Advocacy

These reports generally focus on where the Council has failed to appoint a person an advocate, or when they have failed to sufficiently involve a person’s advocate in it process.

Advocacy is there to help people who will struggle with engaging with Care Act processes, to be heard. The Care Act says that it is a duty and must be provided in certain situations – and then provides for exceptions (where one has someone willing to do it informally and one consents to that happening).

The Council must arrange an independent advocate to facilitate the involvement of the person in their assessment, in the preparation of their care and support plan and in the review of their care if that person will have substantial difficulty in being fully involved in these processes and if there is no other appropriate individual available to support the person. The guidance sets out the role of the advocate and this includes assisting a person to challenge a process or decision by the Council where they are unable to challenge it without assistance.

Warwickshire	Warwickshire Council at fault regarding mental capacity assessments and failure to provide an advocate	18 017 301
Suffolk	Suffolk County Council at fault for carrying out flawed assessments and care plans and preventing a chosen representative from providing support during reviews	17 018 391
Knowsley	Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council at fault for failing to appoint an advocate for a man who lacked mental capacity when his parents could not reach an agreement about his care – and for not being receptive to information about his best interests	19 007 077
Hertfordshire	Hertfordshire County Council at fault for mis-timing MCA assessment and poor records leading to unnecessary delays in decision-making for a service user and carer	19 001 890
Worcestershire	Worcestershire Council at fault for delay in providing care and accommodation, for failure to assess capacity to make decisions, for failure regarding consideration of the need for advocacy, and failure to assess a carer	18 007 624
Lewisham	Lewisham Council at fault for delay in carrying out a care needs assessment; failure to consider the significance of an ASD assessment and failure to retain an Advocate	18 001 147
Hillingdon	London Borough of Hillingdon at fault for failing to ensure the only suitable care home had necessary equipment in place and failing to provide timely access to an advocate	21 017 949
Northumberland	Northumberland County Council at fault for causing considerable distress but not as having contributed to the death of a man subject to flawed safeguarding	22 002 090
Lancashire	Lancashire County Council at fault for lack of information in assessment report and its attempts to involve family in the process	21 016 416