News
Deprivation of liberty ruling will cut authorisations ‘significantly’, say ministers
Care home providers across the UK must prepare for a major shift in safeguarding practice after the UK Supreme Court overturned the longstanding ‘acid test’ for deprivation of liberty cases, the government has said. Ministers have issued fresh guidance
following last month’s judgment, which ruled that a 2014 judgment wrongly assumed that if someone lacks legal capacity under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, they cannot give valid consent to the arrangements. This had been the basis of care home and
hospital applications under ‘Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards’ to local authorities to confine a person in a setting and had led to a marked rise in assessments and applications. Older people made up the bulk of
individuals who had at least one DoL application completed by local authorities across England in 2024-25, according to the latest government figures. The over 85 age group is the largest group represented in the most recent statistics, with more than four in ten completed applications for this group (42.4 per cent) of the 288,455 total individuals, while more than seven in ten (73.6 per cent) were made for people aged 75 or older. The new government guidance sets out the implications of the ruling, which
requires an assessment of each case based on several factors, including the type, duration, effects and manner of implementation of restrictions on the person. It says the changes are ‘likely to reduce
significantly the number of deprivation of liberty authorisations’. However, in the short term, it adds the
government recognises that a ‘more cautious approach will be needed, with borderline cases referred for review’. The new guidance adds the ruling’s
‘changes to the definition of a deprivation of liberty apply with immediate effect
and extend across the UK’ and calls on organisations to ‘begin aligning their practice with this new legal position’. Registered care home providers or
managers and local authorities should ‘expedite plans’ in the first instance to share the ruling throughout their organisations and ‘upskill their workforce’ in line with the law change, according to the new guidance. The Department of Health and Social
Care (DHSC) said it plans to publish further ‘interim guidance’ in collaboration with a ‘range of stakeholder partners and charities’ including practical case studies.
July 2026
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
