Our advocacy services
We offer all statutory and non-statutory advocacy services for children and adults through standalone and integrated contracts.
We work with commissioners to develop innovative approaches to delivery that better meet the needs of local people. We draw on nearly 40 years of varied experience working across the country.
We’ve always been at the forefront of ensuring that people’s right to advocacy is enshrined in law, and in implementing new statutory advocacy duties. This continues today, and our policy expertise means we can support commissioners to understand the impact of potential changes and implement them legally, safely and cost-effectively.
Our relationship with commissioners goes beyond facts and figures, with reporting designed to evidence local impact whilst ensuring transparency, quality and continuous improvement.
Please contact us at business.development@voiceability.org to discuss your needs.
We delivered savings without reducing frontline support.
Managing reduced resources in Northamptonshire
We’ve been delivering advocacy in Northamptonshire since 2010. In 2019, the commissioners were faced with a need to make significant savings in spend for all services, including advocacy. By implementing new ways of working, we have delivered these savings without reducing frontline support. This ensures that people in Northamptonshire still have their voices heard when it matters most.
We reduced the RPR waiting list to zero.
Supporting increased demand in Liverpool
Following the Cheshire West judgement, our commissioners in Liverpool had a 300% overnight increase in the need for DoLS authorisations. As a longstanding commissioning partner, we worked with commissioners and the DoLS team to develop a plan for addressing the backlog and providing a Relevant Person’s Representative (RPR) to everyone who needed one. We reduced the RPR waiting list to zero ahead of the targeted timeframe, and have kept it at this level since.
Innovation and impact
We work with over 30,000 people in local communities every year and more than 90% of our clients are happy with the way we’ve supported them.
We’ve supported 11 local authorities to combine their advocacy services with other boroughs, generating cash savings and simplifying processes for professionals, particularly in London.
We’ve worked with more than 50 local authorities to integrate their advocacy provision into a single contract, this includes 5 whole-life advocacy services. This offers greater consistency for local people as well as cash savings and reduced contract-management requirements for commissioners.
Having one person follow me through my discharge pathway has made all the difference.
Speeding up hospital discharge in Suffolk
Hospital staff in Suffolk told our commissioner that we were not providing advocates quick enough to hospital patients. The commissioner investigated and found that while more funding for advocacy might be needed to reduce delays, there was another factor: health and social care staff at the hospitals not consistently understanding who to refer for advocacy and when.
We worked with the commissioner to provide a new specialist Hospital Discharge Advocate, Aimee. By being dedicated to the hospital, she is able to respond much quicker, often same day, to advocacy referrals from hospital staff. Aimee also has time allocated specifically for educating staff and changing practice within the hospital settings. Her focus is on best interest decision making in relation to serious medical treatment and embedding advocacy into the continuing health care processes.
What hospital staff are saying:
“The advocacy requests are responded to much quicker now, in fact the whole process of involving an advocate is much easier. Having one person advocating for customers in hospital means we have one person to talk to so we can simply ask for advice and information.”
What hospital patients are saying:
“Having one person follow me through my discharge pathway has made all the difference.”
“I’m not sure what I would have done without your support. I was fully involved and understood what was going to happen upon discharge and who to contact if there are any problems afterwards.”