Welcome to the July 2026 policy updates. Please note policies are rapidly changing to a new format. Quality Statements are evidenced clearly at the start of the policy, and a detailed Procedures section has been clearly separated out in the policies. For structured details on these policy updates, please see this>
This article will be updated throughout July.
Safe Handling & Administration of Medicines Policy
Change Classification: MODERATE
This update merges two separate policies (residential and community) into a single combined policy covering both settings, restructures the document to the 7-section format, strips out content duplicated in the Management of Medicines Policy, and repositions the policy as a focused frontline administration guide. The 6Rs have been updated to the 7Rs throughout.
Released 1 July
Homely Remedies Policy
Change Classification: MAJOR
This update merges two separate policies (residential and community) into a single combined policy, restructures the document to the 7-section format, removes content duplicated in the Management of Medicines and Safe Handling policies, adds a proper procedures section, and updates the 6Rs to 7Rs.
Released 1 July
Medicines Requiring Refrigeration Storage Policy
Change Classification: MAJOR
This update expands a residential-only policy to cover both residential and community settings, restructures the document to the 7-section format, and adds four step-by-step procedures including a fridge failure escalation process for both settings.
Released 1 July
Care & Support Staff Work Allocation Policy
Change Classification: MAJOR
This update merges two separate policies (residential and community) into a single combined policy covering both settings, restructures the document to the 7-section format, adds three step-by-step procedures, removes three personalised fields that contained operational data unsuitable for a policy document, and corrects two Skills for Care URLs that had been restructured.
Released 1 July
Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Policy (England — residential)
Change Classification: MAJOR
Reason for update: To reflect the UK Supreme Court judgment of 2 June 2026, which changed the legal definition of a deprivation of liberty with immediate effect across the UK.
This update replaces the core legal test for identifying a deprivation of liberty and changes how staff and the Registered Manager must assess it. The previous version applied the single "acid test" from the 2014 Cheshire West judgment; the new version applies the multifactorial assessment established by the Supreme Court on 2 June 2026, introduces the concept of valid consent for people who lack capacity, adds procedures and role duties, and requires review of existing DoLS authorisations. As the change affects how staff must act, it is classified MAJOR.
Released 16 July
Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Policy (England — community)
Change Classification: MAJOR
Reason for update: To reflect the UK Supreme Court judgment of 2 June 2026, which changed the legal definition of a deprivation of liberty with immediate effect across the UK.
This update replaces the core legal test for identifying a deprivation of liberty in community settings and changes how staff and the Registered Manager must assess and escalate it. The previous version applied the single "acid test" from the 2014 Cheshire West judgment; the new version applies the multifactorial assessment established by the Supreme Court on 2 June 2026, introduces valid consent, adds a procedure and role duties, and requires review of existing Court of Protection authorisations. The community authorisation route (Court of Protection, not DoLS) is unchanged. As the change affects how staff must act, it is classified MAJOR.
Released 16 July
Network Security Policy
Change Classification: MAJOR
Two separate setting-specific policies have been consolidated into a single Network Security Policy covering community and residential services with equal weight. The document has been restructured into the standard seven-section format, the regulatory framing has been modernised from the old "Single Assessment Framework Topics" list to full quality statements with relevance notes, a new step-by-step procedures section has been added, and all personalised fields have been removed. These are structural and regulatory changes affecting how staff locate and act on the policy, so this is classified MAJOR.
Released 16 July
Dysphagia and Risk of Choking
Change Classification: MAJOR
Two separate setting-specific policies have been consolidated into a single policy covering community and residential services with equal weight. The document has been restructured into the standard seven-section format, the regulatory framing modernised from Key Lines of Enquiry and the "Single Assessment Framework Topics" list to full quality statements with relevance notes, a new step-by-step procedures section added, the equality statement corrected, an outdated COVID-19 section removed, embedded copyrighted images replaced with text and links, and all personalised fields removed. These are structural and regulatory changes affecting how staff locate and act on the policy, so this is classified MAJOR.
Released 16 July