Out of County - Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)

Oxfordshire County Council's Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards team is advertising an opportunity to complete outstanding assessments which are outside of Oxfordshire.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) is the procedure for authorising a deprivation of liberty within hospital and care home settings in England and Wales. Care homes or hospitals, (the managing authority) must ask the local authority if they can deprive a person of their liberty, requesting a standard authorisation.

Oxfordshire County Council has a backlog of approximately 199 outstanding out of county DoLS requests (with the potential for a further 32) which require urgent action. These are vulnerable people, the clear majority having a learning disability.

The successful Service Provider should be suitably experienced will be responsible for ensuring that all the out of area DoLS referrals are accurately assessed, that the assessments comply with all legal requirements and are then returned to the Council, including prepared authorisation Form 5 to the point of authorisation.

Timescales The Service Provider will be required to complete 50% of all assessments and return them to the Council by the end of March 2019 and the remaining 50% of the assessments must be completed and returned to the Council by the end of July 2019.Though bidders are encouraged to demonstrate if the backlog can be cleared sooner.

Contract The contract will be for one year with an option to extend for a further year. The indicative contract start date is 10 December 2018.

TUPE does not apply.

The Council welcomes applications from organisations who have a proven track record in providing similar services for other local authorities.

The Council reserves the right to request additional and complimentary services as approporiate.

Bids must be submitted to the Council before 12 noon on Monday 12 November 2018 via the Council's electronic tendering portal at https://sebp.due-north.com/

Any queries can be submitted via the electronic tendering portal.