Last month, we reached out to you regarding some upcoming changes to The Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), and how it will replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) at some point this year. We wanted to give you an update about this topic and how this may impact you in the future.

The long awaited draft Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice, including the Liberty Protection Safeguards, has landed. There is an associated Consultation on the draft Code, as well as on LPS secondary legislation, which is open until 7 July 2022. There is a lot to digest. The Code is over 500 pages long and there are 6 (4 for England only) sets of associated draft Regulations underpinning the LPS. We also have updated guidance on implementation, an updated Impact Assessment and a LPS workforce and training strategy.

As a 16-week consultation is announced, this is a really important moment for mental capacity legislation to ensure people who use social care services are one step closer to having their liberty protected, and we need your help to make this happen!

The MCA was implemented alongside a Code of Practice which now requires updating for 2 key reasons:

• The existing Code guidance needs updating in light of new legislation and case law, organisational and terminological changes, and developments in ways of working and good practice.
• The new LPS system means that additional guidance needs to be added to the Code.

DoLS have long been criticised and the safeguards developed to protect the most vulnerable within our communities have at times been seen to fail. The Care Act 2014 launched the legislative shift to strength- based support for adults who draw on care and support. The sector now has a duty to have regards to individual wellbeing, to begin from a position of strength and to support individuals to have choice, control and personal dignity. The Care Act 2014 and LPS provides the legislative framework to enable social work practice to support its profession’s’ underlying principles around enabling human rights and supporting people to live lives important to them.

Click here to be part of this consultation and make a difference!

If you would like to discuss the above, or about how we can collaborate, please let us know. To get in touch, email recruitment@ajrecruitment.com or call us on 03305 552233.

As a specialist, family-run recruitment business, we provide a proactive and consultative approach to recruitment within Social Care. We help organisations to target issues such as continuity of staffing, reducing spend where you have a high volume of agency usage and supporting those who have specific talent requirements or are in hard to fill locations. We can help with any immediate staffing requirements or longer-term recruitment projects to ultimately save you time and money on agency spend.

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