What now for deprivations of liberty?
What will the effect of the postponement of the Liberty Protections Safeguards be on local authorities? Local Government Lawyer asked 50 adult social care lawyers for their views on the potential consequences.
SPOTLIGHT |
The Local Government Ombudsman has issued a report identifying lessons from complaints about adult care and acknowledging the challenging nature of the process of safeguarding vulnerable adults.
The watchdog last month revealed in its annual report that it had seen complaints in this area rise 22% in 2011/12 to more than 1,000.
The Ombudsman highlighted four key areas in the latest report:
Dr Jane Martin, Ombudsman and Chair of the LGO, said: “The LGO has an important part to play in providing information from complaints to support informed choice of services and to bring about improvements. Our work with adult social care providers puts us in a good position to resolve disputes with providers and seek redress for citizens who pay for their own services.”
The Ombudsman’s jurisdiction was extended in October 2010 to include complaints about private providers of social care services as well as those provided by councils.
The LGO report found that common subjects of complaint about domiciliary care were:
In relation to residential care, commonly raised issues were:
A copy of the LGO’s report can be found on the watchdog’s website.
Philip Hoult