Advocacy
“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 people they support and take their side. Advocacy promotes social inclusion, equality and social justice.”
The Advocacy Charter 2002
If you can remember times when you have been ignored, excluded or unfairly treated, then you will know how important it is to be able to stand up for yourself or have someone on your side. Advocacy means to speak up for someone and help them stand up for themselves to get their voice heard and their views valued.
We all come across advocacy every day. A colleague stands up for another colleague at work or a child sticks up for their friend. Health or social care workers will often act as advocates for their clients or patients, and family members will often act as advocates for those they care for. Sometimes however, support is needed from somebody who doesn’t have to worry about other interests such as their own, their employer’s, or their colleagues’ - someone who can be on one side only.
Advocacy is about empowerment – to enable people to achieve greater control over the things that affect their lives. Providing them with informed choice and actively encouraging decision-making. The process of empowerment is a gradual one and our aim is to play a part, no matter how small, in helping the individual to feel respected and valued.
Core Principles
Our advocacy service is governed by a clear set of principles based on:
Independence - Advocates must be free from any influence by providers of health or social care and from any conflicts of interest.
Empowerment - Our ultimate goal is to enable those using our services to develop towards self-advocacy. An advocate must always support them in speaking for themselves but, where this is not possible, he or she must represent their views as if they were the advocate’s own.
Impartiality - Advocates do not judge service users and must be impartial and non‑judgmental.
Confidentiality - All discussions between anyone using the service and an advocate should be treated confidentially. Confidentiality should only be broken if a service user threatens to harm themselves or others.
Inclusion - The service must recognise diversity and ensure no one is excluded because of a difference in language, culture, disability or capacity.
Free access - The advocacy service is free to service users.
Advocates
Advocates are independent and impartial using their own experiences as ordinary citizens to speak or act on behalf of the person they are advocating for. They are there on the side of the service user to help them look at the issue and the options they have as well as access information on their behalf. Each advocate’s role is to ensure that the person at the heart of the issue is fully involved, included and has their rights fully respected.
There are a team of paid advocates who co-ordinate and manage their individual projects and a team of volunteers and students who give their time freely to provide vital additional support to the organization.
Advocates:-
- Translate ‘jargon’ and encourage use of plain English
- Help people to make their own informed decisions and take more control of their own lives
- Help people to say what they want and make sure that their voice is listened to and answered appropriately
- Find out information, make phone calls, write letters
- Signpost to other agencies
- Make things happen and change
- Promote social inclusion, equality and justice by awareness raising
Volunteers
Volunteers are an integral part of the service and their contribution to the development and delivery of the organization’s core services is vital. Volunteers bring a diversity of skills, expertise and experience to the organization and are able to offer a different perspective to that of paid staff and have the opportunity to volunteer for any of our projects.
We recognize that volunteers make a valuable contribution to the Blackpool Advocacy team and want them to feel confident and supported to undertake this very important role. We provide initial advocacy training, shadowing opportunities with other members of staff, regular support and additional training on issues which may have an input on their work or are of particular interest e.g. child protection, vulnerable adult abuse awareness, personal safety etc. We are keen that volunteers feel part of our service and will keep them up-dated on everything that is happening.
In line with all staff our volunteers require two satisfactory references and an Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau disclosure.
Anyone interested in joining us can download an application pack (Word Format, 23Kb).
Click here to download a leaflet on the Blackpool Advocacy service (PDF Format,1.20 Mb).
Click here to download the Advocacy Charter (PDF Format, 464Kb).
Click here to download the Blackpool Advocacy Poster (PDF Format, 318Kb).
