Please can you provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
1 – How many assessments under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards were conducted during the period 01/05/2009 to 01/05/2017 by the following:
One thousand seven hundred and thirty one (1731)
a.) Council employed Best Interest Assessors. 1713 assessments have been completed by Best Interest Assessors (BIAs) within Devon (this includes BIAs employed by Devon Partnership Trust).
Devon County Council holds the information you have requested. However our computer system is not set up to enable us to report on assessments specifically completed by Council staff. Therefore in order to answer this question the Council would be required to manually review each assessment made for each year to establish which assessment were made by DCC staff and non-DCC staff. Given the number of assessments made, we feel that this exercise would take greater than the 18 hours we are obliged to spend answering a Freedom of Information request. For this reason we feel that Section 12 of the FOI Act applies (cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit).
b.) Independent Best Interest Assessors (not employed directly by the Local Authority).
Eighteen (18)
c.) Mental Health Assessors.
One thousand five hundred and twelve (1512)
d.) Assessments allocated to 3rd part recruitment agency contracts.
The council does not use these agencies therefore we do not hold this information.
2- Total budget spend on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards from 01/05/2009 to 01/05/2017, broken down to include:
a.) The total council spend on DoLS assessments split between employed Best Interest Assessors, Independent Best Interest Assessors, Mental Health Assessors and/or recruitment agencies for the period 01/05/2009 to 01/05/2017
We do not hold this information prior to 2016 – 2017 because the DoLs budget was included with the total Safeguarding Adults budget until that date.
b.) Total DoLS team budget for 2017-2018.
The total service budget for 2016/2017 was £634,000
The total service budget for 2017/2018 is £686,000
c.) Details of the current DoLS team members by name / job title and
number of qualified Best Interest Assessors working in your local authority.
Job titles and numbers are provided in the table below :
| Job title | Numbers |
| Team managers | 2.2 full time equivalent |
| Service manager | 1 full time equivalent |
| Service support manager | 0.6 full time equivalent |
| Mental Capacity Act (MCA) administrator | 4.4 full time equivalent |
| Best Interest Assessors – employed by Devon County Council |
3 full time equivalent 1.8 full time equivalent – vacancies |
| Best Interest Assessors – employed by Devon Partnership Trust | 1.4 full time equivalent |
Staff names are not included as the Council considers that this information constitutes personal data of third parties therefore this information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of the exemption at Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please include contact details for the current MCA/DoLS Service lead and DoLS team manager.”
All DoLS staff can be contacted on the central number 01392 381676 and by the mailbox: deprivationlibertyadministrationsecure-mailbox@devon.gcsx.gov.uk