Health services

Tender description

Cumbria County Council is required to provide formal advocacy to vulnerable people under specific circumstances, as part of ensuring people have a full say in decisions affecting them when they interact with statutory agencies. Such services are free at the point of delivery, and must be distinguished from general advice and information services. The Advocacy Charter provides a national industry standard for independent advocacy, and defines advocacy as follows: Advocacy is taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests, and obtain the services they need. Advocates and advocacy providers work in partnership with the people they support and take their side. Advocacy promotes social inclusion, equality and social justice. Statutory Advocacy in Cumbria is currently provided via 5 separate contracts. The council is now looking to consolidate contract arrangements in order to achieve better value for money and meet the challenge of providing Care Act advocacy within the county. New contractual arrangements shall run from 1.4.2016 -31.3.2020. There are four types of statutory advocacy within Lot 1: o Care Act Advocacy. The Care Act 2014 extends the current range of situations and people to whom there is a duty to make advocacy available on a statutory basis. Local authorities must ensure access to independent advocacy, as part of an overall duty to involve Carers and Service Users in all key aspects of their statutory assessments, plus any subsequent review or care planning processes. Involvement means supporting adults to contribute and take part in processes relevant to them, where there is substantial difficulty for the individual in accomplishing this and no other suitable person to represent and support them. o Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA). The remit of the IMCA service is specified as part of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The role is to provide independent safeguards for people who lack capacity who are making important decisions and have no one else to represent or support them apart from paid staff. o Healthwatch is a system to enable the consumers' voice to be heard in decisions about Health and Social Care and may be described as population based advocacy. Cumbria is looking to expand the scope and reach of in future. o NHS Complaints (IAS) This service supports individuals with NHS complaints. Referrals to this service are to some extent influenced by customer satisfaction both with the NHS and NHS support and complaints mechanisms. Lot 2- contains 1 type of statutory advocacy: o Independent Mental Health Act Advocacy (IMHA) is a statutory advocate, granted specific roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 to enable people to understand the legal provisions to which they are subject under the Act and the rights and safeguards to which they are entitled. In Cumbria the auto -referral route for referrals is in operation, in line with national best practice.