Objective confinement
Is the person confined in a particular restricted space for a material period, judged from the whole reality?
Start here
A disciplined route through the evidence
AGNI restores a multifactorial assessment. No single fact decides the question, and the analysis must stay anchored to the individual.
Absence of valid consent
What do the person’s awareness, wishes, feelings and behaviour show? Do not equate this automatically with MCA capacity.
State responsibility
Is the confinement directly imposed, authorised, funded, arranged, known about or insufficiently protected against by the state?
Choose a letter
Each part of REALITY gathers evidence that can be tested, triangulated and weighed.
Facts before labels
Record what happens, how often, who does it, what triggers it, and what the person experiences.
Uncertainty is evidence
Where wishes are ambiguous or evidence conflicts, record the doubt. Do not manufacture certainty from silence.
Keep the decisions distinct
First identify deprivation of liberty. Then address necessity, proportionality and best interests if the DoLS criteria are engaged.
Authority to evidence
What each case asks you to prove
Select an authority for its facts, current status and practical evidence prompt. The timeline is chronological, not a hierarchy of importance.
Timeline correction
Winterwerp concerned psychiatric detention, not a care-home placement. Its enduring contribution here is the evidential basis and continuing review required for detention under Article 5(1)(e).
Evidence builder
Describe the person’s concrete situation
0% evidenced
Analytical balance
Weigh evidence, do not count restrictions
The question is degree and intensity, assessed cumulatively. Evidence may point in different directions and still require an overall judgment.
Evidence pointing towards confinement
External control, coercion and substantial impact
Evidence pointing away from confinement
Freedom, acceptance, normality and low intensity
Unclear, disputed or still to test
Evidence gaps must stay visible
Five challenge questions before concluding
Reasoned outcome
Turn evidence into a defensible conclusion
The tool structures professional judgment. It does not calculate whether Article 5 is engaged.
Objective element
Subjective element
State attribution
Activity complete
Your AGNI evidence analysis has been submitted
Your recorded responses have been sent to the trainer dashboard. You can still print or copy your structured summary.
Authorities and source links
This educational resource supports structured assessment and recording. Practitioners remain responsible for applying current law, statutory guidance and local procedures to the individual case.