Please note that the venue and exact timings are still to be confirmed. All registered attendees will be informed by email once this information is available.

In this conference leading experts will discuss the problems that confront health and social care practitioners and service users as a result of the current legal framework and evaluate alternative frameworks for authorising deprivation of liberty based on the experience of other jurisdictions to assist the process of legislative reform in England and Wales.

About

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) was introduced in England and Wales in 2007 to bridge the so-called “Bournewood gap” identified by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of HL. This decision found that the lack of legal safeguards for incapacitated adults deprived of their liberty in hospitals and care homes was a breach of the ECHR.  

In March 2014 the Supreme Court in Cheshire West clarified the definition of deprivation of liberty in the context of health and social care placements. Amongst the direct consequences of this decision is the surge in demand for DoLS assessments that is stretching social and health care bodies and raising concerns regarding the extent to which the DoLS process militates against the delivery of safe and effective care and treatment.

Furthermore, a House of Lords Select Committee conducting a post-legislative scrutiny of the Mental Capacity Act found in 2014 that DoLS are not “fit for purpose” and called for them to be replaced.  The Law Commission has been asked to review the law relating to deprivation of liberty, and the provisions of Schedule A1.

Organisations

• Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London
• International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law
• 39 Essex Chambers
• Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
• ReValuing Care Research Network

Speakers

• Alex Keene – Barrister and Honorary Research Lecturer, University of Manchester
• Colin Harper - Deputy Director of the Law Centre in Northern Ireland
• Chris Danbury – Honorary Secretary of the Intensive Care Society
• Eilionoir Flynn – Senior Lecturer, NUI Galway
• Jill Stavert – Reader, Edinburgh Napier University
• Laura Dunlop QC – Barrister and former Law Commissioner, Scottish Law Commission
• Lucy Series – Researcher, Cardiff University
• Neil Allen – Barrister and Lecturer, University of Manchester
• Peter Bartlett – Professor, University of Nottingham
• Richard Ashcroft, Professor, Queen Mary University of London
• Sara Ryan – Senior Research Lead, University of Oxford, and #JusticeforLB
• Sheila Wildeman – Associate Professor, Dalhousie
• Tim Spencer-Lane – Lawyer at the Law Commission of England and Wales responsible for the project to reform the law relating to deprivation of liberty
• Walter Boente – Centre of Comparative, European and International Law

Contact

For further information please contact Daniel Wei L Wang (daniel.wang@qmul.ac.uk).

More information about the LLM in Medical Law and the MSc in Mental Health and Law.

Photography, video and audio recording

Please note that School of Law events may be photographed or video and audio recorded. These materials will be used for internal and external promotional purposes only by Queen Mary University of London. If you object to appearing in the photographs, please let our photographer know on the day. Alternatively you can email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk in advance of the event that you are attending.