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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Change of provider for the Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (North East Essex and Suffolk)

From 1 April 2026, HTG-UK will begin delivering the Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) in Suffolk and north east Essex. HTG-UK already provides this service in the Waveney area of the county.

Patients should normally travel to and from hospital or community health settings by private or public transport or with the help of relatives or friends if necessary. 

NEPTS is reserved for when it is considered essential to ensure an individual’s safety, safe mobilisation, condition management, or recovery. This is assessed in line with NHS England’s national eligibility criteria. Patients are individually assessed by the provider against the eligibility criteria at the time of booking.

Please read the attached guide for Healthcare Professionals to book NEPTS transport for residents in care homes and nursing homes from 1 April 2026. The guide contains all booking instructions, more about eligibility criteria and details of how to cancel or amend a booking. There is also a link to a contact form on HTG-UK’s website for general enquiries.

Guide for Healthcare Professionals