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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

A zero sum game?

The number of SEND tribunal cases is rising and the proportion of appeals ‘lost’ by local authorities is at a record high. Lottie Winson talks to education lawyers to understand the reasons why, and sets out the results of Local Government Lawyer’s exclusive survey.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to routinely publish its investigations

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has from this week begun to routinely publish its investigations including those cases where serious mistakes have been made and not readily admitted nor addressed.

Incidents of avoidable death, delayed cancer diagnosis, and an ambulance being five hours late are among the upheld complaints published on the PHSO website.

The Ombudsman said these cases provided valuable learning for the NHS in England and Government bodies by showing what needs to change to help prevent the same mistakes happening again.

The PHSO has published 15 cases closed between June 2020 to January 2021. These are a mix of upheld, partly upheld and not upheld complaints intended to showcase the breadth of its investigative work.

The cases include:

Rob Behrens, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said: “Most public sector organisations deliver an excellent service day in and day out, but it’s essential that lessons are learnt when mistakes are made.

“It’s not about blame or pointing the finger but listening to feedback and acknowledging what went wrong.

“Today we begin the routine publication of our casework which will make our findings much more accessible to the NHS in England and Government bodies and help drive improvements in their services.”