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Interim Deprivation of Liberty Practice Guidance (AGNI Judgment 2026)

New interim guidance has been published following the AGNI 2026 Supreme Court judgment. Adult Social Care providers are encouraged to review the guidance to understand Essex County Council's current interim approach while further national guidance is awaited.

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Essex County Council - Provider Hub
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Our Approach to the Market

Over the recent few years, Essex County Council have been strategically working to improve stability, and relationships with our Essex Care Market Providers. As result this has allowed us to:

  • Developed and implemented the Adult Social Care Market Shaping Strategy 2023-2030, providing a long-term vision for a sustainable, diverse, innovative and high-quality care market.
  • Embedded the Home First approach across commissioning and service delivery, supporting more people to remain independent in their own homes and communities, reducing reliance on long-term residential care and promoting recovery and reablement wherever possible.
  • Supported the implementation of the Inclusive Essex Practice Model, promoting strengths-based practice, co-production, prevention and person-centred support, and ensuring that commissioned services focus on the outcomes that matter most to people.(Internal ECC strategic approach)
  • Driven the shift towards a more community-based and preventative model of care, strengthening local support networks and enabling people to access support earlier, closer to home and within their communities.
  • Increased collaboration with providers, health partners, district and borough councils, and the voluntary and community sector to support integrated care and deliver more coordinated services.
  • Enhanced the diversity of the care market through the development of Extra Care Housing, Shared Lives, technology-enabled care, community micro-enterprises and voluntary and community sector provision, increasing choice and flexibility for Essex residents.
  • Delivered Fair Cost of Care and Market Sustainability Plan activities to improve understanding of provider costs and market pressures, supporting the long-term sustainability and resilience of care services.
  • Continued to drive quality improvement through outcomes-focused commissioning, promoting good and outstanding provision and supporting continuous improvement across the care market.
  • Developed strategic workforce initiatives to support recruitment, retention, workforce development and sector resilience in response to growing demand and complexity of need.
  • Increased the use of data, insight, technology and innovation to identify market gaps, improve service planning and support the development of future models of care.

Agreed high level market shaping principles shaped by the Care Act to help us work better with adults and carers. 

  • Outcomes Focused; ensuring the adult outcome is at the forefront of our service design and delivery.
  • Promote Independence; to keep people well at home in their community and families.
  • Collaborate; to work with all system partners, organisations and suppliers to ensure our services are shaped and mobilised effectively.
  • Safe; to ensure people are safe and to promote good and outstanding care to our adults. 
  • Engage; to continue to work with all stakeholders, keep people involved in current and the future delivery of services. 
  • Innovate; to trial new concepts and ideas, ensuring that we evolve services to meet the needs of our adults through the use of new commercial models and technology. 

Collaboration has been vital and key to our delivery during the recent years. We have worked with our huge network of organisations and suppliers to ensure information, practice and most importantly a shared approach to delivery aids our business needs. This has involved

  • Fast tracking the utilisation of data and insight, and the use of technology as part of the health and social care service offer.
  • Progressed activities with the NHS which has pushed forward our agenda for joint collaborative working, decision making and future market shaping.
  • Establishment of the 5 place-based alliances, lead by the locality directors along with representatives from children’s services and public health; district/city council representatives; the voluntary community sector and the NHS and others. 
  • Collaborative working with the Essex Care Association to ensure insight is shared with our market and where possible maintain market resilience with our strategic providers.
  • Continued partnership working with the ADASS Regional group on workforce, social care markets, innovation in joint working on agreed tasks and technology.

Key market development and commissioning achievements:

Embedded intermediate care and reablement services as a core component of the Home First approach, supporting people to maximise independence, recover following illness or hospital discharge, and reduce reliance on long-term care. Reablement services now represent an annual investment of approximately £30.1m across Essex.

Expanded the use of Technology Enabled Care (TEC) and digital innovation to support people to remain safe and independent within their own homes and communities. This continues to form a key enabler of prevention, independence and personalised care.

Developed and mobilised the Supported Living Framework, which commenced in April 2025, strengthening market quality, consistency and capacity for adults with learning disabilities, autism and physical or sensory impairments. The framework supports Essex's ambition to increase independent living opportunities and reduce reliance on residential care.

Continued to strengthen accommodation-based support through improved commissioning arrangements, quality assurance and outcomes-focused specifications aligned to the Inclusive Essex Practice Model, supporting people to achieve greater independence, choice and control.

Maintained and developed the Integrated Residential and Nursing (IRN) Framework, ensuring continued access to high-quality residential and nursing provision while promoting market sustainability, quality and value for money.

Progressed recommissioning and contract modernisation across a range of services to ensure commissioning arrangements align with current strategic priorities, including prevention, independence, community-based support and personalised outcomes.

Implemented the Live at Home Framework, helping to shape a sustainable domiciliary care market and supporting the continued delivery of Home First principles. Essex now invests approximately £174.1m annually in domiciliary care services, reflecting the strategic shift towards support delivered in people's own homes.

Redesigned the Direct Payment Support Service, improving access to personalised support and increasing opportunities for people to exercise greater choice and control over how their care and support needs are met. Direct Payments now represent approximately £79.0m of annual Adult Social Care investment.

Increased investment in community-based alternatives to traditional care models, including Supported Living, Extra Care Housing, Shared Lives, Personal Assistants, community micro-enterprises and voluntary and community sector support. Supported Living now represents annual investment of approximately £129.3m, demonstrating Essex's commitment to independent living and community inclusion.

Strengthened strategic partnerships across health, housing, providers and the voluntary and community sector to support integrated service delivery, market sustainability and system-wide approaches to prevention and wellbeing.

Continued to utilise the Essex Resilience Forum and wider partnership arrangements to support market resilience, provider sustainability and preparedness for emerging risks and system pressures.

Embedded the principles of the Inclusive Essex Practice Model across commissioning and market shaping activity, encouraging providers to develop strengths-based, asset-based and community-focused services that maximise independence, increase social connections and enable people to achieve the outcomes that matter most to them.

At Essex County Council we recognise that the people who use services, support and facilities have the best knowledge and experience to say how they want them to be. Our ambition is to have a more systematic and consistent approach to co-production and to embed lived experience across all our work. This will help ensure our practice and the solutions we commission are fit for purpose and meet what people want and need.  This means:

  • To embed lived experience at every level and be able to evidence it.
  • It’s a part of our Quality Assurance & Service Assurance Frameworks.
  • A consistent approach across all our work that is guided by coproduced strategic intentions.
  • Continuous improvement and sharing learning as we go along.
  • Including voices of people that are hard to engage.
  • A more equal and reciprocal relationship with people who access support in the design, delivery and evaluation of the support they receive, ensuring that people are recognised and remunerated for their work.
Last updated: 01/04/2026
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