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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What is the Workers Protection Act 2024 (WPA)?

Effective 26 October 2024, the WPA is a new piece of legislation placing a duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace.

The legislation places a major shift from employers reacting to sexual harassment incidents to proactively preventing them from occurring. 

What should organisations be doing?

ECC have already implemented the following steps. We also expect our partner organisations to be aware of the Equality & Human Rights Commission guidance, and have undertaken:

  • Review & update harassment policies & guidance to reflect the WPA including behavioural expectations, guidance for managers and bystanders on how to address harassment and signposting to reporting options and support services. 
  • Risk assessing and identifying areas that may require more proactive measures to mitigate sexual harassment risks and providing intervention and support to prevent from occurring.
  • Sexual harassment training covering legal requirements, expected behaviours, and how to respond to sexual harassment if it occurs. This should be regularly reviewed and refreshed to ensure everyone is reminded of their responsibilities and the importance of maintaining a safe workplace.

Reporting & ongoing monitoring of employee surveys, feedback and cases of harassment (including those which may not be formally reported).