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
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Essex County Council are looking to shape the market to provide more community-based services, and more short-term and early help.  This will see residential care become a smaller, but still critical, part of the Essex care market by 2030.

Essex County Council would like to:

  • Reduce over-supply of residential beds and ensure adults are able to stay at home with their family and community network for as long as possible.
  • Slightly increase nursing provision or placements for Adults with complex needs or behaviours.
  • Increase and evolve our community-led services like Domiciliary Care and other services, as well as supporting carers, and utilising technology and equipment that support the adult to remain independent at home.
  • Increase Supported Living services to keep adults in the community, providing support and keeping adults safe.
  • Increase the use of Personal Assistants, Micro-enterprises, Individual service funds and direct payments to optimise the Adults’ opportunity for choice and control.
  • Improve our short term and early help service offer to  prevent and avoid hospital admissions, and reduce Adults requiring long term provision whilst reducing their needs for longer term services. 
  • Promote local community networks and provision for Adults and Carers that incorporates our voluntary sector, community provision and local services for Adults requiring services.

 

Different markets will change over time

These charts provide an indication of the market size, and how we aim to see the relative market sectors change over time as we aim to see more people to be supported to live in their own homes. 

Last updated: 23/03/2023
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