Liberty Protection Safeguards

360 Assurance provides internal audit and independent assurance to NHS organisations across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. In 2022/23 we continued with a specific project commenced in 2021/22 to support our clients’ preparation for implementing the Liberty Protection Safeguards.

In May 2019 the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 became statutory legislation. At this point it was intended that it would come into force on 1 October 2020. In July 2020 it was announced that the timeframe for implementation would be delayed. After much further delay, on 5 April 2023 it was announced that the Government has decided to “delay the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards beyond the life of this Parliament”.

In light of this announcement the advice from all sources is to focus on ensuring the Mental Capacity Act in its wider sense is being applied consistently within your organisations and ensure that all potential deprivations of liberty are being referred appropriately through the available channels.

If you would like to get involved or have any ideas to suggest, please contact Elaine Dower (elaine.dower@nhs.net, 07342 081522).

What did happen….

The draft Code of Practice and Regulations were published for consultation on 17 March 2022. Consultation closed on 14 July 2022. Changes to the MCA Code of Practice and implementation of the LPS – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To support the consultation we produced a summary of the impact assessment figures: Impact Assessment Figures on a Page

We also produced a version of the MCA & LPS Code of Practice which shows tracked changes from the existing Code for relevant chapters combined with the new chapters on LPS in their entirety.

In case it is of interest or use to others: 360 Assurance’s consultation response

LPS draft forms: Although not published formally as part of the consultation, on 8 July 2022 DHSC emailed LPS Stakeholders with links to draft template forms (nine in total). These are: 1. IMCA Referral, 2. Mental Capacity Assessment, 3. Medical Assessment of a Mental Disorder, 4. Necessary and Proportionate Assessment, 5. Pre-Authorisation Review, 6. Referral for an Unscheduled Review, 7. Submission for Renewal of Authorisation, 8. Notice to RB that an LPS Authorisation may be required (initial referral), 9. Authorisation Record

360 Assurance output produced

To support clients we produced some summary documents to focus decision-making and action.

Questions to be determined at the ICS level (by all LPS Responsible Bodies). This document was created to support ICS partners in identifying which aspects/functions of the process they propose collaborating on.
Overview flowchart of the process.
Questions to be answered to further develop/add more detail to the flowchart.
Template project plan.

None of these papers were intended to be definitive and they should be treated as working drafts, which will be updated as more information comes to light and when the Code of Practice and Regulations are finalised. If you have any suggestions for amendments or additions please do get in touch and get involved.

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