A care home for older people with dementia has been rated Inadequate by the CQC. The report lists a number of reasons for the rating including: ‘The provider had installed surveillance equipment, CCTV cameras, in communal areas and although consent had been sought, where people lacked capacity to make the decision to consent to this, the best interest decision making process was not robust. For example, people’s relatives had not been asked what the person’s views had been in

Over the last decade, there have been considerable and consistent concerns expressed by judges about detaining children and young people in inappropriate, unregulated placements. Social work professionals involved in making deprivation of liberty order applications will benefit from reading this new guidance on what judges will be thinking about when considering such applications. You can find the guidance at the link below: Edge Training run a course on DoL, Children & You

The Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting has committed to reforming the Mental Capacity Act after ITV News highlighted multiple cases of vulnerable adults not getting assessments of mental capacity leading to potential risks and harm to those individuals. The minister stated: ‘So we are looking at this actively, we're determined to take action. That will include a review of, and ultimately reform of, the Mental Capacity Act.’ It would appear a key element of reform wo

A recent investigation by ITV news has raised concerns about families of people with learning disabilities being prevented from seeing them freely. The news item stated: ‘An ITV News investigation found more than 100 families who say their visiting rights to their loved ones with learning disabilities have been restricted, after they complained about negligent or poor care.’... ‘The so-called "contact restrictions" are put in place by care homes, NHS bodies, or local authorit

We are pleased to extend our 25% discount to non-profit and CICs for any of our training and consultancy services. This includes our DoLS Conference on 5th June - click HERE for details To request a discount code for your organisation, please email events@edgetraining.org.uk

As many of our readers with an interest in the Mental Health Act will know, there has been a legal change relating to patients subject to Conditional Discharge and how a deprivation of their liberty may be lawfully authorised. As it is rare for DoLS teams to deal with cases of people subject to Conditional Discharge, it can be challenging to understand this particular element of th e eligibility assessment and legal criteria. At the 2026 DoLS Conference, former Court of Pr

The Ombudsman has recently found a local authority and ICB were at fault for there repeated failure to work together over funding of woman’s combined health and social care needs. This caused a prolonged delay in discharging the woman from hospital. The Ombudsman found the local authority and the ICB at fault for failing to manage a funding dispute adequately. They ordered the two organisations to each pay £250 in recognition of the stress and frustration caused to the woman’

The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice show there were 1,439 applications to the High Court to detain children during the year 2025. Of these applications: 155 were for children aged 12 or under 834 were for children aged 13-15 years old 445 were for children aged 16-18 years old Such applications are needed where a child is deprived of their liberty in a place where a secure order under the Children Act cannot be made (not living in a registered secure placement). O

The annual Mental Health Act report from the Care Quality Commission has highlighted how despite having two legal ways (MHA and DoLS) to lawfully detain people and ensure they have legal rights and protection mental health wards are failing to do this. The report states: ‘...we are concerned that too many people, especially those on wards for older people and those who do not have the capacity to understand their rights, are being unlawfully detained .’ ‘...this can happen w

Recent research by the University of West London has found: ‘People living with dementia are at significant risk of experiencing restrictive practice or restraint during an unscheduled acute hospital admission..’ ‘This study identified restrictive practice as an invisible but everyday feature of care experienced by all people living with dementia within hospital wards. While quantifiable and visible restraint ( physical restraint, pharmaceutical sedation , legal frameworks) w

The Department of Health and Social Care has released statistics for the 2024–25 period on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) for England, revealing a 9.8% surge in applications to a record 364,900 . The proportion of DoLS applications which have an urgent authorisation attached was 58%. The data shows that while local authorities processed 9.3% more cases than the previous year, over half (50.3%) were closed without any formal assessment. Click here to view :...

The issue of homelessness applications by people who lack mental capacity has recently been considered by the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman found: ‘There was fault by the Council when it failed to properly consider the household’s capacity to make a homelessness application . The Council decided that Mrs Y [significant long term mental health condition] did not have capacity but it cannot show how it assessed this...’ ‘The Council failed to properly assess the household’s capacity

A Coroner’s report into the death of Chloe Barber aged 18 raised concern about the lack of knowledge of Section 117 of the Mental Health Act which is a duty to provide aftercare. The coroner stated: ‘There was considerable uncertainty and ignorance about the provision of aftercare pursuant to s117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 amongst some healthcare workers and social workers,..’ The report can be downloaded from: https://www.judiciary.uk/prevention-of-future-death-reports/c

Our DoLS Mental Health Assessor Refresher training for Section 12 approved doctors has been updated to address the latest case mental capacity case law. Click HERE to view the BMA guidance. See dates below for our 2026 sessions: 22 April 9 July 30 September 26 November All Events run from 10:00-16:00 via Zoom. Book your place HERE Edge Training run a range of courses on health and social care law. Our commissioned courses can be viewed HERE - if you would like to enqui

The issue of homelessness applications by people who lack mental capacity has recently been considered by the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman found: ‘There was fault by the Council when it failed to properly consider the household’s capacity to make a homelessness application . The Council decided that Mrs Y [significant long term mental health condition] did not have capacity but it cannot show how it assessed this...’ ‘The Council failed to properly assess the household’s capacity

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