VoiceAbility | Our impact
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Our impact

My advocate made me feel human, and reminded me that I have inherent value.

Alex, who met with one of our advocates

We work with over 26,000 people in local communities every year, and influence policy-making nationally to make sure people’s voices are heard.

Making an impact in 2021-22

26,157

people helped through individual advocacy or peer support

Who we support

63% of our work last year was with people who had a mental health condition, dementia or a learning disability. 

876 of the people we supported were children and young people.

40%

of people supported were over 65

Our services

VoiceAbility offers a range of advocacy services. Our presence is especially strong in the Midlands and the North East, and 59% of our cases were opened in these regions.

This year:

31 seconds

is our average response time, down from 1 minute


VoiceAbility also offers involvement and participation services, including group advocacy and user involvement networks. Peer Mentors, Experts by Experience, Quality Checkers and Speak Out Leaders also work with us to get people’s views heard and rights respected.

This year:

  • Speak Out leaders in Cambridgeshire and Experts by Experience in Coventry and Warwickshire co-produced a training film for the specialist lawyers who work in the Court of Protection; one solicitor described it as the most important video on technical practice I have ever seen”
  • Busy People self-advocates in Hampshire (who are people with learning disabilities and autistic people) worked with the Clinical Commissioning Group and Hampshire Learning Disabilities Partnership, making recommendations about services, meetings and how to provide accessible information

73%

of people supported met their advocate face to face

Influencing for national change

This year:

33,927

cases worked on this year

Improving as an organisation

This year:

  • We added five new Communities of Practice where specialist advocates share best practice and tackle issues quickly, and continued to review and develop our advocacy standards so staff are constantly supported
  • We undertook a pay review to ensure pay is fair and competitive
  • We invested in learning and development, with two new officers and a new Learning Hub to launch in May 2022
  • We recruited a dedicated Belonging Project Manager, to ensure people feel valued and can bring their authentic selves to work, and to develop our staff forums so everyone has a voice in new initiatives and can propose improvements and new ideas

Annual report and accounts