Ruling removes ‘vital’ UK safeguards for severely disabled people, charities warn

The ruling affects the rights of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, including those with advanced dementia. Photograph: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The ruling affects the rights of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, including those with advanced dementia. Photograph: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images Ruling removes ‘vital’ UK safeguards for severely disabled people, charities warn Campaigners say supreme court judgment on deprivation of liberty safeguards introduces ‘regressive legal standard’ Severely disabled people will be at heightened risk of abuse in care homes and hospitals after the biggest upheaval in disability law in a generation overturned “vital” legal safeguards, campaigners have warned. They said a supreme court judgment that potentially strips the right of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people to independent checks on the safety and appropriateness of their care “devalues the dignity of disabled people”. The landmark ruling means many adults who lack mental capacity, including autistic people with high support needs, severe learning disabilities, serious mental illness and advanced dementia, will lose access to deprivation of liberty safeguards (Dols). The supreme court judgment, issued on Tuesday, overturned an existing legal framework for ensuring people in care homes and hospitals who lack capacity to consent to necessary treatment, medication or restraint receive safe care that is in their best interests. The UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Northern Ireland executive had challenged the safeguarding framework, introduced in 2014 and known as the Cheshire West judgment , on the grounds that it was wrong in law, no longer needed, and had created an expensive, intrusive and unnecessary care bureaucracy. The disability charities Mencap, Mind and the National Autistic Society said this week’s judgment “removes safeguards that history shows us are vital for disabled people” while introducing a “regressive legal standard” across the NHS and social care. They added: “By removing independent checks, advocacy and automatic access to legal aid, the court has closed the gateway to justice and support for many who need it most. Stripping away these safeguards makes it easier for abuse and neglect to go unnoticed behind closed doors.” They said the judgment flew in the face of lessons about the importance of independent care oversight taken from institutional abuse and neglect scandals involving vulnerable adults, including Winterbourne View , and the death of the 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk . At Winterbourne View, six care workers were given prison terms for “cruel, callous and degrading” abuse of disabled patients, while Sparrowhawk suffered appalling neglect at an assessment and treatment unit, and drowned in a bath, behind a locked door, in the midst of an epileptic seizure. Campaigners are concerned the judgment rules that a person without capacity who appears