Bradford Metropolitan District Council

225 BIAs and Safeguarding Review

In circumstances that will be familiar to many local authorities, the 2014 Supreme Court Ruling (P v Cheshire West and Chester Council et al) left Bradford Metropolitan District Council inundated with Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) cases. 

The Council faced a waiting list of 250 DoLS cases, each with service users requiring Best Interests Assessments. Xyla Health and social care provided an end-to-end service, completing reviews of all 250 clients and providing BIAs for 225 cases. We completed 10 assessment per week, with an average turnaround of 19 working days per assessment. 

Key Achievements: 

  • Conducted 225 Best Interests Assessments of clients within a 6-month project timeline 
  • Utilised Council’s standard templates for consistency 
  • Agreed outputs up-front including a rate of 10 assessments per week returned to the Council – ensuring a rapid response and approval process to progress cases 
  • Direct, secure upload to Council management system using Egress 
  • Conducted a review of Safeguarding processes (alert through to resolution) leaving a strong foundation for management in the future 

Our Approach: 

Xyla Health and social care (formerly ICS Assessment Services) were commissioned by Bradford Council to clear their Best Interests Assessments (BIA) backlog in March 2016. We assembled a team of experienced social workers with track records of completing DoLS cases to complete the outstanding Council reviews. 

  1. Consultancy  

    Our scoping and implementation period involved a review of the Council’s Safeguarding process, ensuring: 
    • Understand the current processes 
    • Support the triaging of referrals and update SystmOne 
    • Jointly support the Council with instruction and training 
    • Securely transfer Safeguarding alert data onto the new system 
  2. Delivery

    We reviewed all 250 cases, screened 25 clients as no longer requiring assessment and fulfilled Best Interests Assessment for 225 clients the within six months. By jointly agreeing the required standards with the Council up-front, our Quality Assurance processes ensured that 98% of all assessments were accepted on first submission by the Council. 
    • Shadowing and mentoring opportunities from our experienced safeguarding practitioners 
    • Detailed analysis of the safeguarding alert pathway and management information