Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member for Health and Care

The Council has a statutory duty to manage Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) applications. The Scrutiny Committee had last considered a report on DoLS applications at their meeting of 10 January 2022. At that time it had been expected that DoLS would have been replaced by new legislation and a new process called Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) by October 2022. LPS would have reduced demand and time requirements that currently exist with DoLS, having less demand for specialist workforce. However, LPS had been delayed with no implementation date identified.

The Scrutiny Committee were aware that Staffordshire had a large number of care homes which resulted in a large number of DoLS applications compared with other LAs. They heard that during 2022/23 on average per month 550 applications were received, an increase of more than 20% compared with the average of 450 monthly applications in 2021/22. Up to half of these applications may be reapplications, with rising numbers of reapplications impacting on the overall increase.

The Scrutiny Committee were aware that historically there had been a large waiting list for DoLS applications. Following the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report in 2019 there had been a sustained effort to reduce the waiting list. Members received details of the reduced figures throughout 2021 – 2022.

It was noted that Staffordshire reported all uncompleted DoLS applications, whereas some LAs only reported those applications outstanding for more than 28 days. Currently in Staffordshire the majority of DoLS applications were undertaken within 36 days. There were a very small number assessed as low risk that had been waiting for over a year and these were being looked at as a matter of urgency. Changes to processes had also been made to make these more efficient, including a proportionate response to requests and changes to administration. During the autumn of 2022 the Council had increased capacity from an external provider to help manage additional demand. Whilst the provider had been anticipated to complete 80 assessments per week, they were in fact completing between 40-60 per week. Members heard that the provider was paid per completed assessment, however when retendering consideration would be given to assessment amounts within the new contract.

Members queried whether the Council had enough Best Interest Assessors (BIA). Whilst Staffordshire had BIAs, training new BIAs had been paused as it was expected the number needed would reduce once LPS were introduced. As the timescales for LPS were now unsure there was a need to train more. There had also been a rota for BIAs, which had also been paused but would need to be reintroduced.

Members queried the difference between DoLS requested by hospital or care homes as opposed to those for individuals that remained in their own home. Community DoLS underwent a similar assessment but in a different format undertaken by the Community Team.

Members received trend and forecast figures for completing 500 and 450 applications per month, and asked how realistic these were. These targets were challenging but realistic. There was a commitment to continued funding to help reduce the backlog, including the retendering for the private contractor assessments and a commitment to reduce the timescales from 36 days, which would also help reduce the backlog. Performance was monitored on a quarterly basis and the Cabinet Member for Health and Care had fortnightly briefings with the Director for Health and Care.

Comparative data with other LAs would be available in the Autumn and Members asked for detail of this at that time.

Resolved: That:

a)   the Committee is reassured by the work undertaken to manage the   Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards applications; and

b)   comparative data on application figures with other LAs be forwarded to the Committee once available.