Steven and Mark's Story

Steven was a young man with a severe learning disability. He lived at home with his father, Mark, but went into a local authority support unit for a couple of weeks when Mark was ill. The local authority then kept Steven there for over a year against his and his father’s wishes. When Steven tried to leave the unit after several months, the local authority signed a Deprivation of Liberty (DoLS) Authorisation and later said they were looking for a long-term placement miles away from his father. Steven and Mark took a human rights case to court. The court decided Steven’s right to liberty had been breached because of the delay in the DoLS assessment and it hadn’t considered Steven and Mark’s wishes. The court also decided Steven’s right to family life (Article 8) had been breached because the local authority had stopped him from living with his father.

(Hillingdon v London Borough Council v Neary, 2011)