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Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards: Annual Monitoring Report for Health and Social Care 2013-14

Our findings on the operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) during 2013-14.

This is the fifth annual report on the operations of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in Wales. It is a joint report between Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW).

What are the Safeguards?

The Safeguards exist to empower and protect any individual with mental disorder, where is doubt about their mental capacity, to make informed decisions about their care when they are hospital patients, or residents in a care home.

Findings

  • The awareness of deprivations of liberty and the process for making an application has increased, however, more still needs to be done.
  • There remains a significant variation in how local authorities and Local Health Boards fulfil their role as supervisory bodies.
  • The number of reviews of DoLS authorisations across Local Authorities and Health Boards has remained very low. Less than 10% of all DoLS authorisations were reviewed in 2013-14. There were only 25 reviews recorded in the relevant year which is 8% of the total number authorised.
  • There has been a rise in the number of people who received support from Independent Mental Capacity Advocates in 2013-14 compared with the previous year. Despite the increase in their usage in 2013-14, the number of times an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate was accessed remains very low. More still needs to be done to raise awareness of the important role Independent Mental Capacity Advocates can have in respect of DoLS.