Health and social work services

Tender description

West Berkshire Council requires the following Adult Social Care services, that are separated into 7 lots: Healthwatch, NHS Complaints, learning disability partnership board, independent mental health advocacy, independent mental capacity advocacy, safeguarding advocacy, care act advocacy. Part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 established Healthwatch England at the national level and requires local authorities to establish Local Healthwatch in their areas. Local Healthwatch is at the heart of a health and care service that is centred on patients, service users and carers. The Healthwatch Services for West Berkshire will be the independent consumer champion for patients, all those using health and social care services and carers, as well as the wider public, ensuring that the views and feedback from patients, service users and carers are an integral part of local commissioning across health and social care. To provide West Berkshire’s independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service ensuring that independent advocacy skills are used to provide practical support and direction to people, in order to assist them in finding a resolution to their complaint about health services. The service is made up of 2 elements: — independent mental capacity advocacy service: an Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) service which will provide independent support to and represent any individual who is assessed as lacking the capacity to make decisions for themselves as per the mental capacity Act 2005 and associated regulations /codes of practice. Within the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) this service is provided to the “relevant person” (who may be subject to DOLS), defined as a person who is, or may become, deprived of their liberty in a hospital or care home. — Paid representative service: the paid representative service provides support to individuals who have a standard authorisation granted under the mental capacity Act 2005 deprivation of liberty safeguards. Where there is no one available to be their relevant person’s representative public bodies must ensure that a paid representative is available to support the person, advise them of their rights, and potentially support them to request a review or an appeal to the Court of Protection. Under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) certain people, known as “qualifying patients”, are entitled to the help and support from an independent mental health advocate Section 117 of the MHA places a duty on the NHS and local authorities to provide aftercare and this will usually involve a joint assessment (often under the Care Programme Approach) including an assessment of the person’s care and support needs, a care and support or support plan and subsequent review (which may reach a decision that a person is no longer in need of aftercare). The safeguarding advocacy will deliver services to individuals identified by the West Berkshire Safeguarding Team and arrange, where appropriate, for an independent advocate to represent and support an adult who is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry or Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) and where there is no other suitable person to represent and support them. The care act advocacy will deliver services to individuals identified by the West Berkshire Social Services Teams and arrange, where appropriate, for an independent advocate to represent and support an adult where the adult has “substantial difficulty” in being involved in the process and where there is no other suitable person to represent and support them. To facilitate the West Berkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board. This group will have genuine influence and achieve positive change in the lives of people with learning disabilities in West Berkshire. This service will also be responsible for monitoring grants for projects to a predetermined value that support people with a learning disability on behalf of the learning disability partnership board and West Berkshire Council Social Services.