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
Skip to content
Text size:

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

The Government announced its preferred option on local government reorganisation in Essex is to establish 5 new unitary councils:

  • West Essex Council (current local government areas of Epping Forest, Harlow and Uttlesford)
  • North East Essex Council (current local government areas of Braintree, Colchester and Tendring)
  • Mid Essex Council (current local government areas of Brentwood, Chelmsford and Maldon)
  • South West Essex Council (current local government areas of Basildon and Thurrock)
  • South East Essex Council (current local government areas of Castle Point, Rochford and Southend-on-Sea).

These changes are expected to be implemented in 2028. At this stage, it is important to note that there are no changes affecting providers.

The Government is expected to set out further details to Essex councils in the next few months about how the changes will be prepared for and implemented.