Care and Support Advocacy (Care Act)

Do you need help to be involved in decisions about your care needs? An advocate can help you be heard, understand your choices and make your own decisions.

Find out about how an advocate can help you, and who advocates can work with. This page also gives information about the role of an appropriate individual and provides additional resources from the Department of Health.

What will an advocate do?

My plan An advocate can support you to:

Understand what is happening
Understand your choices and make your own decisions
Tell others what you want and about your views and feelings
Make sure you get your rights
Make sure that plans say what you need them to say

Decisions might have been made about you that you are not happy with. Your advocate can help you write a report about the things you don’t like. The advocate will write the report for you if you are not able to.

Easy Read Guide

When can you get care and support advocacy?

Advocacy will be available during:

Your care and support needs assessment	Your care and support planning
Your care and support reviews	And for any safeguarding processes (if someone thinks that you may be unsafe or at risk of harm)

Who can get care and support advocacy?

a range of faces of people we might work with You may be able to work with an advocate if you are:

An adult who needs care and support
A carer of an adult
A carer of a young person who is about to start using adult services
A young person who is about to start using adult services.

AND

You find it very hard to:

Understand what is happening and the choices that you have
Decide what care and support you need
Tell people what you want

AND

You do not have any friends or family available (or who feel able) to support you

Advocacy is available if you live at home, in a care home or hospital, or if you are in prison.

How to get care and support advocacy (Care Act Advocacy)

If you meet the eligibility requirements, you will need to be referred by your local council – adult social services – or other organisations employed by the council to make referrals.

We provide a Care Act Advocacy in the following areas.

If your area is not listed above, it means that we don't provide Care Act Advocacy in your area. Your local council will be able to tell you which organisation offers Care Act Advocacy in your area.

Are you looking for information for a friend or relative?

Some people find making decisions about health and care needs very difficult. The Care Act gives the right for eligible people to get an independent advocate to help them:

understand the care and support process
be actively involved in discussions and make their own decisions about their care and support needs
challenge plans made if they do not take account of the person’s wishes or feelings.

Independent advocacy is available for people who do not have any friends or family (an appropriate individual) available to support and facilitate their active involvement in their own care and support process.

Who can be an Appropriate Individual?

Friends and family who are available (i.e. they live close enough to support the person on a regular basis) and feel able to support them to be fully involved with all of the social care processes.

People who are already providing paid-for care will not be able to support the person in this role.

Your local council will be able to talk to you about what friends and family members can do to support someone fully within their care and support process.

Can someone have an appropriate individual and an advocate?

In some cases, a person may be entitled to an independent advocate even if they have an appropriate individual who is supporting them. This is when:

Someone has been placed in a hospital for over 4 weeks or a care home for over 8 weeks and the local council agrees that it would be in the person’s best interest to have an advocate
There is a disagreement between the local council and the friend or relative who is support a person in their care process and both parties agree it would be beneficial for the person to get an advocate.

Further Information

For more information, please download our information leaflets and poster below:

Care Act Resources - Department of Health

Please note that these factsheets are being updated following publication of revised Care Act Guidance on 18th March. We will update these links as soon as the new factsheets are published.