DoLS and MCA records: the tracker CQC kept asking for
One thing first: capacity and best-interest decisions are clinical and legal judgements, and they stay with your team and the local authority. This page is only about the register: the tracking and evidence mechanics that kept failing around otherwise sound decisions.
The register fails, not the judgement.
In July 2026 we read 50 recent CQC assessments of services whose ratings slipped, 25 care homes and 25 domiciliary providers. In the care homes, record-keeping gaps around consent, the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) or Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) appeared in 20 of the 25. Read those citations closely and a pattern emerges: it is nearly always the register that failed, not the judgement.
Applications made but never listed anywhere. Renewals nobody had diarised. Conditions on a granted DoLS that nobody could evidence being met. Consent given verbally, recorded nowhere. The decisions themselves may well have been sound; what could not be produced was the paper trail that proves it.
Done during the inspection.
- Care-home assessments in our close reading with consent, MCA or DoLS record-keeping gaps
- 20 of 25
- Mental capacity assessments completed at one home during the inspection itself, once the DoLS log was requested
- 14
- DoLS applications applied for at the same home during the inspection process
- 8
Care-home assessments in our close reading with consent, MCA or DoLS record-keeping gaps
Mental capacity assessments completed at one home during the inspection itself, once the DoLS log was requested
DoLS applications applied for at the same home during the inspection process
Counts from our close reading of 50 recent assessments, not market-wide percentages. The 14 and the 8 are the same home: the work only happened because an inspector asked for the log, which is the definition of a register that is not doing its job.
What inspectors actually write.
“We asked the registered manager for information of any Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards applications they had made to the local authority. They told us they were unable to provide this as they did not collate this information on a tracker.”
“During the inspection process 14 mental capacity assessments were completed and 8 DoLS applications were applied for. This had not been identified by the service until the DoLS log had been requested.”
“The provider could not evidence mental capacity assessments or best interest decisions had been completed; or consent had been sought for the use of the CCTV.”
Three different services, one shape: nobody is questioning the care team’s judgement. The question every time is “show us”, and the register that should have answered it did not exist, was not current, or lived in someone’s head.
What goes in a DoLS tracker?
One DoLS register
Every application and authorisation, standard or urgent, in one place: status, expiry, renewal date, and the renewal chased automatically before it lapses. The answer to “can we see your DoLS tracker” becomes yes, here, current.
Condition-evidence slots
Each condition on a granted DoLS gets an owner and a dated evidence trail, so “conditions met” is provable on the day, not reconstructed from memory afterwards.
A consent register tied to the thing
Consent tracked against whatever actually needs it, including equipment like CCTV, so the missing record shows up as a gap on a list long before an inspector finds it as a finding.
To say it once more, plainly: we are not care-sector consultants, we do not interpret CQC standards, and we will never touch the capacity or best-interest judgement itself. That stays with you, your registered manager and the local authority. We build the register, the chasing and the evidence trail around it. More on what we build for care providers →
More from this series: why care plans go out of date, and how CQC catches it and rated Requires Improvement for Well-led: what now?
Common questions.
- Do you advise on whether someone needs a DoLS?
- No, never. Whether someone lacks capacity, and whether a deprivation of liberty is in their best interests, are clinical and legal judgements that belong to your team and the local authority. Our whole job is narrower: making sure the paperwork around those decisions, the applications, expiries, conditions and consents, can be produced in one click when someone asks.
- We track DoLS in a spreadsheet. Is that not enough?
- A spreadsheet nobody is chased by is how 14 capacity assessments end up being completed during the inspection itself. The grid is fine; the gap is that a spreadsheet never emails anyone before a renewal lapses, never opens an action when a condition needs evidencing, and never notices it has gone stale. The difference we build is the chasing, not the grid.
Show us how you track DoLS now.
Spreadsheet, diary, folder, memory: bring whatever the current register is, and we’ll say straight what we’d build so applications, renewals, conditions and consents chase themselves. Costs nothing to chat, and every judgement stays exactly where it belongs: with your team.
or ring us on 07754 218 688 any weekday