Guidance: SCIE commissioning advocacy guide

Under the Care Act, local authorities will have to provide independent advocacy when someone has ‘substantial difficulty’ being involved in the process of care, and does not have an appropriate individual to support them.

The guide is based on good practice in commissioning and sets out principles that local authorities should follow, and also provides a checklist to help assess their current practice. The guide will be formally launched at a SCIE event at the National Children and Adult Social Services Conference, with Jon Rouse of the Department of Health.

This is Version One. SCIE welcomes comments and examples of commissioning practice to inform Version Two which will be published in January 2015. Deadline for comments and examples: 21 November 2014.