The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards aim to protect the rights of people who lack the ability to make certain decisions for themselves and make sure that their freedom is not inappropriately restricted. They do this by helping to make sure that decisions made on their behalf are done so in their best interests, and also by empowering them to make their own decisions wherever possible.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors the operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in England and reports on this each year. (You can download its most recent report, for 2013/14, from the CQC’s website.)
To help inform its next report, the CQC is calling for examples for the year 2014/15 which will help it better understand the experiences of people who are, or have been, subject to the Safeguards and their families.
The CQC is interested in hearing about cases where the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards worked well, as well as cases where they did not work so well.
It would also be interested to receive any examples of good and poor practice regarding the use of the Safeguards in care homes or hospitals, including whether and how the relevant person’s perspective was taken into account.
It is also particularly helpful to know:
- Was the person and others concerned with their care involved in the decision?
- Did someone help them to understand the reason for the deprivation of liberty?
- If they were unhappy with the decision did they have a representative to support them to appeal against it?
- Was the decision kept under review and the restrictions reduced or removed as soon as possible?
If you would like to contribute to this work, please email engagementandinvolvement@cqc.org.uk by the end of June 2015.
Leave a Reply