Cheshire East 'unlawfully' deprived people of liberty

A complainant wanted his father to return home from a care home

More than 1,000 people were unlawfully deprived of their liberty because of a council backlog, a watchdog found.

An ombudsman's report said Cheshire East Council had 1,132 outstanding applications to keep people in care homes or hospitals who were thought to lack the capacity to consent to it.

Decisions are meant to be made within 21 days but the backlog stretches over six years.

The council said it would "remedy any injustice" caused.

Councillor Laura Jeuda said "We have agreed to remedy any injustice to those affected and to prevent similar problems in future".

'Deal with backlog'

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Michael King investigated a complaint from an unnamed complainant who wanted his father to return home from a care home.

Cheshire East Council took 11 months to review the care home's Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards application to keep him in their care, and concluded that he should stay.

The ombudsman's report found that every person who was subject to an overdue Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards application was being unlawfully deprived of their liberty.

His report added "it is possible some of the people stuck in the backlog should never have been deprived of their liberty or there may have been less restrictive options available to meet their needs".

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards applications are used when care homes or hospitals want to prevent someone with dementia or a mental disability from leaving, even if they or their family disagree.

Under the system, local councils are meant to assess the applications to determine whether they are in the best interests of the people concerned.

The ombudsman found that the council did have a system in place to prioritise the most urgent applications, but it was not formalised until August 2020.

Mr King's report said the council had agreed to produce a plan outlining how it would deal with the backlog.

That plan must include "a mechanism" for dealing with cases where the requests are eventually not approved meaning the "unlawful deprivation of liberty had a potentially harmful impact on that person".

Steve Green, Alzheimer's Society Area Manager for Cheshire, Merseyside and Isle of Man, said: "The backlog is not unique to Cheshire East Council, there are currently around 130,000 Deprivation of Liberty applications which have not been completed."

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