Independent Care Act Advocacy
Care Act Advocates are specially trained to help people understand their rights under the Care Act 2014. They provide support throughout a range of processes, including care assessments, care reviews, care planning, and safeguarding. This also includes guidance during key transitions, such as moving from children’s to adults’ services, as well as support with young person’s assessments and carers’ assessments.
Who might need this service?
Care Act Advocates provide support to adults who need care, carers, and children transitioning to adult care services. Their role is to assist people who find it difficult to navigate the social care process to understand their rights, and ensure that those without someone to speak on their behalf remain involved in their care.
Care Act Advocacy is a statutory service. This means that under the Care Act, local authorities must involve people in decisions about their care and support needs. They must also make referrals to the service if someone needs an advocate.
An Independent Care Act Advocate must be arranged if:
- The person has ‘substantial difficulty’ being involved in the social care process. This might mean that they find it difficult to understand or retain information, weigh up options, or communicate their views, wishes and feelings.
- The person has no-one else to support them. This means they don’t have a family member or friend who they want to support them and who can help them be properly involved in what is happening. Someone who is paid (for example, a support worker or a social worker) cannot provide this support as they are not independent.
A Care Act Advocate can help by:
- Talking to people about the social care process, how it works, and what they want from it.
- Assisting people to understand their rights and how to exercise them.
- Supporting people to be involved in the social care process.
- Helping individuals to voice their views, wishes and feelings about their care and support needs.
- Assisting people to access their care and support records, or accessing them on their behalf.
If people can’t tell their advocate what they want, it’s not a problem. Our advocates will find different ways of working to help establish people’s views and wishes as far as possible so that their rights can be upheld. We call this ‘non-instructed’ advocacy.
Who can make a referral?
A social worker or someone from the Local Authority (with the person’s consent wherever possible) can make a referral for a Care Act Advocate.
Not the right type of advocacy for you?
