The key elements of these safeguards are:

• to provide the person with a representative – a person who is given certain rights and who should look out for and monitor the person receiving care (see The ‘relevant person’s representative’ below)
• to give the person (or their representative) the right to challenge a deprivation of liberty through the Court of Protection (see ‘Other useful organisations’)
• to provide a mechanism for a deprivation of liberty to be reviewed and monitored regularly

However if it is confirmed that restraint and restrictions is in the persons best interest and the person lacks capacity to make the decision themselves, the restraints and restrictions must be proportionate to the harm the care giver is seeking to prevent, examples include but are not limited to:

• removing items from a person that could cause harm
• physically stopping a person from doing something
  that could cause harm
• close supervision in the home or use of isolation
• requiring a person to be supervised when out
• holding a person so that care, support, treatment can be administered

The final decision regarding what amounts to a deprivation of liberty is decided by the courts. Further information regarding how deprivation of liberty is authorised can be found here.