Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) for providers and professionals
Before you apply
Please check the following considerations before applying:
A DoLS application will only be required where the individual lacks mental capacity to consent to being accommodated at the care home or hospital to be given care or treatment
If you are from the Managing Authority, please ensure that you have completed a mental capacity assessment with the Relevant Person in relation to their capacity to consent to being accommodated at the care home or hospital to be given care or treatment before making an application.
The DoLS Team at West Northants Council only actions referrals where the relevant person resides in a registered hospital or care home.
If you are from the Managing Authority, please consider how the relevant person’s accommodation is registered with the CQC.
To check how your service is registered, search the CQC database.
If the person is being deprived of their liberty in a setting such as supported living, shared lives, or in their own private accommodation an application will need to be made to the Court of Protection for a community deprivation of liberty authorisation. These settings do not come within the remit of DoLS. Please see further information below.
West Northants Council is the Supervisory Body responsible for all DoLS referrals for people who are ordinarily resident in West Northants.
To determine ordinary residence please follow the below guidance:
Self-funding: If the relevant person is self-funding their care and the care home is in the West Northants area, please submit your referral to us. If the home is outside of West Northants area, please submit your referral to the Local Authority in that area.
Local Authority funding: If the relevant person is receiving funding from West Northants please submit your referral to us. If the relevant person is being funded by another Local Authority, then please submit your referral to them.
NHS funding: If the relevant person is in NHS funded accommodation, please consider their address before they first started to receive NHS funding. If this address is in the West Northants area, please submit your referral to us. If this address is outside of West Northants area, please submit to the Local Authority in that area.
There may be occasions where the relevant person is not a permanent resident in your home. In these cases, you will need to consider the purpose of the persons placement in the home
Respite: If the relevant person is in your home for respite, you need to consider their permanent usual home address. If this address is in the West Northants area, please submit your referral to us. If this address is outside of West Northants area, please submit to the Local Authority in that area.
Discharge to assess: If the relevant person is in your care home under the discharge to assess process you will need to consider where the relevant person was residing prior to their admission to hospital.
If the relevant person was in their own home prior to being admitted into hospital and this address is in the West Northants area, please submit your referral to us. If this address is outside of West Northants area, please submit to the Local Authority in that area.
If the Relevant Person was in a care setting prior to being admitted into hospital, please consider what their ordinary residence would have been in this care setting. If this was with West Northants, please submit your referral to us. If this was with another Local Authority, please submit your referral to that Local Authority.
Homeless: If the relevant person is homeless and currently in the West Northants area, please submit your referral to us. If the relevant person is homeless and currently outside of the West Northants area, please submit to the Local Authority in that area. To determine the local authority, use GOV.UK to find a council.
Own or family home: If the relevant person was in their own or family home prior to being admitted into hospital and the home address is in the West Northants area please submit your referral to us. If this address is outside of West Northants area, please submit to the Local Authority in that area. To determine the local authority, use GOV.UK to find a council.
Request a DoLS Authorisation
There are two types of DoLS Authorisations - an urgent authorisation and a Standard Authorisation.
When you apply for a Standard Authorisation, you can grant yourself a 7-day urgent authorisation if the person is already in your care home or hospital.
Once you have reviewed considerations outlined above and you are satisfied that a DoLS Authorisation is needed and we are the appropriate team to action your referral, please complete our online form:
Please ensure you download a copy of your referral as a PDF once you have submitted this to us and keep this for your records.
West Northamptonshire Council prioritises requests for DoLS standard authorisations where the level of reported restriction applied is high, or where the person objects to aspects of their care regime, or where the person (or family) is objecting to the care home placement or hospital admission.
Extension of an urgent authorisation
You can submit an extension request to be reviewed by our team to extend your urgent authorisation for a further 7 days. This request must be submitted before the 7-day expiration to be considered a valid request. If this is approved, you will then have a total of 14 days urgent authorisation.
You can submit your request for an extension via our online form:
Changes after submitting your referral
After you have submitted your referral, please contact us by email at [email protected] or phone 01604 368280 if:
- a person dies
- a person is moved or discharged
- any new restrictions are placed on a person
- any restrictions are withdrawn
- a person begins objecting to care or their placement
- a person who previously lacked capacity has regained capacity
- a person has been detained under the Mental Health Act
Please quote the DoLS reference number and person’s date of birth where possible.
Once all the assessments have been completed, scrutinised and authorised, a DoLS Standard Authorisation will be granted. A DoLS Standard Authorisation can be granted for a maximum of 12 months.
Once the authorisation is granted, the managing authority will have certain responsibilities that it must fulfil.
These include:
- informing the relevant person of their rights under the DoLS Standard Authorisation
- monitoring Relevant Person Representative contact
- adhering to any conditions set
See Paragraphs 7.27 and 7.28 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice.
Once a standard authorisation has been granted, the supervisory body must appoint someone to represent the relevant person as soon as possible. This person is called the 'relevant person's representative'.
Once appointed, a relevant person's representative should:
- maintain contact with the relevant person
- represent and support the relevant person in all matters relating to the deprivation of liberty safeguards - including, if appropriate, triggering a review, using an organisation's complaints procedure on the person's behalf or making an application to the Court of Protection
The representative should maintain an appropriate level of contact to ensure that the person is able to access rights to review and appeal. If the representative is not maintaining sufficient contact, the managing authority should notify the supervisory body.
See Paragraph 7.2 and 7.6 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice.
The supervisory body may attach conditions to the authorisation. Where there are conditions attached these will be detailed within the documents sent to you.
A managing authority must ensure that they comply with any conditions attached to the authorisation. Within the document you receive, there will be a condition monitoring form that you must complete and return to the Supervisory Body.
See paragraphs 4.74 and 5.5 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice.
A standard authorisation can be reviewed at any time during the period of authorisation. Anyone can request a review of the authorisation however if a review is requested by the relevant person, their representative or the managing authority, the supervisory body must consider this request.
The statutory grounds for a review are:
- the relevant person no longer meets the age, no refusals, mental capacity, mental health or best interests requirements
- the relevant person no longer meets the eligibility requirement because they now object to receiving mental health treatment in hospital and they meet the criteria for an application for admission under section 2 or section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983
- there has been a change in the relevant person’s situation and, because of the change, it would be appropriate to amend an existing condition to which the authorisation is subject, delete an existing condition or add a new condition
- the reason(s) the person now meets the qualifying requirement(s) is(are) different from the reason(s) given at the time the standard authorisation was given
See Paragraphs 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice.
You can submit your request for review to a standard authorisation via our online DoLS application form.
Once you have submitted your request we will be in touch to let you know we intend to proceed.
It is possible that we may conduct the assessments for the relevant person and we assess that they do not meet one or more of the qualifying requirements.
Where this is the case, we will send the relevant documents for your records.
A DoLS Standard Authorisation can only be granted for a maximum of 12 months. Therefore, during the period of the current authorisation you will need to consider whether Further Standard Authorisation will be required beyond the current expiry date.
If a Further Standard Authorisation will likely be required, this must be submitted before the current Standard Authorisation expires.
The application will need to be made far enough in advance for the renewal authorisation to be given before the existing authorisation ends.
An authorisation should not be applied for too far in advance as this may prevent an assessor from making an accurate assessment of what the person’s circumstances will be at the time the authorisation will come into force.
If the expiry date has already passed, then please submit a new DoLS referral.
Last updated 13 November 2023