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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Important Notice For Domiciliary Care Providers re Handbacks of Care Packages

If you need to terminate a care package and are giving ECC notice on any individual care packages please email the Service Placement Team at:  

Service.PlacementTeam@essex.gov.uk with all of the details.

Providers are required to give ECC not less than 28 days’ written notice before they can cease delivering care to an adult.

If for any reason you are unable to deliver a care call, please immediately contact the Countywide Duty Team (or the Emergency Duty Out of Hours Team) and SPT using the following details:

Service Placement Team (SPT)

  • Monday - Thursday:  09:00 - 18:30
  • Friday:  09:00 - 18:00
  • Saturday:  09:00 - 17:00

Email:  service.placementteam@essex.gov.uk

  • Main Number: 03330 139974
  • Rota Mobile:  07920 286325
  • Team Mobile:  07774 337494
  • Team Manager South (Adam Collier):  07748 623522
  • Team Manager North (Bryn Morgan):  07557 081544
  • Team Manager Mid & West (Hannah Rose):  07881 310779

 

Countywide Duty Team (CWDT)

For Providers (and all professionals) we no longer accept telephone calls or email referrals - providers should use the Portal - click here.

Only in a very urgent situation should Providers telephone during daytime hours.

CWDT Contact Telephone Number: 0333 013 9994

 

Emergency Duty Out of Hours Team

Main Number: 0345 606 1212

Email: eds@essex.gov.uk 

 

Last updated: 19/02/2026