Advocacy is an important tool to help people to be listened to and to have their rights and choices respected. Advocates work alongside individuals and are on that person's side. There are many different types of advocacy, both statutory and non-statutory. All follow the same key principles including independence, empowerment, equality and accessibility.
Advocacy is important because it helps individuals understand what is happening, access services and challenge when things don't go the way they want them to.
Advocacy in Safeguarding
There are two types of statutory advocacy within Safeguarding Adults; Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) which is defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and secondly Care Act Advocacy as defined by the Care Act 2014. Both types of advocacy have a vital role in ensuring the person's feelings, wishes, values and beliefs are kept central to the Safeguarding Adults process.
NHS and Local Authority professionals have the power to instruct an IMCA if there is a safeguarding enquiry or review and the person has been deemed to lack capacity to consent to protective measures which are being proposed or may have already been taken.
The NHS and Local Authority have a duty to appoint a Care Act Advocate if a person is subject to a safeguarding enquiry or review AND they have substantial difficulty engaging in that process AND they have no family or friends who are appropriate to support the person to engage.
For more information on the types of advocacy or to make a referral please visit www.peoplefirstcumbria.co.uk and also telephone 03003 038 037 for information and support.
How Do Advocates Work?
A Care Act Advocate and an IMCA have different roles within Safeguarding Adults and will both work in different ways depending on whether the person is able to give the advocate instructions. This is called instructed and non-instructed advocacy.
IMCA
An IMCA will work under the instruction of the person who will make the decision on the person's behalf.
Care Act Advocate
The Care Act Advocacy role is broader and where the person is able to give instructions, the advocate will support the person to:
understand and engage in the process
understand their rights and choices
tell people what is important to them.
If the person is able to give instructions, the advocate will need consent from the person to attend any meetings on their behalf and this includes strategy meetings. This is because the advocacy relationship is built on trust and advocates should not be given information if the information is not being shared with the person.
When a Care Act Advocate works as a non-instructed advocate, the advocate will work in a similar way to the IMCA by gathering the person's feelings, wishes, values and beliefs. However the Care Act advocate will support the person to engage in all aspects of the safeguarding process rather than just the protective measures.
The next table summarises both Care Act Advocacy and IMCA eligibility criteria.
Independent Advocate (Care Act)
IMCA
Individual subject of a safeguarding enquiry or review AND substantial difficulty in being involved in the safeguarding enquiry or review AND nobody appropriate to support individual to engage and/or represent individuals feelings, wishes and values.
NHS or LA proposes to take or has taken protective measures AND individual lacks capacity to consent to protective measures AND NHS/LA considers IMCA involvement of benefit including whether family members / friends implicated in safeguarding.
There are times in Safeguarding Adults when a person may be eligible for both IMCA and Care Act Advocacy. The Care Act 2014 Guidance states 'Where an independent advocate has already been arranged under section 67 Care Act Order or under the Mental Capacity Act, unless inappropriate, the same advocate should be used'. 7.24 Below are some case examples
Care Act Advocacy and IMCA in Cumbria
People First has been providing independent advocacy in Cumbria for over 25 years and are the providers commissioned by Cumbria County Council to provide both Care Act Advocacy and IMCA in Cumbria. To make a referral or for more information, please visit www.peoplefirstcumbria.co.uk
