Vulnerable person in Nottinghamshire waited more than seven years for carer to be allowed to make decisions for them

Across the country, thousands have experienced a prolonged wait for their deprivation of liberty applications, which allow a third party to act on behalf of those judged unable to make decisions for themselves.

Care homes, hospitals and other organisations must seek permission from the local authority to use the policy, which is generally only deployed for people with dementia, or severe mental health issues.

Charities said the delay that left thousands of people in limbo is a “public mental health scandal” and urged the Government to make sure the system is properly funded.

NHS Digital figures show one vulnerable person in Nottinghamshire had to wait for seven years and about 175 days for their carer to be able to make decisions on their behalf, the slowest completion in the area for 2022-23.

The average time it took for an application to be completed in Nottinghamshire was 128 days. There were 3,780 applications, only 155 of which were processed within 21 days, the legal time limit.

Those who faced the delays accounted for 96 per cent of all people whose applications were received or completed in the year ending March 2023.

The 21-day time frame was also exceeded the year before, when patients saw average waits of 124 days.

Across England, the average wait time for all completed applications was 156 days, an increase of three days on the previous year.

Rupen Gahir Kalsi, of VoiceAbility, a charity which advocates for patients, said: "These figures are shocking, but not surprising. This is wholly predictable and is why deprivation of liberty safeguards were due to be replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards earlier this year – legislation which has now been shelved.

“LPS is not the perfect solution, but implementing this would make a huge difference to people, the majority of whom are older people, stuck living in places they don’t want to be, separated from friends and family. They need urgent action from the Government now."

Rheian Davies, of mental health charity Mind, said: “Even under existing legislation, these waiting lists could come down if ringfenced money was given to local authorities to employ more specialist social workers, known as best interest assessors, who decide if the place where a patient is detained is in their best interests.

“We urge the Government to put in the resources needed to address what can only be called a public mental health scandal.”

Overall, there were 3,780 applications in Nottinghamshire, 2,605 of which were “urgent”. They were completed for an average of 167 days – longer than applications classified as standard, which took 133 days to be granted.

More than half, 56 per cent, of the 289,150 applications completed in England were not granted due to a change in the person’s circumstances, or not meeting the assessment criteria.

In Nottinghamshire, there were 2,695 DoLS not granted, 71 per cent of applications.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The Government is providing up to £7.5 billion of additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge. Local authorities will have the flexibility to use this funding to meet local needs.”