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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About the Quality Innovation Team

The Provider Quality Innovation team looks at themes and trends across the care sector to identify common areas where care services may be experiencing difficulties or find it challenging to meet quality standards and whole system issues.

We look to find innovative ways to provide support, using best practice examples, linking with national initiatives and working in partnership with care providers, Integrated Care Boards (ICB), CQC, Community Health providers, local colleges and Hospices.

Every 2 months the team produces the  Quality Innovation Newsletter to keep you informed of latest news and future activity.

Contact: quality.innovation@essex.gov.uk 

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Bringing people and care professionals together to create meaningful outcomes

Last updated: 10/09/2025