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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For the adults and carers that need care and support, we want to:

  • improve and maintain their quality of life, and ensure they have a positive experience of care and support
  • ensure they have a personalised approach to their care and support, and have choice and control over the services they receive
  • support the use of our community-based offer, offering adults, carers and families to use services in their community 
  • improve service delivery models for pathways and integration which focuses on prevention and hospital avoidance
  • ensure they are supported to be as independent as possible, and to remain in a safe place within their community for as long as possible​
  • support positive risk taking, whilst ensuring they are kept safe from harm, neglect or abuse
  • promote support to carers by ensuring included in all pathways, and offer digital solution towards an overall family wellbeing

 

For the Essex care market, we want to:

  • ensure Essex has a sustainable and vibrant market that is affordable and delivers good quality care for the residents of Essex
  • ensure quality and choice in each part of the county
  • ensure the care market has access to a skilled and valued workforce and is a sector that people want to choose to work in
  • attain equality of market capacity with anticipated demand across the segments of the market
  • ensure there is appropriate supply to meet existing and future demand for social care
  • incentivise flexible approaches in delivering an outcome focused service that promotes independence, prevention and early intervention.
  • ensure we can secure continuity of provision in the event of provider failure or breakdown of services
  • improve collaborative working between care providers, and with Health and Housing partners, to identify opportunities to improve the delivery of services
  • improve our localised community offer that incorporates our 3rd sectors, to optimise local services and networks for adults
Last updated: 28/03/2023
Next Market Strategy Priorities