February 2009 chronology

See February 2009 update for a summary of these changes.

• 28/02/09: DOLS Standard Forms published. Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Standard Forms —

England

Wales

Extract from ADASS website The DoLS project group have been working on new DoLS forms which are now available to download using the links below. Reducing the forms from 32 to 13 was not an easy task. Some elements of the forms are dictated by regulations and can’t change. Others seem particularly unnecessary. There are some situations still not really covered by a form and these will be addressed in the guidance which will accompany the forms. The team have added some forms which didn’t previously exist, a “No Deprivation” form in particular. During consultation some people asked why this was necessary. This form has been used in the West Midlands for the last few years and it is very popular with BIA’s and speeds up the process. There is a new form for a further request for authorisation which is very popular with Managing Authorities. There is also a new form to notify the Coroner of a death. The forms have had numerous revisions and received a lot of helpful comments from consultation most of which has been incorporated. Some of the comments related more to practice and as such will appear in the guidance to follow. We are confident that this revision of the forms will play a small part in speeding up the processing of DoLS authorisations without losing necessary quality. Lorraine Currie, Project Lead for ADASS External links Government website: Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards forms and guidance DOLS forms (11/1/15). These are the forms emailed by the DoLS Forms Project Group on 11/1/15 (without restricted editing and with an amended eligibility section in Form 4). ADASS, 'New DOLS forms' (January 2015) Department of Health, 'Mental Capacity Act 2005: Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards - standard forms' (27/2/09, updated 3/3/11). The old forms.

External links Wales NHS website: Forms and letters Guidance - Standard forms and letters for the Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards - February 2009

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• 28/02/09: On 27/2/09 the Welsh Assembly Government published DOLS guidance for (1) managing authorities and (2) supervisory bodies. See Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards

• 25/02/09: Advice issued on nursing reports. MHT, 'Nursing Reports - Advice to Panels from Regional Tribunal Judges' (23/2/09) —
• 25/02/09: New secondary legislation. Mental Capacity (Deprivation of Liberty: Monitoring and Reporting; and Assessments - Amendment) Regulations 2009 — Relates to (1) the role of the Care Quality Commission in monitoring schedule A1 and (2) two amendments relating to (a) insurance/indemnity of assessors, and (b) recovery of expenditure between local authorities.
• 25/02/09: On 23/2/09 the DH published "Mental Capacity Act (Deprivation of Liberty: Monitoring and Reporting; and Assessments - Amendment) Regulations 2009 - response to the consultation". See Consultations

• 25/02/09: New secondary legislation. Tribunal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2009 — Various amendments to the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008 (and other Rules). In force 1/4/09.
• 22/02/09: The Wikimentalhealth CPD scheme is now online. For £50 per annum, solicitors can earn 12 CPD points. The course is also suitable for psychiatrists (CPD) and social workers (post-registration training). For more information see CPD scheme

• 22/02/09: This weekend Bailii uploaded 90 mental health law court judgments at the request of Wikimentalhealth. This brings the total number of cases available through Wikimentalhealth to 510. There are still some cases on the wish list, so if you have any judgments not on this site then please send them in. Links to these newly-added transcripts have been incorporated into the Cases to be added page

• 22/02/09: 2008 best interests case added. C v V, re S and S (Protected Persons) (2008) 25/11/08‎ — Click on link to view page.§
• 22/02/09: New February 2009 miscellaneous case. R (Purdy) v DPP [2009] EWCA Civ 92 — The absence of a crime-specific policy relating to assisted suicide (identifying the facts and circumstances where it will not be in the public interest to prosecute) does not make the operation and effect of section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 Act unlawful nor mean that it is not in accordance with law for the purposes of Article 8(2). [Overturned on appeal.]§
• 22/02/09: New 2009 miscellaneous case. R (Wright) v SSH [2009] UKHL 3 — Section 82(4)(b) of the Care Standards Act 2000, which provides for the provisional inclusion in the POVA list of a care worker (thus depriving him of employment) immediately after concerns are raised but before any judicial hearing, is incompatible with Articles 6 and 8.§
• 21/02/09: New information leaflet for SCT patients. See Supervised Community Treatment replaces Supervised Discharge for links.

• 19/02/09: New February 2009 Scottish Tribunal case added. Scottish Ministers v MHTS, re JK [2009] CSIH 9 — The Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, in terminating a restiction order of a detained patient, had erred in law: (1) The threshold requirements in section 193(2) (that the patient has a mental disorder and that it is necessary for the patient to be detained in order to protect any other person from serious harm) must be considered and found wanting before considering the rest of the section including, under s193(5), whether to terminate the restriction order; (2) the criteria in s193(5)(b) (that the serious harm test is satisfied and that the restriction order is a continuing necessity) are disjunctive and must be separately considered. Obiter, there was a failure to deal with large parts of the evidence, in particular the RMO's evidence that the serious risk test was met.§
• 19/02/09: On 17/2/09 the MoJ Mental Health Unit published their Bulletin No 6; on 16/2/09 they published revised guidance for (1) clinical supervisors and (2) social supervisors. See Ministry of Justice

• 19/02/09: New children documents linked to on CSIP website: "Systems Model for Planning the Implementation of the Age Appropriate Environment", and "Updated Headspace Toolkit" (for children). See Children and mental health law for links

• 19/02/09: The Office of the Public Guardian have published their February 2009 (edition 20) of MHA Update. See Mental Capacity Act 2005 Overview for link

• 16/02/09: Welsh secondary legislation published. Mental Capacity (Deprivation of Liberty: Appointment of Relevant Person’s Representative) (Wales) Regulations 2009 — Click on link to view page.§
• 16/02/09: Welsh secondary legislation published. Mental Capacity (Deprivation of Liberty: Assessments, Standard Authorisations and Disputes about Residence) (Wales) Regulations 2009 — In force 1/4/09.
• 15/02/09: Recent successful habeas corpus case added (summary courtesy of claimant's solicitor). M v East London NHS Foundation Trust CO/1065/2009 — The nearest relative's statement to the AMHP that he disagreed with detention under s3 was sufficient to amount to the notification of an objection under s11; it was unaffected, in the absence of any clear evidence of a change of mind, by the failure to state an objection in a subsequent conversation immediately prior to the making of the application.§
• 15/02/09: Some statutory forms added to the site (Forms A2, A3, A6, A7, A10, A11). See Mental Health Act 1983 Statutory Forms

• 12/02/09: Today the Dept of Health have published DOLS guidance for (1) PCTs and local authorities, (2) hospitals and care homes and (3) relevant person's representatives. On 10/2/09 they published a document on "MCA DOLS and Section 75 partnerships under the National Health Service Act 2006" See Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards for links to these and other documents

• 12/02/09: On 9/2/09 the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments published their Fifth Report of Session 2008-09, clearing up an ambiguity in certain regulations. See Mental Health Act 1983 (Independent Mental Health Advocates) (England) Regulations 2008 for details

• 11/02/09: February 2009 case added (capacity). Re P [2009] EWHC 163 (Ch) — Click on link to view page.§
• 07/02/09: New Department of Health documents: "Independent advocacy qualifications" and "IMHA Myth Buster". See New Independent Mental Health Advocate scheme and Independent Mental Capacity Advocate service

• 04/02/09: New MHA 2007 commencement order. Mental Health Act 2007 (Commencement No. 10 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2009 — In force 1/4/09. This order brings into force the provisions in relation to IMHAs for England (they are already in force in Wales). It also commences the deprivation of liberty safeguards, and introduces transitional provisions: provided the applications are received on or before 30/4/09, 42 days (instead of 21) are allowed for completing assessments for a standard authorisation, and urgent authorisations last for 21 days (instead of 7); urgent authorisations given on or before 30/4/09 cannot be extended.
• 03/02/09: The charity Rethink have published "The Mental Health Act: Essential information for parents and carers". See Children and mental health law

• 02/02/09: 2009 case added (criminal law). R (B) v DPP [2009] EWHC 106 (Admin) — The decision to discontinue a prosecution for wounding with intent and witness intimidation, on the basis that the victim's mental illness meant he could not be placed before the jury as a credible witness, was irrational on the facts; s49A Disability Discrimination Act 1995 added nothing to the ordinary position under public law principles; there had been a breach the positive obligation under Article 3 (which includes the duty to provide a legal system for bringing to justice those who commit serious acts of violence against others) and £8000 was awarded in compensation.§