The final legislation needs to highlight the rights of individuals to be consulted in decisions and ensure that they, their families and carers, and the sector as a whole, have the confidence that there will be independent oversight of those decisions when appropriate.
Key messages
- Local government has long called for an overhaul of the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) process to create a simpler and less bureaucratic scheme. The current system is unable to ensure adequate protection for human rights and we therefore support the introduction of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill.
- The Bill provides a vital opportunity for long-awaited reform. It needs to be passed as the current situation is not sustainable both for councils and for our communities. We are pleased that the Government has listened to concerns in order to ensure that the Bill is fit for purpose and implementable in practice.
- Any proposed changes should underpin the Bill's purpose which is to be enabling. The final legislation needs to highlight the rights of individuals to be consulted in decisions and ensure that they, their families and carers, and the sector as a whole, have the confidence that there will be independent oversight of those decisions when appropriate.
- Greater detail will be included in the proposed code of practice and we welcome ongoing opportunities to involve the sector in its production and as part of the implementation of the Bill. We also welcome the commitment to revise the current impact assessment to take full account of the costs to local government, given the changes proposed by the amendments at Report stage.
Download the full briefing
The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill Report Stage, House of Lords, 21 November 2018