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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Quality Improvement Team

Getting to know the Provider Quality Team

The Provider Quality Team work with Providers to:

  • Undertake a comprehensive programme of Audits.
  • Offer support, guidance, mentoring and signposting across a range of areas to promote good quality care in care settings.
  • Work in collaboration with care providers and other statutory partners such as Clinical Commissioning groups and the Care Quality Commission to support continuous quality improvement.
  • Manage the response to risk and quality concerns.
  • Proactively implement a culture focused on prevention and achieving outcomes for people that use care services.
  • Deliver a programme of work to proactively support providers with improving care staff capability and skills and developing best practice solutions including  interventions such as Prosper, My Home Life, Age Well for Adults with Disabilities and a programme of training for Domiciliary Care staff.

The Quality Management Team

Sam Crawford, Head of Provider Quality

I am responsible for:

  • Managing the Quality Improvement Team which consists of 27 team members.
  • Having oversight of the care work.
  • Leading work with care providers and statutory partners to improve quality in the care market.
  • Providing integrated support to care providers where support is required to improve quality.
  • Promoting a focus on prevention and collaboration with the care market to ensure continuous improvement.

Lesley Cruickshank, Provider Quality Innovation Manager (Older People)

I am responsible for:

  • Identifying common themes and trends where care providers may need additional support and create a programme of proactive interventions.
  • Working directly with care providers on the design of interventions and engaging support from Health and Social Care partners.

  • Leading a team of 6 to implement projects such as the PROSPER programme, Find Your Active, My Home Life Leadership programme and Train the trainer sessions.

More information on the full programme can be found in the Quality Innovation pages.

Jenny Peckham, Provider Quality Innovation Manager (Adults With Disabilities)

I am responsible for:

  • Identifying common themes and trends where care providers may need additional support and create a programme of proactive interventions.
  • Working directly with care providers on the design of interventions and engaging support from Health and Social Care partners.
  • Leading a team of 3 to implement projects such as the PROSPER AWD programme, Age Well and Virtual Autism Tour

More information on the full programme can be found in the Quality Innovation pages.

Last updated: 07/06/2024