Communication Matters’ Trustees have written to Yvette Cooper MP, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in response to the UK Supreme Court 2026 judgment on what constitutes a deprivation of liberty and revised definition and associated processes.
The recent judgment has led to changes to the framework surrounding Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) and the move away from the Cheshire West “acid test” towards a more holistic, multifactorial assessment.
The Trustees highlight the implications of these changes for people with complex communication needs, particularly those who rely on AAC, and recommend that any updated guidance and implementation frameworks explicitly recognise the communication rights of people who use AAC and includes clear safeguards to ensure that their wishes and feelings can be identified, expressed and appropriately weighted in decision-making processes.
Trustees highlight specific concerns under the following headings:
- Risk of “compliance being misinterpreted as consent”
- Impact of the move to a multifactorial assessment model
- Equality Act 2010 and the duty to make reasonable adjustments
- Anticipated transition to Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS)
- The need for explicit recognition of AAC: including the following recommendations:
CM Trustees Recommendations
Across all aspects of DoL assessment and decision-making, it is essential that AAC is recognised as a core component of enabling participation. This includes:
- Ensuring access to appropriate AAC tools, resources and strategies.
- Ensuring powered AAC resources are charged and ready for use.
- Checking the AAC user has the appropriate vocabulary for the scenario to be discussed.
- Allowing the AAC user to have a familiar trained communication partner with them, for instance family member or a member of their own support team.
- Involving professionals with expertise in communication support where needed, including technical knowledge of supporting AAC users.
- Allowing sufficient time for communication, including providing an AAC user with processing, thinking and input time, which may include providing all the information needed to make a decision and then coming back at an agreed time to discuss the decision.
- Recognising non-verbal expressions of preference, dissent, or distress, including gesture, body language, facial expression and eye movement.
- Ensuring there is privacy for the AAC user to discuss their options both with family and their support teams and then with professionals. This means providing a suitable space for these discussions.
CM Trustees cautioned that failure to apply the above recommendations, “risks systemic inequity for people who cannot rely on speech, undermining both legal protections and ethical practice.
“Further to this, we would like to see greater recognition of restriction to technology access, especially AAC and other disability aids, as a deprivation of liberty.”
