A review of advocacy

What people need

1) People need advocacy to be more easily available.

2) People need advocacy to be commissioned independently and for the advocacy offer to be more consistent across areas and regions.

3) People need access to more holistic, longer term, person led advocacy. People need to be able to build a relationship with their advocate.

4) People need advocates to be present on the ward, including children and young people’s units.

5) People and their families and support networks need access to reliable and consistent information about advocacy.

6) People need their advocates to work alongside their family members.

What advocates need

1) There needs to be clear standards so advocates have better training and support. Advocates need the right skills, knowledge and approaches to effectively support people with a learning disability and autistic people – currently not all advocates working with people have these.

2) Advocates need to be supported in their practice to ensure they are providing effective, person led, independent support.

3) Advocates need to exercise professional curiosity and have a good understanding of human rights and safeguarding in order to ensure they are provide effective support.

What the system needs

1) Advocacy should be monitored to ensure adequate availability and quality in each region.

2) People with a learning disability and autistic people should have key roles in ensuring advocacy is meeting people’s needs and hospitals are listening to people properly.

3) In order to ensure we achieve the goals above, we need a national advocacy strategy and task force to plan and action the change we need to see.