• Where am I?
• Home »
• What we do »
• Community Advocacy »
• Professional Advocacy

What is Professional Advocacy?

Advocacy is taking action to help people:

• Express their views and wishes
• Secure their rights
• Have their interests represented
• Access information and services
• Explore choices and options

Advocacy promotes equality, social justice and social inclusion. It can empower people to speak up for themselves.

Advocacy can help people become more aware of their own rights, to exercise those rights and be involved in and influence decisions that are being made about their future.

In some situations an advocate may need to represent another person’s interests. This is called non-instructed advocacy and is used when a person is unable to communicate their views.
 

---

Who needs advocacy?

Anyone who needs support to:

• Make changes and take control of their life
• Be valued and included in their community
• Be listened to and understood

A person accessing advocacy could, for example, be someone with a learning difficulty, mental health issues or an older person who has dementia.

---

What is an advocate?

An advocate is someone who supports a person so that their views are heard and their rights are upheld. They can help a person to put their views and feelings across when decisions are being made about their life.

They can give support which will enable a person to make choices and they inform people of their rights.

An advocate will support a person to speak up for themselves or, in some situations, will speak on a person’s behalf.

Advocates are independent. They are not connected to the carers or to the services which are involved in supporting the person.

An advocate will work one-to-one with a person to develop their confidence wherever possible and will try to ensure that the person feels as empowered as possible to take control of their own life.

An advocate will always:

• Be on your side
• Listen to what you want
• Make sure people listen to you

An advocate can work with you to:

• Speak out at meetings or to professionals
• Find information so you can make choices and sort out problems
• Change your services if you want to
• Know about your rights and make sure they are respected
• Make difficult decisions
• Make a complaint if you are not happy about something
   

---

Where do we work?

Take a look at our 'in your area' pages, which show where we work and what services we offer in those regions.  You can use these pages to find out a little more about the different services, and to contact our staff in each area.

---

VoiceAbility Advocacy Service Model

To VoiceAbility, independent advocacy is the act of representing the wishes, views and aspirations of a person who is, for whatever reason, unable to do so themselves. All of our advocates are paid and are “independent” in that they have no loyalties or obligations that will conflict with those of the person whom they represent.

As advocates, our role is to be an able substitute for the client, using our skills to seek an outcome which the client would seek, if able to self-advocate. Importantly, our advocates are not advisers, counsellors or brokers between their client and their services. As a process, our independent advocacy services give people the space and support to ensure a “place at the table” and a degree of equality of worth and influence, in relation to others whose job or position in society gives them formal and informal power.

---

Code of Ethics

VoiceAbility’s independent advocates follow a strict code of ethics, they must:

• Act in accordance with the service user’s wishes and instructions;
• Act independently, without any conflict of interest;
• Act in a professional, timely way, carrying out instructions with competence and vigour;
• Keep service users well informed of progress and setbacks;
• Maintain confidentiality (see confidentiality policy for exceptions);
• Offer independent information, suited to the service user’s comprehension and communication abilities and mental or physical health needs;
• Act in an anti-discriminatory, non-judgmental way;
• Working to the principles of the eight domains contained within the watching brief, act for those who cannot instruct you, involving them as far as possible and ensuring a service tailored to their individual needs;
• Act honestly and respectfully at all times.

---

Information for Advocates and potential Advocates

• Contact your local advocacy organisations to find out if there are any opportunities for volunteering or if they are currently recruiting new advocates.
• Gaining experience in working with a range of different people who may need support to express their views can be valuable.
• Find out which organisations are recruiting advocates and download job descriptions and person specifications to become more aware of the skills required to become an advocate.
• Find out about advocacy training courses.
• Contact Action for Advocacy, an advocacy umbrella organisation. They have information on courses and other information related to becoming an advocate.
• The Advocacy Resource Exchange (ARX) is also a source of information.
• There are some National Open College Network accredited advocacy courses that can be sourced using the internet.
• A few advocacy organisations run their own accredited advocacy courses.
• OPAAL has information about older people and advocacy.
• www.actionforadvocacy.org.uk
• www.advocacyresource.net
• www.opaal.org.uk