There were 227,400 applications for DoLS received during 2017-18, with almost three quarters relating to people aged 75 and over.

  • Human Resources
  • 40 languages
  • 30m

Learning outcomes

  • Understand the importance of keeping records in relation to DoLS
  • Understand what deprivation of liberty means and who it affects
  • Understand both types of authorisation procedures

Covered in this course

Course contents

This training course is broken down into 4 sections

  1. 1
    What is Deprivation of Liberty?
  2. 2
    Authorising a Deprivation of Liberty
  3. 3
    The Safeguards
  4. 4
    The Importance of Record Keeping

About this course

Depriving someone of their liberty is a major step to take, and this training guides you through the correct process.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards was introduced to help protect a person’s rights, as well as protecting them from harm and ensuring any necessary action is taken in a safe, correct, and sensitive way.

2022 – 2023 saw 300,765 applications for DoLS, with an 11% increase compared to the previous year.

This DoLS training explains what these safeguards are and the six assessments which must be done before a deprivation of liberty can be authorised. It looks at the differences between restraint, restriction, and deprivation and explains why it’s so important to have policies in place, follow procedures and keep records. It tells you which forms are required at each point and includes a step-by-step guide to the urgent authorisation procedure.

Caring for someone who you think may lack the capacity to make decisions for themselves? You may also find our assessing mental capacity training and our safeguarding vulnerable adults training helpful. Why not browse our full range of online safeguarding courses?

Presented by

The importance of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Training

It's important that you comply with the law and understand the positive impact this training course can have on your organisation and employees.

Find out more

Available in 40 languages

All inclusive

Machine translated* content is included for free with all our popular courses

It covers LMS navigation, course transcripts and test questions. If you don’t see a course listed in the language you require, just let us know.

*Content which is not English may be machine translated and is for assistive purposes only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of translations.

Our most popular languages

Italian
German
Romanian
French
Polish
Lithuanian

DoLS Training certificate

Download and print

Each of our courses ends with a multiple-choice test to measure your knowledge of the material.

This Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) training course concludes with a 20 question multiple choice test with a printable certificate. In addition, brief in-course questions guide the user through the sections of the DoLS training and are designed to reinforce learning and ensure maximum user engagement throughout.

As well as printable user certificates, training progress and results are all stored centrally in your LMS (Learning Management System) and can be accessed any time to reprint certificates, check and set pass marks and act as proof of a commitment to ongoing legal compliance.

What does my certificate include?

Your Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Training Certificate includes your name, company name (if applicable), name of course taken, pass percentage, date of completion, expiry date and stamps of approval or accreditations by recognised authorities.

Please note if you are using our course content via SCORM in a third party LMS then we are unable to provide certificates and you will need to generate these in your host LMS yourself.

299 real user reviews

4.5

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This really helpful to me

It is really improve my skills

Really innovating, and important

It's quite an interesting and helpful in terms of knowledge. Well giving in terms of information that needs to be putting out there for much Awareness.

Good

This user gave this course a rating of 4/5 stars

to long winded

Needs to be be more simple you need to look at your audience.

Very intresting

I enjoyed taking part in this course foud it very intresting

difficult to concentrate

presentation is boring, could be presented in a more intresting format.

Interesting and easy to understand

This user gave this course a rating of 5/5 stars

Found this one quite intense

The questions are worded a bit strangely in the quiz. I found myself having to ask them in different ways to ascertain what it was you were trying to ask.

Why is this training important?

Compliance

It’s important that you comply with the law and know the ways in which it affects you and the way you work.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are an amendment to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. They apply in England and Wales only. The MCA DOLS were introduced to prevent deprivations of liberty without proper safeguards including independent consideration and authorisation. Deprivations of liberty in hospitals or care homes – other than under the Mental Health Act – should now follow the MCA DOLS process and all affected patients and residents should benefit from the new safeguards.

[This] legislation includes a statutory requirement for all care homes and hospitals as well as local authorities to keep clear and comprehensive records for every person deprived of their liberty. This includes records of applications for authorisations, details of the assessment process, information about the relevant person’s representative and the documentation related to termination of authorisation.

The Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (MCA DOLS)

There are six assessments which have to take place before a standard authorisation can be given to deprive somebody of their liberty.

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