Social Care Advocacy contract extension by a year Impact Assessment – October 2022

This is an assessment of the impact of the decision to add an additional year to the combined contract for Adults and Children’s Social Care Advocacy, a single contract divided into separate Adults ’and a Children’s contractual Lots, which are tendered using a single procurement process and timetable. This is an assessment of the decision to add an additional year to the current contract as a means of dealing with the implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS)which may take place from 1 October 2023, pending a national decision on implementation. The Adults ’Lot covers the following types of advocacy provision: Care Act, Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) and Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA). The contract originally also covered non-statutory general social care advocacy, but that has not been provided for the last three years due to capacity and the need to prioritise statutory referrals. The Lot also includes a small element of NHS Devon Health Complains Advocacy, which comes under a completely different legislative framework to the statutory social care advocacy listed above.

2The Children’s Lot covers: Issue-based advocacy for children in care, care leavers, children and young people wishing to make a complaint or representation about a health or social care service that they receive, and children subject to child protection proceedings; advocacy for children in the Atkinson Secure Unit, Independent Person provision for Atkinson residents, Regulation 44 Visitors to the Atkinson Unit; and Independent Visitors for Children in Care.