The Supreme Court's judgment on deprivation of liberty

You may be aware that the Supreme Court has recently issued a judgment which significantly changes the legal approach to determining whether a person is deprived of their liberty. The judgement can be seen here A Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland of a devolution issue under paragraph 34 o….

We would encourage you to familiarise yourselves with the judgment and carefully consider the implications for your services and practice. Please see the following links for further information: CQC statement on the Supreme Court's judgment on deprivation of liberty - Care Quality Commission and 2026-UKSC-16-Summary-for-website.pdf.

We ask that you refer to this updated position when making any new referrals to the DoLS team.  In addition, as the change came into effect immediately from 2 June, please review any recent DoLS referrals you have made. You should consider whether, in light of this revised approach, any of these referrals may no longer be appropriate.

We hope this offers reassurance whilst we wait for additional National guidance to be disseminated.  At this stage we don’t have further information, but if you have a specific query, you can contact the MCA DoLS Duty Team at Dolforms@essex.gov.uk

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Capacity Tracker

Mandatory Completion of the National Capacity Tracker - due 14th of each month

The government has mandated the collection of data through the Capacity Tracker for all adult social care CQC registered providers on a monthly basis.

Information must be updated within a designated 7-day reporting window, which opens at the start of the 8th day of each month and run until the end of the 14th day of each month (or the next working day where the 14th day falls on a weekend or public holiday).

Please note financial penalties may be imposed on providers who don’t complete this requirement.

Who needs to update the tracker

CQC registered adult social care providers are required to update the tracker on a monthly basis (as detailed above).

This is a requirement enforced under section 277A of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. 

Accessing the tracker

The Capacity tracker is accessed here: https://capacitytracker.com/.

Guidance

The Guidance Document tells you how to set up vacancy information, how to update your vacancy information & how to complete adult social care questions. 

Contact

If you have any questions you can call the official helpline at 0191 691 3729 or email:

Last updated: 07/10/2024