LC v The Disclosure and Barring Service

Facts

The appellant, LC, had been a nurse for 18 years and at the material time was employed by an NHS trust at an in-patient CAMHS assessment unit, Ruby Lodge, caring for young people with learning disabilities and suspected mental disorder. On two successive night shifts in May 2022 she locked Patient A, a 14-year-old learning disabled patient detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983, in her room, contrary to her employer's seclusion policy, without calling the on-call medic or the on-call manager, without recording what she had done and without telling colleagues at handover. A serious incident report determined that the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice had been breached, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council, following a fitness to practise hearing held between 4 and 18 March 2024, made findings of fact and suspended her registration; she has since been struck off by consent. On referral, the Disclosure and Barring Service adopted the NMC's findings and made an additional finding of its own that she had delayed reporting a safeguarding concern about a colleague over-medicating a patient. After a minded to bar letter and representations made on her behalf by the Royal College of Nursing, the DBS decided on 24 June 2025 to place her name on both the children's and the adults' barred lists. She appealed, with permission granted on the papers, alleging mistakes of fact and errors of law.