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
Skip to content
Text size:

Care Act 2014 responsibilities

The main priorities:

  • Promote wellbeing & quality of life
  • Promote independence
  • Prevent, reduce or delay the onset of care needs
  • Safeguard people from harm

The market needs to offer greater choice and personalisation.

More care & support in own home

We want to see fewer people admitted into long-term residential care.  This has implications for a market sector, where there is already over-supply of care home beds.  It also has implications for supported living and domiciliary care, where we want to see greater choice and capacity.

Complex residential and nursing care need

There will always be some people whose care needs are so complex that they require greater levels of support, often in a residential care setting.  It is important that we can meet such complex needs in Essex, rather than people have to seek support out-of-county.

Working as a whole system with integrated care systems 

We want to work in close partnership with integrated care systems to transform the way we deliver services.  There needs to be a strong alignment between social care and health to advocate prevention and health inequalities, which will drive a sustainable delivery system.

Last updated: 23/03/2023
Next Care market role