The short answer
- The test changed in June 2026The Supreme Court dropped the single "acid test". Whether someone is deprived of their liberty now depends on their whole situation, including whether they object.
- Try the least restrictive option firstCompany, routine and a door sensor come before a locked door. Each step up needs a better reason and more people involved.
- At home, the Court of Protection decidesDoLS covers care homes and hospitals only. At home, a deprivation of liberty needs a court order, and the council usually applies.
- Talk to the council before it becomes routineA social worker can assess the arrangements, suggest something less restrictive and start a court application if one is needed.
This page covers England and Wales, under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own laws. It explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice: the section on what the family does says when to see a solicitor.
What it means
What a deprivation of liberty is, and how the test changed in 2026
A deprivation of liberty is more than a restriction. It is being confined, for a real length of time, in a way the person has not validly agreed to. Where exactly that line falls was settled one way in 2014 and changed on 2 June 2026.
Everything on this page starts with capacity. If your relative can understand, weigh up and communicate a decision about where they live and what care they have, the decision is theirs, and the rules below do not apply to them. How mental capacity is assessed explains how that is tested, one decision at a time. This page is for the family whose relative can no longer make that decision. It sits in the legal section of our elderly care guides.
The Mental Capacity Act allows people to care for somebody who lacks capacity, in their best interests, without asking a court each time. It does not allow anyone to deprive them of their liberty. Section 4A of the Act says so in its first line, and then sets out the exceptions: an order from the Court of Protection, or an authorisation under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) in a care home or hospital.
The acid test, 2014 to 2026Section titled The%20acid%20test%2C%202014%20to%202026
In 2014 the Supreme Court decided a case called Cheshire West. It said the "acid test" for a deprivation of liberty was whether a person was under continuous supervision and control and was not free to leave. If someone lacked capacity to consent to their care arrangements and those two things were true, they were deprived of their liberty, however content they seemed.
The multifactorial test since June 2026Section titled The%20multifactorial%20test%20since%20June%202026
On 2 June 2026 the Supreme Court overruled Cheshire West, in a unanimous judgment on a reference from Northern Ireland. It held that there is no single acid test. Whether somebody is deprived of their liberty is now a judgement about their whole situation, and no single factor decides it. The Department of Health and Social Care has published guidance on the change, which says it applies with immediate effect across the UK.
The kind of restriction and how long it lasts
Type, duration, manner
Whether they object
Wishes and feelings
How ordinary the setting is
Normality
Why it is being done
Purpose
What their condition already limits
Innate limits
The biggest change concerns consent. Before, lacking capacity meant a person could not consent to their care arrangements. The court now says that someone who lacks capacity in law, but has a basic awareness of their living arrangements and can show whether they are happy or unhappy with them, can give or withhold consent through their wishes and feelings. Where there is serious doubt about what they feel, no consent should be assumed.
For a family, this means a settled parent who is content at home with a carer may no longer count as deprived of their liberty, where under the old test they would have. A parent who keeps trying to leave, or who is upset by a locked door, is still very much the case the law is concerned with. The government has asked councils to plan reviews of existing cases against the new test, so if your relative already has a court order or an application in progress, ask the social worker what the change means for them.
Least to most restrictive
From least to most restrictive, and who has to be involved at each step
Any decision made for someone who lacks capacity has to be in their best interests, and the person making it has to consider whether the same aim can be met in a way that restricts them less. The ladder below starts at the bottom and shows how each step up needs a better reason and more people involved.
Least restrictive
Changes that support rather than stop
- A daily walk at the time they usually want to go out
- Clear signs on doors, better lighting, a calendar clock
- Company through the restless part of the afternoon
- An identity card or bracelet in a coat pocket
Who needs to be involved
You, your relative and any carer. Ask your relative first and go with what they say where you can.
What the law asks
Nothing is being taken away, so no formal decision is needed.
Watching, without stopping
Alarms, sensors and trackers
- A door sensor that alerts you or a carer when the front door opens
- A bed or chair sensor at night
- A pendant alarm or a location tracker when they go out
Who needs to be involved
Your relative, if they can agree to it. If they cannot, a best interests decision by the attorney, deputy or the family and professionals together, written down.
What the law asks
Monitoring does not restrain anyone on its own, but it touches their privacy, so it still needs their agreement or a best interests decision.
Restraint, used occasionally
Steering, holding back, rails and locks while someone is there
- Guiding them away from the door and back into the house
- Bed rails to stop them getting up alone at night
- The front door locked for a short time while you or a carer are in the house
Who needs to be involved
A best interests decision, recorded in the care plan, with the council's social worker or the GP asked for advice if it becomes routine.
What the law asks
This is restraint under section 6 of the Mental Capacity Act. It is lawful only if it is needed to prevent harm to your relative and is in proportion to how likely and how serious that harm is.
Controlling measures
Medicines given without their knowledge, or to calm them
- Tablets crushed into food or drink without telling them
- Medication used to manage behaviour rather than to treat an illness
Who needs to be involved
The GP or prescriber, a pharmacist on how to do it safely, and a best interests meeting that includes the family. The decision is written down and reviewed.
What the law asks
NICE guidance says a care worker must not give medicines covertly without clear authorisation and instructions in the care plan, in line with the Mental Capacity Act.
Most restrictive
Watched all the time and stopped from leaving
- Somebody with them day and night, deciding where they go
- The door kept locked and they are brought back if they try to leave
- They object to the arrangement, or nobody can tell whether they accept it
Who needs to be involved
The council's social worker, and a solicitor if there is disagreement. If it amounts to a deprivation of liberty, only an order from the Court of Protection can authorise it at home.
What the law asks
Whether it is a deprivation of liberty is now judged on the whole situation, including whether your relative objects. Nobody in the family, an attorney included, can authorise it themselves.
The lower rungs are where most of the useful work gets done. If your relative leaves the house because they are looking for somewhere or someone, going with them on a walk at that time of day meets the need behind it, which a lock does not. When someone with dementia keeps leaving the house covers the reasons people leave and what to try at each stage, and making the home dementia-friendly covers the lighting, signs and layout that help somebody find their way without needing to be stopped.
Sensors and trackers are a step up because they watch somebody. Ask your relative whether they mind one while they can still tell you, and write down what they said. Pendant alarms and sensors compares the kinds available.
Restraint in the law is wider than people expect. Section 6 of the Mental Capacity Act counts anything that restricts a person's liberty of movement as restraint, whether they resist or not, as well as using or threatening force to make them do something they resist. So a bed rail that stops them getting up, or a hand on the arm steering them back from the front door, is restraint. It is lawful only when the person doing it reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent harm to your relative, and it is in proportion to how likely and how serious that harm is.
Hidden medicines need their own process. NICE guidance on managing medicines for people receiving social care at home says care workers must not give medicines covertly unless there is clear authorisation and instructions in the care plan, in line with the Mental Capacity Act. The decision should involve the prescriber, a best interests meeting, a pharmacist's advice and a date to review it. Can a private carer give medication? covers the everyday rules.
What the family does
What to do if the care at home has started to restrict your relative
Keeping your relative safe is not wrong. The decisions made for them now need to be careful and written down, and near the top of the ladder, checked by someone outside the family.
- 1
Talk to the council's adult social care team
FirstAsk for a care needs assessment, or a review if your relative already has one, and say plainly what restrictions are in place. A social worker can assess capacity, look for less restrictive options, and start a court application if the arrangements need one. - 2
Keep a record
From todayWrite down each restriction, when it is used and why, what you tried first, and how your relative reacts. Since June 2026 their objection or contentment is part of the legal test, so this record matters more than it did. - 3
Use the authority you have, and know its limits
If there is an LPA or deputyA health and welfare attorney or deputy makes best interests decisions within their power, and must meet the same conditions before restraining. Neither can authorise a deprivation of liberty. Only the court can. - 4
Get a solicitor if it is disputed or near the top
When neededIf you disagree with the council, the care is private and very restrictive, or your relative objects, see a solicitor who does Court of Protection work.
Ask the council for a care needs assessment and describe the restrictions openly as part of it. The social worker's job is to help you find the least restrictive way of keeping your relative safe, not to take the decision away from you.
Whether you have legal authority depends on what was set up before your relative lost capacity. A registered health and welfare lasting power of attorney lets the attorney make best interests decisions about care. Lasting power of attorney and dementia explains what the two kinds of LPA cover. Section 11 of the Act means an attorney can only restrain, or authorise someone else to, when it is necessary to prevent harm and in proportion. If there is no LPA, being next of kin does not give you authority on its own. The family and professionals decide together, and you can apply to become a deputy if long-term decisions need somebody with that authority. Solicitors' fees for a deputyship application covers the cost.
If the question in front of you is whether your relative should move into a care home against their wishes, that is a related but separate decision. Can an elderly person be forced into care in the UK? covers who decides and how.
What a carer can do
What a paid carer in the house can and cannot do
A carer working in your relative's home is bound by the same law as the family. Section 5 of the Mental Capacity Act protects them when they give care they reasonably believe is in the best interests of somebody who lacks capacity, and section 6 limits that protection when the care involves restraint.
What a carer can do
- Give personal care and support in your relative's best interests, as agreed in the care plan
- Guide or steer your relative away from danger when that is necessary to prevent harm and in proportion to it
- Follow a covert medicines plan only where it has been properly authorised and written into the care plan
- Refuse a request that goes beyond what the law allows, and explain why
What a carer should not do
- Lock your relative in, or leave them locked in alone
- Hide medicines in food or drink without an authorised plan
- Hold or restrain your relative for convenience, or because a task is taking too long
- Agree to a new restriction on the family's say-so without a best interests decision behind it
- Carry on with arrangements they believe amount to an unauthorised deprivation of liberty without raising it
A carer you find through PrimeCarers is self-employed. They are not employed by us, and we do not supervise their work. The client contract says the carer provides the services as agreed with you, including anything written in the care plan, and that the carer keeps their own professional judgement about how the work is done. In practice, that means you agree a care plan with the carer that sets out what your relative needs and what has been decided in their best interests, and the carer works to it. It also means a carer can decline to do something they believe is unlawful.
PrimeCarers does not publish a policy on restraint. Before a carer appears on PrimeCarers we check their identity, their right to work and an enhanced DBS on the Update Service, and they complete an online interview. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask each carer what they know about the Mental Capacity Act and how they would handle your relative trying to leave. Every visit booked through PrimeCarers is insured, by the carer's own policy or by cover PrimeCarers arranges where they do not hold one.
Questions
Questions families ask about deprivation of liberty at home
Not always, but it is restraint in law. Locking the front door briefly while you or a carer are in the house can be lawful if your relative lacks capacity and it is a necessary, proportionate way to prevent harm. Locking them in when they are alone is dangerous and should not happen. If the door is kept locked all the time and your relative wants to leave, talk to the council, because that may need a Court of Protection order.
No. The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards only cover care homes and hospitals. At home, including supported living, a deprivation of liberty has to be authorised by the Court of Protection, usually through an application by the council on form COPDOL11.
Possibly. The Court of Appeal decided in 2016 that privately arranged and funded care at home can still be a deprivation of liberty the state is responsible for. How far that applies to a family arranging carers themselves has not been settled. Tell the council what the arrangements are and take legal advice if they are very restrictive.
No. A health and welfare attorney can make best interests decisions about care, and can agree to restraint only when it is necessary to prevent harm and proportionate. The Mental Capacity Act does not let an attorney, a deputy or anyone in the family authorise a deprivation of liberty. At home only the Court of Protection can.
The court overruled the 2014 Cheshire West "acid test" of continuous supervision and control and not being free to leave. The question is now decided on the whole situation, including whether the person objects and how ordinary the setting is. The government's guidance sets out the change.
No start date has been announced. The government delayed them in April 2023 and said in October 2025 that it would consult on them in the first half of 2026.