subject: Manchester solicitors stop the abuse of protective safeguards [print this page] Thanks to the efforts of solicitors in Manchester, the Manchester city council have been found to have acted unlawfully when they removed E, a 19 year old with severe learning difficulties. They removed E from the care of a woman has had spent several years caring for him within her own family.
There were a number of errors in the case, as pointed out by Manchester solicitors. One of which was the failure by the city council to comply with the deprivation of liberty safeguards(Dols), as seen in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The city council also further neglected to get a court order when it placed E in a residential care home, away from the woman who cared for him. The city council deny wrongfully detaining E, but the court of protection found that E's right to liberty under the European convention on human rights was violated and further more his right to home and family life was similarly infringed.
The court of protection has very stringent rules with regards to identifying those involved in proceedings. But these restrictions were partially lifted when Mr Justice Baker agreed that a public funded authority such as Manchester city council should be held publicly accountable for all of its actions.
"It is to be hoped that the publicity given to this case will highlight the very significant reforms of the law implemented by the Mental Capacity Act and in particular the Dols," he said.
The judge did refuse to identify individual social workers, as he believed that higher levels of the authority were to blame. "One of the most damning criticisms of Manchester city council in this case was it had seemingly failed to provide any or adequate training to its staff to prepare for the radical changes introduced by the Dols provisions," he said.
But all is well, as the court of protection's intervention has resulted in E being returned to his original carer and his situation is now stable again. Baker did criticise the care home however, remarking that anyone entering into a tenancy agreement without the mental capacity should have a Manchester solicitor present, to ensure that the rights of the individual are protected.
All that is left for the court to decide is what damages to award to E and if any cost orders are to be made.
Manchester solicitors stop the abuse of protective safeguards
