The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill, Public Bill Committee: House of Commons, 15 January 2019

Key messages

Local government has long called for an overhaul of the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) process to:

• ensure more effective protection of human rights
• create a simpler and less bureaucratic scheme
• reduce the resource impacts on councils

We welcome the opportunity that the Bill presents to replace a system that is widely agreed not to be fit for purpose. We support the aim of the Bill to improve the lives of local people and the people that provide care and support for them, including:

• the application to any setting, including domestic provisions
• ensuring all referrals are subject to independent oversight, including the strengthening of the current Best Interests Assessor role to the new Approved Mental Capacity Professional (AMCP)
• developing a whole system approach focussing on protecting people’s liberty and ensuring all staff are trained and supported to do this
• reducing the risk of people being unlawfully deprived of their liberty by tackling the current backlog of over 125,000 people

We welcome the aim to reduce the current burden on councils, particularly within the context of increasing pressures on the adult social care, including:

• the commitment to a revised impact assessment
• the recognition of hospitals and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) as separate Responsible Bodies
• developing clearer links between existing duties under the Care Act 2015 and the new Liberty Protection Safeguards
• extending the safeguards to 16-17 year olds to create a consistent approach across social care that supports vulnerable people of all ages, aligns with the Mental Capacity Act and reduces the need to apply to the Court of Protection
• mainstreaming the protection of some of the most vulnerable people in our society into social work practice

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The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill, Public Bill Committee: House of Commons, 15 January 2019