Cut mental capacity assessment delays, council told

Southampton City Council was found to be at fault over an 18-month delay in carrying out a mental capacity assessment

A council has been ordered to cut delays in mental capacity assessments after a complaint was upheld by the social care ombudsman.

Southampton City Council was found to be at fault after a complaint by a mother over an 18-month delay in carrying out an assessment for her 18-year-old son.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman ordered it to produce an action plan to reduce the high numbers waiting for both assessments and deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) applications.

The council has issued an apology to the mother and said it had reduced numbers on the waiting lists.

It also paid £500 for the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused.

DoLS are used to ensure vulnerable adults are protected when they lack the mental capacity to consent to their care or treatment.

Southampton City Council's health overview and scrutiny panel heard that as well as an 18-month delay in carrying out a mental capacity assessment, there was also no record of a visit that the local authority said it had completed.

Both matters were considered by the ombudsman to be faults by the council.

Presenting the council's action plan to the scrutiny panel, Hannah Balzaretti, head of whole life pathway, said in June there had been 404 DoLS applications on the waiting list.

She said this had fallen to 188 new referrals and 113 renewals.

"Those numbers are coming down and that's because we have increased the number of staff that are trained to do the best interests in the DoLS applications.

"We have increased the number of service managers and team managers that can do the authorisation of those DoLS and through our data we have greater oversight of the throughput,"she added.

The action plan will be brought back before councillors in six months to assess the progress made.