DoLS/LPS Conference 2 March 2020

PROGRAMME

"Bethany’s Dad”

Jez Harris 

Introducing LPS: What? Where? Who?

Steven Richards, CQC Reviewer & Edge Director

The Liberty Protection Safeguards: A Focus on Young People: Questions, Challenges and Opportunities

Dr Camilla Parker, Edge Training & Consultancy

Deprivation of Liberty Case Law Update

Victoria Butler-Cole QC, Barrister, 39 Essex Chambers

Tez Ilyas, Actor & Comedian

Strengthening Voices... or Taking Liberties?

The IMCA Role: Current and Future Challenges

Jonathan Senker, CEO, VoiceAbility

Phillippa Ashcroft, Head of Public Policy, VoiceAbility

LPS, Legal Loopholes and Practice Issues

Aasya Mughal

SPEAKERS 

Lord Don Touhig, House of Lords

Lord Touhig was a prominent Peer involved in the passage of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 through Parliament. He argued passionately in Parliament for improvements to safeguard vulnerable people and will give an opening address to the conference.

Steven Richards, MHA Reviewer, Author & Edge Director

Steven is a Mental Health Act Reviewer with the Care Quality Commission, reviewing the care and treatment of people detained under the Act. He is also used by the CQC as a specialist advisor on the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS during inspections of services. Steven is a Director of Edge Training and Consultancy and has worked in the mental health field for over 20 years, both for the NHS and voluntary sector. He has been an in-patient advocate for Mind working across adult, older persons and PICU wards and as an advocate represented directly before the Court of Protection.

Steven delivers training on the Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act across England and Wales to health and social care professionals. He has experience of training a wide variety of services on the MCA including local authorities, CCGs, NHS Trusts, the police and hospices. Steven has spoken at a series of Health Education England conferences on the MCA at the end of life and most recently has been a key note speaker at a number of Safeguarding Adult Board conferences.

Dr Camilla Parker, Lawyer

Camilla is an expert on child law and policy. Camilla will provide an overview of the law around the deprivation of liberty of young people and how this particular group will be affected by LPS.

Camilla is an experienced lawyer and independent consultant specialising in mental health and disability law and human rights and has researched, written and presented extensively on issues relevant to these areas. She regularly provides training for practitioners working in health, mental health, social care and children’s services.

Camilla has an in-depth knowledge of the legal and human rights issues arising from the mental health care of children and young people, which was the subject of her doctoral research (PhD Law, 2017) and is an area in which she has specialised for over ten years. She was the lead author of ‘The Legal Aspects of the Care and Treatment of Children and Young People with Mental Disorder: A Guide for Professionals’, Department of Health/ National Institute for Mental Health in England, January 2009.

More recently, working as a consultant for the Department of Health, Camilla led on the work to revise the children and young people’s chapter in the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice (now chapter 19 of the 2015 Code). Camilla is currently writing a book on adolescent mental health care and the law.

Prior to establishing her legal and policy consultancy in 1997, Camilla was Legal and Parliamentary Officer at Mind and before then worked as a solicitor in private practice. She was awarded an LLM in Human Rights and Civil Liberties (with Distinction) in 1993 and has taught on post-graduate courses, including at Cardiff University where she was a part-time teacher for the Legal Aspects of Medical Practice LLM and Social Care LLM  (2012-2015). Camilla was a legal and visiting member of the Mental Health Act Commission (1995-2000), a non-executive director/special adviser of a mental health NHS Trust (2000-2006) and a special adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights during their inquiry concerning the human rights of adults with learning disabilities (see House of Lords, House of Commons, Joint Committee on Human Rights ‘A life like any other? Human Rights of Adults with Learning Disabilities’, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08, March 2008). Camilla is a member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Disability Committe

Victoria Butler-Cole QC, Barrister, 39 Essex Chambers

Victoria is a leading QC and will provide a DoLS case law update. She will also outline the case law that is still likely to be relevant under LPS.

Victoria regularly represents family members, local authorities, health authorities and the Official Solicitor in the Court of Protection and is an editor of the Court of Protection Law Reports (Jordans) and the 39 Essex Mental Capacity report. She has appeared in hundreds of cases in the Court of Protection, including capacity disputes, challenges to DoLS authorisations, welfare matters, medical treatment disputes and financial cases. She is also instructed in medical treatment cases concerning babies and children such as the well known case of Charlie Gard. Her cases have also included numerous judgments that will be instantly recognisable to DoLS professionals such

as: Ferreira, AJ v A Local Authority, Briggs, Traceyand LBX

Victoria is also instructed in human rights claims and was instructed by Liberty in cases arising from the Winterbourne View scandal and by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the case of a young adult kept in prolonged seclusion at St Andrew’s Hospital.

Tez Ilyas, Comedian & Actor.

Tez is one of the stars of hit sitcom Man Like Mobeen (BBC Three), and has appeared on Mock the Week (BBC Two), The Last Leg (Channel 4),Live From the BBC (BBC Two), Live from the Comedy Store (Comedy Central), Kevin Hart’s Live from Montreal (LOL Network), Virtually Famous (E4), The Now Show (BBC Radio 4) and starred in both his own Channel 4 comedy pilot, Bounty (which has become the most watched show in the format’s 10 year history), and fronted his own satirical entertainment series, The Tez O’Clock Show (Channel 4), to huge critical acclaim.

Tez Ilyas hit the ground running. In his first three years as a stand up, he found himself in no less than eight competition finals including the prestigious BBC New Comedy Award and Leicester Mercury New Comedian of the Year. In 2015, Tez achieved phenomenal success with his debut stand up hour TEZ Talks. A sell out run at the Soho Theatre and his own BBC Radio 4 series based on the show followed; Tez created three series of the hit radio show and it was used by the BBC as one of its flagship shows for the launch of BBC Sounds. In 2016, his highly anticipated follow up show, Made in Britain, went on to sell out every single performance (including extra shows) at the Edinburgh Fringe and gained spectacular critical acclaim, with a smash hit nationwide tour in 2017. His third show, Teztify, once again delivered a spectacularly powerful, provocative and brilliantly funny hour of topical stand up, delivering to packed out audiences night after night, followed in 2018 by his second sell-out nationwide tour.

Jonathan Senker, CEO, VoiceAbility

Phillippa Ashcroft, Head of Public Policy, VoiceAbility

Jonathan and Phillippa will represent VoiceAbility; a prominent IMCA service provider and were heavily involved in guiding Peers on the subject of advocacy under LPS. The speakers' wealth of experience will be invaluable as they discuss the present challenges to the IMCA service and how this might be impacted by the introduction of LPS.

Chair: Aasya F Mughal, Barrister, Author & Edge Director

Aasya is a barrister and director of Edge Training & Consultancy Ltd. She was called to the Bar in 2003 and has provided legal representation for individuals and businesses in civil litigation cases and for patients in appeals against their detention under the Mental Health Act. Aasya also gained considerable experience as an in-patient advocate working with detained patients on a number of mental health wards and also appeared before the Court of Protection in this role.

Aasya has volunteered for the human rights organisation Liberty providing legal information and advice to the public on human rights law and also volunteers her time to deliver training to families on the Mental Capacity Act through Edge. Most recently, she provided guidance to charities and members of the House of Lords on the Liberty Protection Safeguards including the drafting of amendments to the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill (now Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019).

Steven and Aasya are co-authors of three books:

Working with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – 3rd edition (ISBN: 978-0-9552349-5-8) Working with the Mental Health Act – 3rd edition (ISBN: 978-0-9552349-4-1) Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Handbook – 1st edition (ISBN: 978-0- 9931324-0-7)