before a DoLS is considered.
The following document is a simple overview with links at the end to further reading.
A Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) ensures people who are subject to high levels of care and supervision who lack the mental capacity to consent to their care arrangements in a care home or hospital are protected if those arrangements deprive them of their liberty.
A care home or hospital have to ask a local authority if they can deprive a person of their liberty – this is called standard authorisation. Arrangements are assessed to check they are necessary and in the person’s best interests. If a person lives at home or in supported living they can still be deprived of their liberty but the local authority cannot authorise the DoLS – they have to make an application to the Court of Protection.
Where there is a DoLS the person must have someone appointed to represent them – this is called the relevant person’s representative – and will usually be a family member or friend.
The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards is the procedure prescribed in law when it is necessary to deprive someone of their liberty to keep them safe from harm – a person who cannot consent to their care or treatment. A DoLS cannot apply to a person who does have capacity to consent – even if they refuse consent and it is an unwise decision.
There are 2 questions to ask to determine if a person is being deprived of their liberty:
- Is the person subject to continuous supervision and control? and
- Is the person free to leave, permanently?
The focus being not on whether a person seems to be wanting to leave, but on how those who support them would react if they did want to leave.
If both of the above are true it is likely that the person is being deprived of their liberty and therefore an organisation would be advised to apply for a DoLS. If any of the following are also true then it is almost certain that a person is being deprived of their liberty:
- frequent use of sedation/medication to control behaviour
- regular use of physical restraint to control behaviour
- the person concerned objects verbally or physically to the restriction and/or restraint
- objections from family and/or friends to the restriction or restraint
- the person is confined to a particular part of the establishment in which they are being cared for
- the placement is potentially unstable
- possible challenge to the restriction and restraint being proposed to the Court of Protection or the Ombudsman, or a letter of complaint or a solicitor’s letter
- the person is already subject to a deprivation of liberty authorisation which is about to expire
A DoLS must not be used as a form of punishment or for the convenience of professionals, carers or anyone else. It is solely to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the individual.
Examples
Many of the examples you will read about are about older people so it might feel difficult to think of situations that could apply to a young person.
From personal experience I can tell you that a DoLS was requested while my young person was at a residential college to ensure that she could not leave her accommodation unaccompanied. A mental capacity act assessment was carried out by an independent assessor from the local authority and signed off by her GP. The mental capacity assessment determined that she did not understand the consequences of leaving her accommodation and staying safe.
It was agreed, and I was part of the discussions, that the college was allowed to limit her freedom to just leave her accommodation. However, their actions had to be proportionate and not unduly restrictive and they had to demonstrate that they had considered and taken actions that did not restrict her freedom before considering a DoLS.
Terms you might hear
Managing authority: this is the organisation who requests the DoLS, likely to be a care home or hospital
Supervisory body: for care homes and hospitals the supervisory body is the local authority where the person is ordinarily resident. It’s likely to be the same LA where the care home or hospital is located but it might not be
Qualifying requirements: there are 6 parts to the assessment for a DoLS – age, mental health, mental capacity, best interests, eligibility and no refusals. All requirements have to be met
Liberty Protection Safeguards: a replacement for the DoLS process. In April 2023 government announced that the implementation of LPS will be delayed beyond the life of the current Parliament and is not likely before Autumn 2024. And I can’t find any current information to indicate when the new safeguards will come into effect.
Links to further reading
General overview:
https://www.scie.org.uk/mca/dols/at-a-glance
Qualifying Requirements: https://www.proceduresonline.com/resources/mentalcapacity/p_assess_qual_req.html#
Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS)
The DoLS was due to be replaced by the LPS but so far it has not come into effect and with the recent change of government there’s no knowing when it might change. In principle it is similar to a DoLS which has long been considered overly complicated and bureaucratic.
Key differences are that an LPS would apply to young people from age 16 (DoLS applied from 18) and protection would apply to people in supported accommodation, shared lives accommodation and their own home as well as in residential settings (care homes, residential colleges) and hospitals.
Categories: Mental Capacity Act, Social Care