Advocacy Policy Suite (Care Act ss.67-68 | IMCA | IMHA | CQC Regulation 9 | 11 Operational Forms)

Complete CQC-compliant Advocacy documentation suite, built by a practising Registered Manager operating a CQC Good-rated community care service with ISO 9001 and ISO 45001 certification.

What’s included — 4 documents, 11 forms

✔ Policy Template (ADV1) — comprehensive advocacy policy covering independent advocacy access under Care Act 2014 sections 67 and 68, Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) referral under Mental Capacity Act 2005 sections 35–41 for serious medical treatment and accommodation decisions where no appropriate family member or friend is available, Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) provision for qualifying patients under the Mental Health Act 2007, care plan advocacy review integration, confidentiality and information sharing protocols, escalation pathway to local authority and CQC, advocacy outcomes and impact measurement, staff training on advocacy referral routes, cultural and protected-characteristic-aware advocacy provision, and quarterly governance oversight. Fully white-label and editable. Version 3.0.

✔ Excel Forms Workbook (ADV2) — 11 operational forms across 12 tabs (1 Contents index + 11 forms), each in a dedicated worksheet, cross-referenced within the policy body:

1. Advocacy Referral Form (Form 1) — Care Act 2014 sections 67–68 referral documentation, one form per referral, filed in the service user’s record
2. Advocacy Involvement Log (Form 2) — ongoing record of advocate engagement, meetings, and outcomes across the care episode
3. IMCA Referral Form (Form 3) — Mental Capacity Act 2005 sections 35–41 referral for serious medical treatment, long-term accommodation, care reviews, and adult protection
4. IMCA Cooperation Record (Form 4) — documented cooperation with appointed IMCA, including decision-maker consultation and representation
5. Care Plan Advocacy Review Checklist (Form 5) — embedded advocacy consideration at every care plan review
6. Advocacy Training Record (Form 6) — staff training register for Care Act advocacy duties, IMCA referral pathway, IMHA awareness
7. Advocacy Quarterly Audit (Form 7) — 16-criterion quarterly RAG-scored audit under CQC Regulation 17
8. IMHA Referral and Recording (Form 8) — Mental Health Act 2007 qualifying patient IMHA referral
9. Confidentiality Breach Record (Form 9) — UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 breach recording and ICO notification threshold
10. Advocacy Outcomes Record (Form 10) — what difference advocacy made; tracks impact on service user outcomes
11. Service User Advocacy Feedback (Form 11) — direct service user experience of advocacy support

✔ Individual Word Forms (ADV3) — all 11 forms above as standalone, print-ready Word documents in fill-in format. Each form is self-contained with instructions and clearly labelled for day-one deployment.

✔ Master Implementation Checklist (ADV5) — comprehensive phased implementation checklist covering policy tailoring, forms setup, staff training, and governance readiness. RAG-rated priority coding throughout (MUST / SHOULD / GOOD PRACTICE). Designed to be completed before going live and retained as CQC inspection evidence.

Regulatory coverage

• Care Act 2014 Section 67 — Duty to arrange an independent advocate for adults with substantial difficulty in being involved in assessments, care planning, review, and safeguarding enquiries, where no appropriate individual is available
• Care Act 2014 Section 68 — Independent advocacy: supplementary provisions including advocate qualifications, training standards, and local authority commissioning duties
• Mental Capacity Act 2005 Sections 35–41 — Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) service, including mandatory referral for serious medical treatment (s.37), long-term accommodation decisions (s.38), care reviews (s.39), and adult protection (s.39)
• Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice Chapter 10 — statutory guidance on IMCA role, referral threshold, and decision-maker responsibilities
• Mental Health Act 2007 (amending Mental Health Act 1983 s.130A) — Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) duty for qualifying patients, including detained patients, guardianship, community treatment orders, and informal patients considering serious treatment
• CQC Regulation 9 — Person-centred care (advocacy integrated into individualised care planning) — primary regulation, inspected at every CQC visit
• CQC Regulation 10 — Dignity and respect (advocacy supporting service user voice and autonomy)
• CQC Regulation 17 — Good governance (quarterly audit cycle, advocacy outcomes reporting, annual governance report)
• CQC Regulation 18 — Staffing, training, and competency (staff training on advocacy referral routes, Care Act ss.67–68 awareness)
• Care and Support (Independent Advocacy Support) Regulations 2014 — statutory regulations specifying advocate qualifications, independence criteria, and local authority duties
• Equality Act 2010 — Reasonable adjustments for accessing advocacy, protected characteristics in advocacy provision, Public Sector Equality Duty
• Human Rights Act 1998 Article 8 — Right to respect for private and family life, informing advocacy, access, and autonomy support
• UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 — Lawful basis for sharing information with advocates, consent to share, special category data handling
• Public Sector Equality Duty — Protected-characteristic-aware advocacy provision for older people, people with learning disabilities, service users from minority ethnic communities, LGBTQ+ service users, and others with specific advocacy needs
• CQC Single Assessment Framework — aligned to Responsive (R1 Person-centred care, R4 Listening to and involving people), Caring (C1 Kindness, compassion and dignity, C3 Independence, choice and control), and Well-Led (W5 Governance, management and sustainability) quality statements

For all community services

Domiciliary care · Live-in care · Extra care housing · Supported living · Outreach · Day services · Reablement

Buy once — yours permanently

£74.99 one-time purchase. No subscription required. No renewal fees. Purchase once and deploy across your organisation.

Licence scope

This suite is licensed for use by the purchasing legal entity and any subsidiary undertakings registered under the same parent company at Companies House. The suite may be white-labelled with your organisational branding, customised to reflect your operational context, and deployed across your registered service types. The suite may not be resold, sublicensed, published to third-party platforms, or shared with providers outside your organisational group.

Why this suite

• Written by a practising Registered Manager operating a CQC Good-rated community care service with ISO 9001 and ISO 45001 certification
• Care Act 2014, sections 67–68, impose a statutory duty on local authorities to arrange independent advocacy for adults with substantial difficulty in being involved in assessments, care planning, reviews, and safeguarding enquiries. Providers must have a policy demonstrating they understand the duty, know the referral threshold, and proactively refer eligible service users. Failure to identify and refer can constitute a CQC Regulation 9 breach
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 35–41, impose a mandatory IMCA referral duty in four specific decision types: serious medical treatment where no appropriate person can be consulted; long-term accommodation changes exceeding 28 days in hospital or 8 weeks in a care home; care reviews; and adult protection. Form 3 IMCA Referral Form and Form 4 IMCA Cooperation Record operationalise these statutory duties.
• Mental Health Act 2007 IMHA duty for qualifying patients fully operationalised in Form 8 — detained patients, guardianship cases, community treatment orders, and informal patients considering serious treatment
• Advocacy Outcomes Record (Form 10) — goes beyond process-only advocacy policies by tracking the difference advocacy made to each service user. This is the CQC Single Assessment Framework shift from process to outcomes operationalised.
• Care Plan Advocacy Review Checklist (Form 5) — embeds advocacy consideration at every care plan review rather than treating advocacy as a one-off referral event, aligning with co-production and person-centred care principles.
• Confidentiality Breach Record (Form 9) — UK GDPR Article 33 notification threshold, 72-hour ICO notification compliance, data subject notification obligation under Article 34
• Service User Advocacy Feedback (Form 11) — direct service user experience captured; provides authentic testimony for SAF Caring C1 (Kindness, compassion and dignity) and Responsive R4 (Listening to and involving people) quality statements
• Advocacy Quarterly Audit (Form 7) — 16-criterion quarterly RAG-scored audit feeding into annual governance reporting under CQC Regulation 17
• Escalation pathway to the local authority commissioning team and to the CQC — operationalises the provider whistleblowing duty where advocacy provision is inadequate locally
• RAG-coded implementation checklist with MUST, SHOULD, and GOOD PRACTICE priority coding — you know exactly what is mandatory for CQC compliance and what is quality enhancement.
• Protected-characteristic-aware advocacy provision — older people, people with learning disabilities, autistic people, service users from minority ethnic communities, LGBTQ+ service users, and others with specific advocacy needs are all explicitly addressed

File formats: 3 × Word (.docx) · 1 × Excel (.xlsx)

Delivered by: Care Franchising Compliance, a trading style of Care Franchising Limited (registered in England and Wales, Company No. 16271445).