The safeguards (DoLS) have the appearance of bewildering complexity, much greater
than that in the comparable provisions for detaining mental patients in hospital under
the Mental Health Act
Such checks need not be as elaborate as those currently provided for in the Court of Protection or in the Deprivation of Liberty safeguards (which could in due course be simplified and extended to placements outside hospitals and care homes). Nor should we regard the need for such checks as in any way stigmatising of them or of their carers. Rather, they are a recognition of their equal dignity and status as human beings like the rest of us
Will it be another ten years before we have anything approaching Lady Hale’s recommendations?