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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Market Vision

Our key strategy with Equipment is:

A responsive, flexible, and agile service which supports people to live safely and independently in their new homes, enables carers both informal and formal to undertake their role, facilitates hospital avoidance, supports the Home First approach and D2A approach, and plays a key role in early intervention and prevention.

Key aims:

  • Right equipment, right place, right time, and right first time
  • Supporting people to remain independent for as long as possible
  • Sustainable pricing
  • Consistent and sufficient supply in all areas of the county
  • Collaborations with partners countywide

1 Year Delivery Plan by end of 2024

By end of year 1 new contract in place. - A new contract has been put in place for this service

Key Milestones:​

  • New contract with Medequip in place​
  • Service established with appropriate monitoring and learning mechanisms in place​
  • Partners approval to ordering processes, checks and balances​
  • Handover of stock and staff transfer from previous provider planned and managed​
  • Expansion of partnership to include West Essex NHS​

 

3 Year Delivery Plan by end of 2027​

Description:​

New contract established​

Key Milestones:​

  • Successful delivery of new contract evidenced by performance KPIs​
  • Strong relationships with other social care suppliers and system partners​
  • Collaborative contract management approaches in place between ECC, NHS partners, Medequip and people receiving support from the provider.​
  • Strengthen links to Care Tech contract​
  • Regular horizon scanning to ensure catalogue keeps pack with improvements to equipment design and supply​

 

7 Year Delivery Plan by 2030​

Description:​

Further contractual round​

Key Milestones:​

  • Project plan in place for the next contractual round due 2028​
  • New contract in place and delivering​
  • Secure and robust partnership agreement​

Workforce recruitment and retention

  • To ensure workforce during transfer to new provider

Capacity and demand management

  • Having a better management intelligence in place to support demand and capacity

Delivering good quality services

  • To ensure there are monitoring mechanisms in place

Integration with Health

  • Secured via S75 with NHS partners

Climate and Environment

  • Zero to landfill policy and driven through social value in procurement
Last updated: 17/08/2023
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