Devon County Council will receive £90.5K per year to commission the IMCA service, from 1st April 2007. Torbay has contributed its allocation of £22.5K into a joint commissioning arrangement for a Devon and Torbay IMCA service.

The IMCA service is explicitly decision specific (for example, the Advocate will only intervene in relation to the specific health or social care decision), subsequently submitting a formal report and recommendations to the relevant decision maker. Decision makers do not have a duty to follow an IMCA recommendation.

The Seven Department of Health IMCA pilots have identified the breakdown of referrals as:

45% people with dementia
45% people with learning disabailities
8% head injury/stroke
2% adults of working age with mental health difficulties.

The average referral takes eight hours of IMCA time.

Guidance on using the Devon and Torbay Independant Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) service

IMCA Service Leaflet (26KB - pdf help)