"Deprivation of liberty cases in children’s services ‘storm waiting to happen’" - Community Care

The need for good knowledge of deprivation of liberty case law for child care workers is becoming increasingly apparent.  Case law now makes it clear that when any child in care is being deprived of their liberty, legal advice should be sought. If they are subject to a care order, the LA cannot consent and if  they are subject to Section 20 arrangements, the parents can only consent in certain circumstances.

For 16-17 year olds, unless the young person can consent, the case must go to the court of protection. This new case law and the evolving nature of safeguarding adults policy means it is essential for staff who work with young people to have specialist training.

A recent Community Care article quoted Ramsden who described deprivation of liberty in children's services as a "storm waiting to happen"  with not enough legal advice sought currently.

Our two new courses can help increase knowledge of this vital area - see here for more details.

Care Act guidance

The Government have announced they got some of the Care Act guidance wrong - they are now removing the requirement for agencies to have a designated lead for safeguarding adults. There are plenty of other things wrong with the guidance too. For example, there is a lack of clarity about safeguarding adult meetings, their name and purpose. The term "initial inquiry" creeps in without any definition or any guidance about the follow up to this. The guidance is so generalised that different Boards' procedures are looking very different. This is such a lost opportunity and compares very badly with "Working together to safeguard children from harm". This parallel statutory guidance has shrunk and become much briefer but still gives clear guidance on process and key issues.

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Lin Naylor, Training MatterS 07887 850731

www.trainingmattersdorset.com

linda.trainingmatters@gmail.com

Jeremy Corbyn

What will Jeremy Corbyn bring to safeguarding and social care? Assuming he has a chance of one day being prime minister, he has been largely silent on the privatisation of Social Care. However, his views on renationalising the railways would suggest he won't be in favour of the strangely profit driven approach to provision of social care. The radical rethink in relation to equality and distribution of wealth can only help to challenge the present assumptions about such provision. If the Labour party become too split to pose an effective opposition, that would not be good for future safeguarding. Having a Government that would write statutory guidance that makes sense would be a good start - unlike the guidance to the Care Act.

Care Act

The news that the Government have cancelled the cap on care costs in the Care Act until 2020 is just beginning to trickle through to the public. Preserving inheritance was probably never the most important thing to spend limited public funds on but this is an amazing about-turn. The Labour leadership contest has been largely quiet about social care issues.