The Joint Committee on Human Rights is “deeply concerned” about the delay in the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) which are due to replace the existing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
LPS was originally planned to be rolled out in April 2022. However, on 5 April 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that implementation will be delayed “beyond the life of this Parliament” (therefore likely beyond Autumn 2024).
On 26 May 2023, JCHR set out its concerns in a letter to the Minister of State for Social Care. The letter highlights that the statutory timeframe for processing DoLS applications is 21 days. However, currently the average time frame for processing applications is 153 days. That means service users who are deprived of their liberty while their applications are being processed, for each day over the 21 day statutory timeframe, they are being unlawfully deprived of their liberty and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights is being breached.
The letter also states that JCHR and the CQC are concerned about a general poor understanding of the DoLS system by those involved in DoLS decisions. Both JCHR and the CQC have identified in its Insight report that, “with providers increasingly looking towards the introduction of the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), providers’ focus on DoLS has waned and training in some areas has stagnated. Poor understanding of DoLS has remained a fundamental issue.”
In its letter, JCHR asks the Minister to answer four questions:
- Does the Government still believe that the system of DoLS is in need of reform? If so, given the delay in the implementation of the LPS, are any reforms of the system currently planned in the interim?
- What steps are being taken to address the delays to the processing and completion of DoLS applications, with the aim of ensuring that no one is unlawfully deprived of their liberty in a care setting?
- Will the availability of non-means-tested legal aid be extended to include those who may be subject to deprivation of liberty in care settings without an authorisation in place?
- What steps are being taken to ensure that those involved in making DoLS decisions receive adequate human rights training, and fully understand the operation of DoLS?
JCHR has requested a response to its letter by 14 June 2023.
For more on the implications of the decision to delay implementation and what this means for providers, see my colleague Oliver Brown’s story ‘Further update in relation to the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards’.
