The DoLS statistics for England for the year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 were published on 22 August 2024. They show that, despite heroic efforts by local authorities up and down the country, they continue to fight a losing battle actually to secure that all those requiring the safeguards are provided with them.
In headline terms:
- There were an estimated 332, 455 applications for DoLS received during 2023-24. This is an increase of 11% compared to the previous year.
- The number of applications completed in 2023-24 was estimated to be 323,870. The number of completed applications has increased over the last five years by an average of 9% each year.
- The reported number of cases that were not completed as at year end was an estimated 123,790, a 2% decrease the previous year, and the proportion of standard applications completed within the statutory timeframe of 21 days was 19% in 2022-23, the same as the year before. The average length of time for all completed applications was 144 days, compared to 156 days in the previous year.
Data new for this year show that:
- An estimated 162,655 cases were closed without any assessments as at year end: i.e. there had been no substantive consideration of whether the person met the criteria under Schedule A1.
- Only 3% of cases of applications had been fully completed and fully assessed were not granted. Of the 4,315 cases which were assessed and not granted, 51% were not granted because of a change in the person’s circumstances (for instance they had been discharged from the hospital in question), 25% because the person had died; only 915 were not granted because one or more of one of the DoLS criteria were not met. Of these, 305 in fact had the relevant decision-making capacity, 20 were ineligible applying the MCA/MHA interface in Sch 1A, the assessment process found that deprivation of liberty was not in the person’s best interests, necessary and proportionate in 25 cases, and 5 failed the no refusals test.
The changes in the data recording make it difficult to work out how many people died whilst waiting for the assessment procedure to be completed – in 2022-2023, it was 50,000, and it is a reasonable guess that a very significant number, again, died this year in similar circumstances.
The DoLS statistics only tell part of the story, because the framework does not apply where the person is not yet 18, or is deprived of their liberty other than in a care home or hospital. There were 1,211 applications to the Court of Protection for judicial authorisation of deprivation of liberty in the first quarter of 2024, but it is very difficult to get a sense of by a factor of how many this number is short of the number of applications that should be made.
I have made some modest suggestions about how embattled public authorities can seek to respond to the situation in light of the indefinite delay to the LPS here. I have also given some thoughts about care providers and legal ice here.
PS, if any of what is said above feels familiar, it this is largely the same text as I used this time last year…
