Heat-health alert for East of England

A red heat-health warning has been issued by the UKHSA. The warning is in effect from the morning of 24 June 2026 through to the night of 25 Jun 2026. Please ensure you keep up to date with weather reports reports and plan accordingly.

UKHSA weather warning guidance

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

Essex County Council - Provider Hub
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Be TB safe in your care home or service (1)

Recent cases of tuberculosis (TB) in care staff in Essex have caught care services by surprise.  Here is how you could minimise the risk of your service doing the same.

  1. Watch for symptoms
  • Advise any staff member with a new cough lasting more than 3 weeks to ask their GP if they need a chest X-ray.  This helps detect TB or other serious illness early.
  1. Screen new staff for latent TB*
  • Ask newly employed staff to speak to their GP about a latent TB* test if they:
  • Were born in, or lived for more than 6 months in, a country where TB is common** (including any country in Sub-Saharan Africa).
  • Have been in the UK for less than 5 years.
  • Are aged 16 to 35.

*TB means the person has inactive TB bacteria in their body but no symptoms. It can become active later and spread to others if untreated.

** How to find out if TB is common in a country (> 150 per 100,000 people) is explained on the following Government webpage: Tuberculosis by country: rates per 100,000 people - GOV.UK

These measures help to prevent staff members getting TB or helps catch it early.  This limits the number of people the infection can spread to. 

Tuberculosis (TB) - NHS