Download SERVICE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE – GUIDANCE NOTES FOR

OUTLINE SERVICE SPECIFICATION
Service
City & Hackney Community Advocacy Service
Commissioner Lead
Lee Salmon
Provider Lead
Not yet specified
Period
1st April 2012 – 31st March 2015 (to be reviewed yearly)
1. Purpose
“Advocacy is taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their
interests and obtain services they need. Advocates and advocacy schemes work in partnership with the
people they support and take their side. Advocacy promotes social inclusion, equality and social justice.”
Advocacy Charter 2002
London Borough of Hackney and its partners are committed to and are aware of the value, need and
benefit of independent advocacy for the most vulnerable in our community and wish to commission
services which support and enables people to be in control of their lives
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This service will commence in April 2012 and will:
Focus on early access for people who do not meet critical and substantial Fair Access to Care Services
(FACS) criteria.
Facilitate self-help and early intervention by promoting effective access to support services.
Operate as an umbrella service to provide the widest reach, promote social inclusion, equity and high
quality services across all communities. By monitoring, uptake of the service by cultural diversity group
and client group.
Deliver 13000 hours of support per annum. We expect that these hours are delivered equitably
according to need and demographic trend.
The overall aim is to commission a consortia or lead organisation to deliver a Community Advocacy
Service with a single point of entry into an overarching advocacy service for anybody requiring advocacy
support across City & Hackney, with access to more specialised services if required.
Commissioners are keen to promote personalisation with greater choice and control for people in the
way in which health and social care services are delivered. This encompasses providing good quality
advocacy services, which will support people to make decisions about their treatment, care and support.
Equally, there is a shared commitment to prevention and early intervention. An aim of this service is that
people who do not use care services but require additional support and advocacy are able to access it
easily and thus able to prevent their circumstances worsening.
Commissioners will require a service which is innovative and flexible to the needs of people irrespective
of whether or not they have a personal budget and which encourages the exercising of choice for those
service users and carers being offered their own personal budget or direct payment. This specification
recognises the fundamental move away from traditional forms of service provision.
By commissioners and providers working together we are aiming to achieve:
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greater co-ordination of services for users
reduction in duplicated services
efficiencies for commissioning organisations and providers
increased sharing of best practice
development of common protocols
clear and consistent quality standards
Although a single contract the focus of the following specification will be advocacy. The main objectives
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of the service will include:
1. One-to-one time limited issue based advocacy
2. Supporting individuals to develop a range of natural supports, including self-advocacy to assist
them towards independence and social inclusion
3. Satisfactory resolution of disputes with statutory agencies
4. Residents are supported to address disputes etc with providers
5. Assessment at the single point of entry and redirecting to more appropriate services where
required
6. Promoting access to the service in a range of settings
7. Marketing the service appropriately to reach priority, targeted groups
The City & Hackney Community Advocacy Service will be commissioned on the basis of an ‘hours of
support’ approach which will extend across both the consortia or lead organisation and sub-contracted
or spot purchased services. There will be an even distribution of commissioned services across the
range of local providers.
2. Objectives
2.1. Objectives for the lead organisation
The service provider(s) will ensure that the services delivered promote improved health and wellbeing,
promote independence, are personalised, meet peoples diverse needs, are socially inclusive and
safeguard vulnerable adults.
The service will be underpinned by the values of self-management, individual choice and control, care
and support closest to home, working and learning together.
The Service will support the following principles, which are based on The Advocacy Charter for
Advocacy Schemes ten key principles of Advocacy.
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Clarity of Purpose
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Independence
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Putting People First
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Empowerment
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Equal Opportunity
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Accessibility
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Accountability
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Supporting Advocates
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Confidentiality
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Complaints
In the first instance the lead organisation will take responsibility for developing and maintaining
professional relationships through consortium working with directly sub contracted or spot purchasing
providers. Where appropriate, the methodology ‘payment by results’ will be used to purchase/deliver
services. It should respond and support organisations to provide the highest quality services and ensure
advocacy services cover the scope of the borough of Hackney with a presence in the City.
The lead organisation will appropriately provide or sub contract services at all times taking into
consideration the proportionate distribution of Hackney’s diverse communities to ensure equity of
service.
It will necessarily have to work to create partnership relationships, including pathway working, with a
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wide range of public, voluntary and independent organisations to ensure year-on-year improvement in
the quality of advocacy services.
2.2. Objectives for spot purchased or subcontracted services
Spot purchased or subcontracted services will be responsible for developing and maintaining services in
line with the vision and ethos of national and local advocacy strategies and the service as described in
this specification. They will be responsible for all contractual and other arrangements with the lead
organisation.
2.3. Overall objectives
To develop and run an independent advocacy project which will provide the scope of support and
assistance required by residents who need additional advice and representation to that which is
generally available, as well as for service users to navigate self- directed care and have satisfactory
problem resolution
Services will ensure they comply with locality policies and procedures, with particular regard to
encouraging people to be as involved as possible in planning and care decisions and to ensure the
needs and circumstances of individual are made visible in the policy, practice and service provision of
statutory, independent and third sector organisations. Services will ensure they build partnering
relationships / pathway working with statutory health and social care services, particularly with locality
GPs.
3. Service to be commissioned
The service will provide an independent community advocacy service as follows:
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Targeted promotion and information on advocacy provision which is culturally appropriate to Hackney’s
diverse communities.
Initial assessment and referral to other services as required
Promote access to the service for service users in a range of settings. The service will have an
administrative base in Hackney, from which some services will be accessible to people. The base will be
easy to find and will be highly visible to the community. Additionally, the service provider will deliver
services in community based settings, close to people’s homes and close to the services that they use.
The service provider is expected to determine the best way of promoting access for priority and hard-toreach service users. There will also be a web presence, which will be easy to find and to navigate and
get information from.
One-to-one time limited issue based advocacy. This will be delivered through a range of media
(telephone, face-to-face, email) and may, where appropriate be delivered through group advocacy. It is
also likely to take place in a range of settings and may require the advocate to attend appointments with
health and social car professionals such as hospital consultants, social workers, GPs, care co-ordinators
with the service user or on their behalf.
Support in exercising legal rights, e.g. accessing and viewing case records to which a service user is
entitled to access
Support to individuals to develop a range of natural supports, including self-advocacy to assist them
towards independence and social inclusion as an exit and/or alternative.
Support to groups of people – such as users of a service undergoing change – to have a voice through
the process of Personalisation.
The consortia or lead organisation will be responsible for ensuring safe, high quality, non discriminatory
community advocacy provision appropriate to the cultural diversities within Hackney with a presence in
the City by:
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Performance management of the overall budget and contract, and to be the main contact with the
commissioners.
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Ensuring services are subcontracted taking into account the proportionate distribution of Hackney’s
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population across its diverse communities.
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Developing and then maintaining pathway working with health partners & teams such that new referrals
are routinely picked up.
3.1. Accessibility / Acceptability
The service will be to support any adults (18+) across Hackney who need advocacy support to enable
them to be heard, and who ordinarily resident in Hackney and/ or be registered with a GP practice within
the City & Hackney PCT area.
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This includes, but is not restricted to:
adults who have or who are at risk of developing mental health problems,
adults who have learning disabilities or difficulties (including people with autism or Asperger’s
syndrome),
adults who have physical disabilities,
adults who have acquired brain injury,
adults who have sensory impairments,
older people, including those with organic mental health problems,
victims of abuse and subject to a safeguarding investigation.
Often, people will fall into more than one “client group” and the service will provide an advocate who can
best meet their needs.
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The service will provide services for people with different levels of need, and the level of support will vary
dependently. For example:
People with low level needs will be able to access low level short term support. Such as enabling an
individual to access community resources that can support them to remain independent of statutory
services.
People with higher needs who meet local social care eligibility criteria will have access to more intensive
support with their issues.
Advocacy will primarily be provided in relation to social care and health issues which may also address
issues around housing, employment, education or leisure issues, if support with these issues will
promote peoples overall health and wellbeing and will prevent dependence on statutory services.
The consortia/service provider will prioritise access to the service, in conjunction with commissioning
organisations and according to the level of assessed risk, to self and/or others, and statutory
requirements.
The service will be non-discriminatory and meet the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010. The
services will be accessible to the wide diversity of City and Hackney communities such that no individual
will be excluded from accessing services on the grounds of ethnicity, culture, religion, class, gender,
sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status or caring role.
The service will ensure an advocacy service at weekends, to be agreed with commissioners.
The service will offer to visits to individuals at their home only where appropriate.
3.2. Outside the scope of this contract
The following services are not within the scope of this advocacy specification:
 Advocacy for children and young people (under the age of 18)
 Advocacy relating to child protection and child care proceedings
 Advocacy for victims of domestic violence
 Advocacy for those experiencing acute psychotic episodes
 Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA)
 Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA)
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Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS)
Support planning & Brokerage
General advice and information
4. Expected Outcomes
The successfully commissioned consortia or lead organisation will be expected to demonstrate against
the following high level criteria:
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Equity of service delivery
Promotes a needs led approach
Promotes cost efficiency
Promotes reach and balance to all service user groups
Promotes coordination of services
Reduces duplication
Promotes consistent quality standards
The consortia/service provider will maximise the number of service users who:
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Are able to access advocacy, including as a result of statute
Report improved knowledge and understanding of their rights
Whose rights are safeguarded
Are empowered to make informed choices and decisions about their care and treatment and to take
greater control over their lives
Are able to speak for themselves and/or otherwise get their views heard
Are supported to seek resolution of the issue(s) which they sought advocacy for
Are supported to exercise their statutory right to advocacy
Report improved choice and control over the services they receive
Are supported to be involved in service and strategic planning
5. Activity Plan
The successfully commissioned consortia or lead organisation will deliver during the period JanuaryFebruary 2012, a detailed cost and activity plan for the development of the service.
The successfully commissioned consortia or lead organisation will deliver during the period JanuaryFebruary 2012, a detailed cost and activity plan for its agreed subcontracted services.
The successfully commissioned subcontractors will deliver before the end of March 2012 detailed cost
and activity plans.
a. 6. Prices and costs
Detail to be agreed on appointment of consortia or lead organisation, however, this service is to be
commissioned on the basis of an ‘hours of support’ approach which will extend across both the consortia
or lead organisation and all sub-contracted or spot purchased services.
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