Heat-health alert for East of England

A red heat-health warning has been issued by the UKHSA. The warning is in effect from the morning of 24 June 2026 through to the night of 25 Jun 2026. Please ensure you keep up to date with weather reports reports and plan accordingly.

UKHSA weather warning guidance

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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Focus of this strategy

This strategy is primarily focused on addressing 6 critical themes that emerge from our market context and data and from the workshops and engagement we have held:

  1. Addressing care market workforce recruitment and retention challenges
  2. Ensuring effective management of capacity and demand, both now and for the future
  3. Putting lived experience of the person at the centre of what we do
  4. Ensuring delivery of good quality services
  5. Digital & Technology that maximises independence and workforce efficiency
  6. Promoting the financial sustainability of the sector as a whole

These are our foundational building blocks for success. But we have also identified other themes from market engagement events that have highlighted the importance of key enablers (such as technology and integration) and the importance of diversity and inclusion, social value and environmental sustainability – these are addressed too. 

The visual below shows the foundational buildings blocks for success identified through our market engagements

Addressing care market workforce recruitment and retention challenges

  • About 12% jobs are vacant and the number of vacancies grew 33% in 21/22 (Skills for Care)
  • Lack of pipeline of new entrants to care sector among younger age groups, and 28% workforce already over 55
  • Lack of career progression opportunities

Ensuring effective management of capacity and demand, both now and for the future

  • There are some supply issues in parts of the county, especially for domiciliary care and complex care
  • There is an over-supply of residential care beds, and this is likely to widen 
  • Intermediate care services are fragmented and cannot fully meet demand

Putting lived experience of the person at the centre of what we do

  • Lack of co-ordinated mechanism for capturing lived experience across the system
  • Personal Assistant market is under-developed and lacks support
  • Information, Advice and Guidance is fragmented and sub-optimal

Ensuring delivery of good quality services

  • 80% providers are good or outstanding, but this means 1 in 5 require improvement or are inadequate

Digital & Technology that maximises independence and workforce efficiency

  • Care technology is under-utilised in the sector and can support independence and quality of life
  • Opportunities to support workforce efficiency and workload

Promoting the financial sustainability of the sector as a whole

  • Financial challenges facing council and care providers and major national care charging reforms due October 2025
Last updated: 28/03/2023
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