Advocacy Service for Adults

North Somerset Council is looking for a provider who has the suitable skills and experience to deliver advocacy under the Care Act. The contract will allow the provider the ability to sub-contract. This in turn will allow the provider to deliver specialist advocacy requirements.

Within this contract the provider will supply the following advocacy services:

• Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA)
Independent mental capacity advocates who are available to represent people who lack capacity to make decisions about serious medical treatment, the provision of or change of accommodation, where there are no relatives or friends to act on their behalf. This will also include the provision of Paid Representatives for those people who are deprived of their liberty.

• Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA)
Independent mental health advocates aim is to enable residents to participate in decisions about their care and treatment.

• NHS Complaints Advocates (IHCA)
Providing support to people wishing to make a complaint about services from the NHS. This service is a statutory duty under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and is funded as one element of the Local Reform and Community Voices Grant received by the Council. .

• Independent Advocacy (ICCA)
Provide independent advocacy to eligible residents from the first point of contact with the local authority through to any subsequent stage of the assessment, planning, care review, safeguarding enquiry or safeguarding adult review.

• Paid Representatives
The purpose is to provide a paid relevant person’s representative service for people deprived of their liberty subject to standard authorisations under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

• Nearest Relative
A nearest relative can do various things in connection with a person’s care and treatment. If a person has a mental disorder the nearest relative can ask for you to be detained (kept) in hospital if they think the person needs to be in hospital.
The nearest relative can also make an application for the person to be put on guardianship, if two doctors agree.
If a person does not have a nearest relative, or no one can work out who your nearest relative is, a person can ask the county court to make someone your nearest relative.

The service provider will support the council in meeting its aims and objectives in ensuring that people and carers are involved in decisions about their care and support. The council’s objective is to ensure that people and carers understand how they can be involved, how they can contribute and take part, in some cases, how they can lead or direct the process. The service provider will deliver advocacy under the Care Act 2014 in accordance with the Care Act statutory guidance.

The Provider is required to accept and commence all new advocacy cases from the Commencement Date of the Contract. All existing advocacy cases will be transferred to the Provider from the Commencement Date of the contract. A proposed timetable is requested as part of the Method Statement questions.

This procurement falls under the Light Touch Regime as detailed within the Public Regulations 2015 and as such we will be running an ‘Open’ style tender with the option to move to a presentation/negotiation stage. Therefore all providers will be able to submit a full tender (quality and price). If the evaluation panel chooses to move to the second stage of a presentation/negotiation we intend to invite the three top scoring providers based on their overall Quality/Price score. However should the evaluation panel be satisfied that a provider has met all of the requirements in their initial tender submission, the panel may choose not to move to the second stage.

In order for a provider to be considered for this stage, they must have passed all of the Pass/Fail sections AND met the minimum standard requirement in this tender for their quality submission (method statements), which has been set at 50%. Failure to meet the minimum score of 50% for the method statements will disqualify the provider from the process and they will not be eligible for shortlisting or contract award should we not progress to the second stage.

For a more detailed specification, please register your interest in this procurement.