Provision of Best Interest Assessors (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) Service

For the avoidance of doubt this is not a Call for Competition. This notice is to facilitate market engagement and soft market testing.

Staffordshire County Council (SCC) is seeking responses from the independent marketplace about their ability to supply Best Interests Assessments (BIA)- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). Best Interests Assessments are a statutory function of the Local Authority as a part of the assessment process for the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are designed to protect the interests of extremely vulnerable individuals accommodated in care homes and hospitals - people who have a mental disorder such as dementia or a profound learning disability who lack capacity to give informed consent to the accommodation arrangements made for their care and/or treatment and for whom deprivation of their liberty is considered after an independent assessment to be necessary in their best interests to protect them from harm. Under the current legislation the Local Authority is the supervisory body and as such has the statutory duty to ensure that assessments are undertaken and DoLS authorisations are in place.

To start the market engagement process, a Soft Market Questionnaire will be available for interested providers to provide feedback on the current service specification, consider how the future service provision could look and gauge market interest in a future tender opportunity.

This is an opportunity for providers to have their say and offer feedback so as SCC can consider how the market could look in delivering the service in the most effective and efficient way.

For the avoidance of doubt, your responses will not be scored in any way. This is an information gathering exercise only and is not the start of any formal procurement process.

If you would like to contribute to this process, please contact Caryl Laffey caryl.laffey@staffordshire.gov.uk who will send a copy of the questionnaire. Please note the return date for completed questionnaires is Friday 14 April 2023.