‘Thousands of vulnerable people with dementia and learning disabilities are being detained in hospitals and care homes without the appropriate checks, due to a law unfit for purpose according to the Law Commission.’
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 13th March 2017
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
‘People with dementia and learning difficulties are being detained in care without checks due to a ‘failing’ law, the Law Commission has said.’
BBC News, 13th March 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A woman with a learning disability who died whilst in the intensive care unit of a hospital was not in ‘state detention’, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th January 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘More than a decade has passed since the Mental Capacity Act (‘MCA’) received royal assent. Described as a ‘visionary piece of legislation’, the MCA was a significant landmark on the legal landscape. It represented a triumph of autonomy by recognising that, as far as possible, people should play an active role in decisions about their welfare. At the core of the MCA is the fundamental principle that a person must be assumed to have decision making capacity unless it is established that he lacks it. The law therefore assumes that everyone has the ability to act and take decisions in accordance with their own interests, and affords primacy to individual priorities over paternalistic imperatives. Where a person lacks capacity – whether for reasons of learning disability, dementia, brain injury, or some other impairment of or disturbance in the functioning of the mind or brain – the MCA permits decision-makers to act on behalf of the person in accordance with his ‘best interests’. This means that, amongst other things, decision-makers must take into account the person’s past and present wishes and feelings, his beliefs and values, and any other factors that the person would be likely to consider, in order to act in a way which would likely give expression to the person’s autonomy. In this way, the MCA sought to empower people to make decisions for themselves, protect the vulnerable from the excesses of paternalism, and engineer a cultural shift in attitudes to mental impairment and incapacity.’
OUP Blog, 17th January 2017
Source: www.blog.oup.com
‘Holocaust survivor who said living in a care home reminded her of being back in a Nazi concentration camp has been given special permission by a court to return home despite her frail condition.’
Daily Telegraph, 1st December 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Record numbers of care home residents are being deprived of their liberty by being put in straps, locked in or given behaviour-controlling drugs, fuelling fears that some are being mistreated.’
The Guardian, 28th September 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A north-west firm is considering appealing a Court of Protection ruling in which it was removed as a financial deputy in a case concerning deprivation of liberty and care arrangements.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 19th August 2016
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
Staffordshire County Council v K and others [2016] EWCOP 27
‘An incapacitated adult (“K”), who had been severely injured in a road traffic accident, was awarded substantial damages in court proceedings which were used by his property and affairs deputy, a private trust corporation, to provide a specially adapted residence and to fund the regime of care and support provided by private sector providers. The local authority, having been informed of the arrangements for K’s care and the arrangements having been registered with the Care Quality Commission, applied to the Court of Protection for a welfare order under section 16 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The parties accepted that the arrangements constituted a deprivation of liberty satisfying two of three components of a deprivation of liberty within article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but the Secretary of State contended that the third component, namely the attribution of responsibility to the state, did not apply to the privately funded and arranged care regime (and to others in an equivalent position), so that the care regime could lawfully be put in place without a welfare order being made under the Act.’
WLR Daily, 25th May 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘A senior judge has challenged the government to provide legal representation for vulnerable people as a backlog of safeguarding cases that cannot be tried builds up in the court of protection.’
The Guardian, 10th March 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘In December 2014, the Chief Coroner issued guidance as the approach to be taken when someone dies at a time when they are deprived of their liberty under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005). Its effect is yet to be seen.’
No. 5 Chambers, 2nd September 2015
Source: www.no5.com
‘The Court of Appeal has held that it did not have jurisdiction to determine appeals against the President of the Court of Protection’s Re X rulings in which he sought to streamline procedures for dealing with certain types of deprivation of liberty cases.’
Local Government Lawyer, 16th June 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Relatives of dementia sufferers who pass away in care homes are being forced to wait months to bury loved ones because of new rules.’
The Independent, 28th May 2015
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The Law Society has today issued new guidance on deprivation of liberty safeguards (DOLS) to help lawyers meet an expected 10-fold surge in the number of legal challenges to DOLS over the coming year.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 9th April 2015
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
In re AJ (Deprivation Of Liberty: Safeguards) [2015] EWCOP 5 ; [2015] WLR (D) 64
‘In situations involving a deprivation of liberty local authorities and professionals needed to be alert to cases where vulnerable people were admitted to residential care, ostensibly for respite care, when the underlying plan was for a permanent placement without proper consideration of their rights under article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.’
WLR Daily, 10th February 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘An elderly man suffering from dementia was treated like a “prisoner” after social workers dispatched him to a nursing home against his and his family’s wishes without going through proper legal processes, a formal investigation has found.’
Daily Telegraph, 28th January 2015
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2017