diff --git a/.github/workflows/automated-release.yml b/.github/workflows/automated-release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..631ae2ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/automated-release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+name: Automated Release
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+    paths:
+      - "pyproject.toml"
+
+env:
+  REGISTRY: github-standards-hooks
+
+jobs:
+  verify-release-version:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+
+    outputs:
+      tag: ${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }}
+      version: ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
+      requires_release: ${{ steps.version.outputs.requires_release }}
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@8e8c483db84b4bee98b60c0593521ed34d9990e8
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          fetch-tags: true
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@83679a892e2d95755f2dac6acb0bfd1e9ac5d548
+        with:
+          python-version-file: ".python-version"
+
+      - name: Extract version
+        id: extract_version
+        shell: python
+        run: |
+          import os
+          import tomllib
+          with open("pyproject.toml", "rb") as f:
+            contents = tomllib.load(f)
+            version = contents["project"]["version"]
+            with open(os.environ['GITHUB_OUTPUT'], 'a') as fh:
+              fh.write(f"version={version}\n")
+
+      - name: Validate we're on main branch
+        run: |
+          current_branch=$(git branch --show-current)
+          if [ "$current_branch" != "main" ]; then
+            echo "Error: Must be on main branch"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Process version and tag
+        id: version
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          input_version="${{ steps.extract_version.outputs.version }}"
+          clean_version=${input_version#v}
+
+          # Validate version format
+          if ! echo "$clean_version" | grep -E '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$'; then
+            echo "Error: Version must be in format x.x.x (with or without v prefix)"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+          git_tag="v$clean_version"
+          requires_release="true"
+
+          # Check if tag already exists
+          if [ $(git tag -l "$git_tag") ]; then
+            echo "Tag $git_tag already exists"
+            requires_release="false"
+          fi
+
+          echo "version=$clean_version" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "tag=$git_tag" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "requires_release=$requires_release" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "Clean version: $clean_version"
+          echo "Git tag: $git_tag"
+          echo "Requires release: $requires_release"
+
+  # This is a workaround to allow us to pass variables to the push-to-ecr reusable workflow. As that workflow runs in
+  # a separate github runner, the env vars in this file are not available
+  setup:
+    needs: [verify-release-version]
+    if: ${{ needs.verify-release-version.outputs.requires_release == 'true' }}
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+    outputs:
+      REGISTRY: ${{ env.REGISTRY }}
+    steps:
+      - run: echo "All set!"
+
+  build-and-push-latest-image:
+    needs: [setup, verify-release-version]
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      id-token: write
+      packages: write
+      attestations: write
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-and-push-to-ghcr.yml
+    with:
+      image_tags: latest,${{ needs.verify-release-version.outputs.tag }}
+    secrets: inherit
+
+  create-github-release:
+    needs: [setup, verify-release-version, build-and-push-latest-image]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Create tag and GitHub release
+        uses: ncipollo/release-action@b7eabc95ff50cbeeedec83973935c8f306dfcd0b
+        with:
+          tag: ${{ needs.verify-release-version.outputs.tag }}
+          name: ${{ needs.verify-release-version.outputs.tag }}
+          generateReleaseNotes: true
+          makeLatest: true
diff --git a/.github/workflows/create-release.yml b/.github/workflows/create-release.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index d598aab8..00000000
--- a/.github/workflows/create-release.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
-name: Create Release
-
-on:
-  push:
-    branches: ["main"]
-  workflow_dispatch:
-
-permissions:
-  contents: write
-  pull-requests: write
-
-jobs:
-  create-release:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    outputs:
-      tag: ${{ steps.release.outputs.tag_name }}
-      release_created: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
-    steps:
-      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@16a9c90856f42705d54a6fda1823352bdc62cf38
-        id: release
-        with:
-          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-          release-type: python
-          config-file: .release-please-config.json
-          manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json
-
-  build-and-push-latest-image:
-    needs: [create-release]
-    if: ${{ needs.create-release.outputs.release_created }}
-    permissions:
-      contents: read
-      id-token: write
-      packages: write
-      attestations: write
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-and-push-to-ghcr.yml
-    with:
-      image_tags: latest,${{ needs.create-release.outputs.tag }}
-    secrets: inherit
diff --git a/.release-please-config.json b/.release-please-config.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 98037f7e..00000000
--- a/.release-please-config.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "release-type": "python",
-  "include-v-in-tag": true,
-  "skip-github-release": false,
-  "skip-github-pull-request": false,
-  "packages": {
-    ".": {
-      "release-type": "python",
-      "pull-request-header": ":robot: Next release",
-      "pull-request-footer": " ",
-      "extra-files": [
-        {
-          "path": "uv.lock",
-          "type": "toml",
-          "jsonpath": "$.package[?(@.name.value=='github-standards')].version"
-        },
-        {
-          "path": "pyproject.toml",
-          "type": "toml",
-          "jsonpath": "$.project.version"
-        }
-      ]
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 6fde7bb7..00000000
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  ".": "v1.3.1"
-}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d7f170df..369019e6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -79,14 +79,16 @@ The commit-msg hook stage is passes a single parameter, which is the name of the
 
 # Releasing
 
-We are using the release-please GitHub action for controlling releases. A detailed description can be found on the release-please [documentation page](https://github.com/googleapis/release-please).
+There is a github workflow that will automatically create a new docker tag, and a github release when a change to the `version` tag inside the `pyproject.toml` file is detected. When a new version needs to be released:
 
-Any PR merges into the main branch will trigger the creation/update of a release-please managed release PR. This PR can be merged at anytime and will:
+1. Open the `pyproject.toml` file, and update the `version` tag to a new value. We use semantic versioning, see [this article](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-engineering/introduction-semantic-versioning/) for help determining what the new version value should be
+2. Run `uv sync` to ensure the package is set to the correct version
+3. Open a PR into main. Once approved, merging will trigger a new release
 
-- Create a new github release with the next semantic version
-- Update the pyproject.toml file with the latest version
-- Update the .release-please-manifest.json file with the latest version
-- Build and deploy a new docker image
+You will now have:
+
+- A github release using the new version, set to the be the latest version
+- A docker image build and deployed to our [container registry](https://github.com/uktrade/github-standards/pkgs/container/github-standards)
 
 # Usage