HSC England July 2026 release notes

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 was updated throughout July.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This update restructures the policy into the standard seven-section format and reorganises existing content accordingly. It makes the day-one right to request flexible working explicit, corrects the equality statement to the approved wording, adds a Regulatory Links section, formalises the procedures, and adds a clearly-labelled account of the flexible working reforms in the Employment Rights Act 2025 expected in 2027. Because the change involves structural reorganisation, new sections, and regulatory additions, it is classified MAJOR.

Released 22 July

The policy has been restructured from a headed but unnumbered format into the standard seven-section structure, with content relocated and consolidated accordingly. A full terminology shift from "service users" to "people we support" has been applied throughout, and as a result the policy title has changed from "Access to Service Users' Homes Policy" to "Access to People's Homes Policy". Further changes include expansion of the regulatory links, relocation of the CQC quality statements into Section 1, a new roles-and-responsibilities section, recording requirements added to every procedure, and the removal of all personalised fields. Because the update involves structural change, new content that affects how staff act, and regulatory expansion, it is classified at the highest level present.

Released 22 July

This update merges the residential and community advocacy policies into one combined policy and restructures it into the seven-section format. It adds a full set of step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant CQC quality statements in Section 1, and corrects the equality statement to the required wording. The organisation’s underlying advocacy commitments are unchanged; the change is structural and presentational rather than a change of position.

Released 22 July

This update merges the residential and community social media policies into one combined policy and restructures it into the seven-section format. It adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, and reduces the personalised fields from three to one. Staff conduct expectations are carried forward and clarified.

Released 22 July

This update merges the residential and community social value policies into one combined policy and restructures it into the seven-section format. Where practice genuinely differs between settings, the content is now presented in paired residential and community callouts of equal weight. The update adds procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements, corrects the equality statement, and removes the premises-lease personalised field in favour of fixed text.

Released 22 July

This update merges the two prior versions into one combined policy and restructures it into the seven-section format. Most significantly, it updates the clinical content from the Resuscitation Council UK 2021 guidelines to the 2025 guidelines (published October 2025), which change the order of the resuscitation sequence and the infant compression technique. The four reproduced 2021 guideline diagrams have been removed and replaced with plain-English description and links to the live RCUK 2025 algorithms. The permitted-action personalised field is removed.

Released 22 July