Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Training: What the DoLS Crisis Demands of Your Staff

Deprivation of liberty safeguards training has never been more important. In March 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care published the official DoLS statistics for England for 2024-25 - 364,900 applications, up 9.8% on the previous year.

The headline figure was 364,900 applications - an increase of 9.8% on the previous year, and the continuation of a trend that has seen DoLS applications rise far beyond the levels anticipated when the safeguards were introduced under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The CQC, which monitors the operation of the DoLS system as part of its State of Care reporting, described the picture in its 2024 report in stark terms: too many people are waiting too long for a DoLS authorisation, local authorities face unprecedented volumes of applications, and the rights of people in vulnerable circumstances are at risk as a result. The system, the regulator noted, has needed reform for over ten years.

Those are significant institutional concerns. But behind them is a more immediate and practical question for every registered manager, care home provider, and social care organisation in England: are your staff equipped to navigate this environment safely, lawfully, and in a way that genuinely protects the people in their care?

What deprivation of liberty safeguards training covers - and what it does not

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are frequently misunderstood, including by the staff expected to operate within them.

DoLS are not, as is sometimes assumed, simply a mechanism for authorising restraint. They are a legal framework designed to protect the human rights of people who lack the mental capacity to consent to their care arrangements and who are, as a result, deprived of their liberty. The safeguards exist to ensure that where such deprivation is necessary, it is independently assessed, lawfully authorised, proportionate, and in the person's best interests.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is explicit: any decision made on behalf of a person who lacks capacity must be the least restrictive option available. That principle applies to every decision - not just formal restraint, but the full range of restrictions that can feature in daily care: locked doors, bed rails, lap belts, removed walking aids, medication administered without full consent, routines that remove meaningful choice.

The CQC has been direct on this point. Restrictive practice, the regulator has stated, represents a failure of person-centred planning. Where it is used, it must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, and subject to ongoing review.

That is a high standard. Meeting it in practice - in a busy care home, a supported living service, or a community mental health team - requires more than an awareness of the legislation. It requires staff who understand what it means in the specific situations they face every day.

Why the numbers keep rising

The continued increase in DoLS applications does not have a single explanation.

In part, it reflects a growing and ageing population with increasingly complex care needs. The number of people living with dementia in the UK is expected to reach one million by 2025 and 1.4 million by 2040. As care needs intensify, the situations in which restrictions may be necessary - and therefore the situations requiring formal authorisation - become more frequent.

In part, it reflects improved awareness of the law and better compliance with the requirement to apply for authorisation where a deprivation of liberty exists. This is a positive development, even if it increases administrative pressure.

But research published in 2025 reviewing the use of mental capacity legislation in care homes found that staff consistently found the legislation challenging to understand and implement in daily practice. Staff who had received online training reported having foundational knowledge but found it difficult to translate that knowledge into the real decisions they faced on the floor - the moment-by-moment judgements about how to respond to a resident who is distressed, confused, or presenting a risk to themselves or others.

That gap between knowing the law and being able to apply it - under pressure, in complex situations, with real people - is where incidents happen. And it is where training has to do its most important work.

What the legislation requires of training

The Mental Capacity Act operates on five statutory principles. Every person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that they lack it. Every practicable step must be taken to help a person make their own decision before concluding they cannot. Unwise decisions do not indicate lack of capacity. Any decision made on behalf of a person who lacks capacity must be in their best interests. And it must be the least restrictive option available.

Those principles are not complicated as statements of principle. What is complicated is applying them under the conditions of real care work - when a resident with dementia is trying to leave the building, when a person in a mental health crisis is refusing medication, when a care worker is alone in a supported living property with a person whose behaviour has become unpredictable and potentially dangerous.

In those moments, staff need more than policy awareness. They need the skills to de-escalate before a situation reaches a point where restriction becomes necessary. They need communication techniques that work with people whose ability to process language and social cues may be significantly impaired. They need the confidence to respond calmly and proportionately under pressure. And they need the physical skills - taught safely, within a clear legal and ethical framework - to respond appropriately when de-escalation has not been enough and the safety of the person or others is at immediate risk.

Research consistently shows that face-to-face, scenario-based training is more effective than online or classroom-only approaches for care staff working with people with dementia or complex needs. Staff who can practise real situations in a safe environment - discussing the decisions they would make, exploring the "what if?" questions, building the muscle memory of a proportionate response - are better equipped to apply their learning when it matters than those who have completed an e-learning module and ticked a box.

What good training looks like for social care and supported living

Stand2 has been delivering conflict management, personal safety, and physical intervention training to social care providers, supported living services, and local authority teams across the UK for over 25 years.

Our approach to social care training is grounded in a simple recognition: most challenging behaviour in care environments is not intentional aggression. It is the expression of unmet need, fear, pain, confusion, or communication difficulty. The person who becomes agitated, who strikes out, who tries to leave - they are not acting maliciously. They are communicating something they cannot express any other way.

Training that understands this builds staff who can recognise the early signs of distress, adapt their communication, reduce the conditions that fuel escalation, and respond with the kind of calm, proportionate, dignity-preserving care that the MCA demands - and that the people in their care deserve.

Where physical intervention is necessary - and in some social care environments, it is genuinely and regularly necessary - Stand2's programmes are independently medically reviewed by a consultant in emergency medicine and fully risk assessed by a NEBOSH-qualified practitioner. Every technique is taught within the legal and ethical framework of the MCA, least restrictive practice, and CQC expectations. Refresher training is built in as a standard expectation because the evidence on skill decay requires it.

The DoLS figures will continue to rise as long as the population ages and care needs increase. What organisations can control is the quality of the preparation they give to the staff who work within that system every day.

Stand2 delivers specialist conflict management, personal safety, and physical intervention training to social care providers, supported living services, residential care organisations, and local authority teams across the UK. Our programmes are AIM accredited, independently medically reviewed, and aligned with the Mental Capacity Act, DoLS requirements, and CQC expectations. To find out more, visit our social care sector page or get in touch.