If you are a care home or a hospital and there is an urgent need to deprive a person of their liberty to prevent them from harm, you should complete Form 1 . This is an Urgent Authorisation and must always be accompanied by a Standard Authorisation Request on the same form. For an Urgent DoLS Authorisation, complete all pages on the form. This grants authorisation for up to seven days. You must also provide any other relevant information (such as care plans), which should be emailed to the team with your signed forms.
For a Standard DoLS Authorisation Request, you should leave pages six and seven blank. A Standard Authorisation request is necessary if a person needs to be deprived of their liberty in the next 28 days.
Care homes and hospitals must regularly check if the deprivation of liberty is still needed, and a request for a DoLS Review must be made if there is a change in the person's situation. The authorisation may need to be altered, suspended or terminated. Use Form 10 to request a DoLS review.
Care homes and hospitals must notify the Care Quality Commission when they have sought a DoLS for someone in their care. They should also notify the coroner if someone subject to a DoLS dies.
For more information, see our guide for hospitals and care homes .