Kim Walsh, Author at Advocacy Focus

Liberty Protection Safeguards

October 4, 2022 2:26 pm Comments Off

In March, the government launched a consultation on various documents that will support the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards. This included a new draft Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice and new draft Regulations. These documents have been long-awaited since the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act (which introduced the Liberty Protection Safeguards) was passed in 2018. It was hoped that these documents would put ‘flesh on the bones’ of the legislation and give more detail about how the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) will work in practice.

What are the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS)?

If someone is deprived of their liberty through their care or treatment arrangements, and they lack capacity to consent to the arrangements, this must be authorised by a legal framework to ensure the person’s human rights are protected. Currently, this is authorised via the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) if the person lives in a care home or is in hospital, or by the Court of Protection if the person lives in the community. LPS will replace the DoLS and will apply to all settings, so there will be no need to apply to the Court of Protection for an authorisation. LPS will also apply to people aged 16+.

What have we been doing during the consultation?

As well as preparing and submitting our consultation response, Advocacy Focus have been busy engaging with our stakeholders and colleagues from other advocacy providers. We have chaired a nationwide LPS subgroup of advocacy providers, facilitating discussion of the main talking points arising from the consultation documents. We have also signed up to a joint advocacy sector response with around 30 other advocacy providers.

We co-hosted a webinar with Kate Mercer Training and NDTI to engage the wider advocacy community with the consultation. This involved looking at some of the key provisions of the draft Code of Practice and Regulations relating to advocacy and the IMCA role (and the consultation questions relating to these) and thinking about some of the key points advocacy providers may wish to make when responding to the consultation. Neil Allen from 39 Essex Chambers also kindly attended and spoke about the good points and concerns about advocacy provision as set out in the draft Code of Practice.

We have attended meetings held by the Department of Health and Social Care to discuss our feedback on the role of the Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) and the Appropriate Person.

We have also been discussing our thoughts and main feedback points from the consultation with our commissioners, making them aware of the changes and the level of funding that is likely to be required in order to facilitate the increased number of advocates that will be needed to implement the LPS as envisaged by the draft Code of Practice.

What points did we make in our consultation response?

In our own consultation response, we made several points relating to the provision of advocacy and how the Code and Regulations address this. We raised concerns around how neither the Regulations nor the Code set a minimum required frequency for Independent Mental Capacity Advocates (IMCAs) to visit the person deprived of their liberty (which could lead to the quality of the IMCA service becoming a ‘postcode lottery’). Further, the regulations do not give an IMCA the right to meet with the person deprived of their liberty when the IMCA is supporting their Appropriate Person – we feel that this reduces the current 39D IMCA role where the IMCA provides an additional safeguard to the person when being supported by an unpaid representative (generally family or friends). We referenced several parts of the draft Code of Practice where the role of an IMCA is incorrectly stated – e.g. IMCAs are not mediators, nor do they express a view about what is best for the person or what the person should do.

We looked at the figures estimated by the impact assessment and compared those to the current trends we see in our referral rates under DoLS. We also considered the increase in the level of responsibility in the role of the Appropriate Person (that will be taken on by a family or friend) compared to the current unpaid Relevant Person’s Representative role (RPR) and questioned whether as many people would be prepared to take on this role as the impact assessment states. We therefore made the point that the actual demand for advocacy would likely be higher than estimated by the impact assessment. We have made the point that if LPS is to be as person-centred as the draft Code of Practice envisages, it is vitally important that sufficient funding is provided to advocacy providers to train their existing advocates in LPS but also to recruit and train new advocates.

We also share the concerns raised by many others throughout the consultation period regarding the definition of deprivation of liberty as set out in the draft Code of Practice. We raised concerns that if the definition is applied as set out in the draft Code and example scenarios, lots of people who currently have a DoLS authorisation would not be eligible for an LPS authorisation, leaving lots of people heavily restricted but without any safeguards or support in place to challenge this.

What happens next?

The government will publish their response to the consultation – they have said that they will do this in Winter, so this could be late this year or early next year. There is not yet a date set for the implementation of LPS. We will continue to monitor for updates and continue to hold meetings of the advocacy LPS sub-group.

“Undercover Hospital: Patients at Risk” blog post

September 30, 2022 11:34 am Comments Off

The BBC Panorama documentary “Undercover Hospital: Patients at Risk” which aired this week, clearly showed how some mental health services are still systemically failing people who need their help and support at a time of crisis. The mental health unit highlighted in the documentary is now the subject of a criminal investigation, after an undercover reporter exposed the unit’s degrading treatment and abuse towards the patients. There is still a misconception that abuse does not occur within professional services, especially since the Winterbourne View hospital abuse scandal in 2011. However, Panorama exposed a toxic culture and abusive environment within the secure Edenfield Unit in Prestwich, where detained patients were being treated in an inhumane and degrading way. Patients were being subjected to physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, instead of receiving the necessary therapeutic care and treatment to aid their recovery and subsequent discharge from the hospital.

Whilst we have no knowledge of what services or organisations may have been available to the patients within Edenfield, as an independent advocacy provider, Advocacy Focus trains our team to adopt a degree of professional curiosity. To be tuned into their gut feelings, to question, challenge and to think that if something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. Any advocacy provider working within health and social care must have a presence within mental health hospitals as a priority, to help safeguard, listen to and inform people of their rights. People’s voices should never be silenced just because they are experiencing a mental health crisis. Any concerns raised should be investigated to the full extent, and the abuse stopped and prevented from ever occurring again. If patients on the wards and their families know what their rights are and who they can turn to if things go wrong, then they are bound to have better outcomes, feel safe and move towards recovery and their return home.

If you have a friend or loved one receiving treatment currently from a mental health facility, or something like this has happened to you, you can find out more about Independent Advocacy and how we can help. Advocacy Focus is independent of the local authority, health and social care services and is on your side. You are not alone and there is help available. If you need more information about the services our charity provides, you can find it here. Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) – Advocacy Focus

If you have been affected by the programme and are struggling to understand and process the events you have witnessed, then please reach out to Advocacy Focus for advocacy support or for help accessing further support from other local organisations. You can call us on 0300 323 0965, or reach out via our live chat facility at www.advocacyfocus.org.uk

Positive Voices Conference

September 20, 2022 3:16 pm Comments Off

Last week some of our Advocates travelled down to Birmingham for the Positive Voices conference! This post is a collection of images from their Twitter takeover! If you want to read through the Twitter thread – just click here!

Advocacy Focus awarded ‘Top Employer’ in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index 2021/22

June 23, 2022 3:15 pm Comments Off

We are proud to announce that Advocacy Focus has been awarded Top Employer, out of the 119 organisations that took part in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index.

We have also been awarded Gold in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Awards for the third year running! The Index is a benchmark of best policy and practice in workplace wellbeing and celebrates the good work employers are doing to promote positive mental health.

A Gold award means we have successfully embedded mental health into policies and practices, utilising a variety of best practice approaches and have demonstrated a long-term, in-depth commitment to our team’s mental health. Some examples of the things we have done are; created a wellbeing room for people to relax and take time out in a safe space, offered a wellbeing hour where staff are encouraged to take some paid time away from work to focus on self-care, and organised activities such as wellbeing walks and online catch-ups that everyone at Advocacy Focus is welcome to attend – along with their much loved canine friends.

With governments across the UK making changes to the rules and the levels of financial support available related to Covid-19, research shows that more than half of the 41,927 employees across 119 employers who participated in this year’s Index staff survey, are more anxious than ever as they return to the workplace. So, regardless of the size of an organisation, mental health and a strong cultural response to workplace wellness should be high on the agenda. That’s why Advocacy Focus has joined other forward-thinking employers and taken steps to create mentally healthy workplaces by participating in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index 2021/22.

Justine Hodgkinson, CEO at Advocacy Focus said; “Our team do a really difficult job. They are out in communities working with people at their most challenging times, so the least we can do as an organisation is help our people to turn up as the best version of themselves. We do this by normalising the conversation around mental health and wellbeing and by providing safe, non-judgmental work spaces, where they can bring their whole self to work.

“The world we live in is ever-changing and the people that turn up at the door to do the job are experiencing challenges they’ve never faced before. So, we don’t tick boxes, workplace wellbeing is not tokenistic at Advocacy Focus, it is an integral part of what we do, and what we will continue to do.”

World Refugee Day 2022

June 20, 2022 2:09 pm Comments Off

Today is #WorldRefugeeDay and it’s hard to think of a period when the international refugee regime has felt more under threat.

It isn’t just the government which is directly attacking the legal principles which were set out to protect them, across the world refugees are demonised and discriminated against.

Countries like Greece continue to operate illegal pushback operations which have already cost thousands of lives. The UK continues to enact inhumane policies, such as tagging and forced deportation. Denmark is attempting to follow suit and build on existing policies of confiscating asylum seekers’ valuables.

In France both asylum seekers and those seeking to help them routinely face attacks from the authorities. Italy has seen a concerted attempt to criminalise humanitarian assistance for those crossing the Mediterranean.

There are countless more examples, and it’s easy to feel bleak and helpless in the face of it all. We have however seen that hope shines eternal. The proposed deportation flight to Rwanda on Tuesday was stopped thanks to the efforts of diligent lawyers and campaigners. Communities have stood up, as in Peckham, to prevent immigration enforcement removing people.

#WorldRefugeeDay is all about

Protecting those who so desperately need it.
Amplify their voices and
Continuing to campaign for their rights.

Show we stand #TogetherWithRefugees, because together we can turn the tide and create a more welcoming world.

Here are some useful links if you, or someone you know, needs support:

Love146 UK (Charity that helps victims of child trafficking)
Choose Love
Stand For All
Building Bridges
Asylum Link Mersyside
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Right To Remain Toolkit

Masterclass on Conditional and Absolute discharge

May 27, 2022 8:53 am Comments Off

On Tuesday 24th of May we were joined by a host of speakers from across the country to discuss conditional discharges and how Independent Mental Health Advocates and practitioners can support individuals who are subject to this section.

Perspectives were shared by legal experts, approved clinicians, the Ministry of Justice, Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA), family, friends, and most importantly, those with lived experience. We also launched new resources including information for conditionally discharged patients in plain English, guidance for family members and guidance for IMHA’s to support conditionally discharged patients. There is also a patient’s rights easy read in development.

Speakers included 39 Essex Chambers Barrister Neil Allen, Associate Director of Nursing Christine Hutchinson, Mike Nolan the Head of Team 2 in the Mental Health Casework Section of the Ministry of Justice, and Roger Banks who is the National Clinical Director of Learning Disability and Autism at NHS England.

You can find below the resources mentioned during the event, and we welcome you to share these widely through your networks to ensure all who need this information have access to it:

Brand new IMHA resources

Advocacy Focus – Conditionally Discharged Presentation Workshops slides

Conditional Discharge Rights Launch

Submit a discharge request for restricted patients

Unlock – Advocacy service for people with criminal records

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Practical Guide

Working with restricted patients GOV.UK

If you attended our event and haven’t completed the evaluation form, you can find it here

If you are a professional working with people who are conditionally discharged, the updated practice guidance can be found here

To stay up to date with future events and resources, please sign up to our newsletter here.

Human Rights Act Open Letter

May 18, 2022 5:18 pm Comments Off

We stand together as Advocacy, Information & Advice Charities calling on the Prime Minister and our government to protect the Human Rights Act

On May 18th 2022, we wrote to the Prime Minister to raise our concerns about the proposed scrapping of the Human Rights Act, and the proposed introduction of the Bill of Rights.

Advocacy Focus has collaborated with over 40 Advocacy, Information and Advice Charities to bring attention to the important rights and protections the Human Rights Act offers our collective beneficiaries to live as equal people and to be treated with dignity.

Our letter to the Prime Minister can be read below in full. The letter was organised by the national advocacy Charity POhWER. To have your Charity or Organisation added to this letter digitally, be added to the mailing list for future campaign activity or for other queries relating to this letter please contact POhWER Chief Executive at helen.moulinos@pohwer.net or Leanne Hignett – leanneh@advocacyfocus.org.uk at Advocacy Focus who can support you with your query.

The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP
Prime Minister

10 Downing Street,

Westminster,

London

SW1A 2AA

May 18, 2022

Dear Prime Minister,

Human Rights Act & Proposed Bill of Rights

We the undersigned represent Charities and organisations who have supported millions of people to have their rights upheld and voices heard through advocacy, information, and advice since the Human Rights Act was introduced.

The UK has and continues to be a leader in the development and contributor of human rights law over the last hundred years. Since joining the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) we have been bound to comply with its provisions. The Human Rights Act brought rights home and created an important obligation for public authorities to comply with ECHR.

The Human Rights Act commits public authorities to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights in their policies, procedures and decision making. As advocates we see the positive impact Human Rights Act has had on the people we support through our charitable work.

Without the Human Rights Act, the modern advocacy profession might not exist with the same powerful impact or independent scrutiny. The Human Rights Act is at the epi-centre of a framework of rights and entitlements complemented by the Equality Act, Care Act, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Liberty Protection Safeguards, Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, related legislation in the devolved nations and Safeguarding.

Thanks to the Human Rights Act as advocates, we are able to independently challenge public authorities that support us in our everyday lives.

We help people to live as equal people through the cases we manage to have their human rights upheld in public services.

Advocacy is one of the many ways in which people can be supported and empowered to uphold their rights and entitlements, be provided with choices and options, and safeguarded from harm and abuse. An advocate can help a person to:

speak up for themselves or give their views
understand the process they are going through, their rights and what choices are available to them
be part of an important decision which is being made about them
prepare for and take part in meetings and tribunals
raise queries or concerns
access information in the format which is most suitable
access services that can support them

Advocates can also provide information and signpost people to other helpful services. Our intervention often means people do not need to access justice through the courts or legal pathway as our intervention empowers people and protects their human rights.

The current laws protect everyone in the UK no matter who they are or what their own situation may be. The proposed reforms would significantly reduce the legal responsibilities the Government currently has towards us and diminish mechanisms for our collective Charity beneficiaries to hold public services accountable and to be treated as equal people.

The proposed Bill of Rights would offer opt-outs to public authorities to pick and choose whose rights they supported and if/when they supported those rights. Many of the people we support are socially excluded, vulnerable and/or marginalised.

To focus this consultation on just a few minor legal technicalities and procedural nuances is diminishing the wider role the HRA 1998 plays to support people in everyday life and enable them to live as dignified people. Without HRA 1998, there would be no clear rulebook to govern expectations of conduct when dealing with public services such as Statutory Bodies, Local Authority, Prisons, NHS, DWP, Immigration, Housing and Coroner Service.

We believe the changes proposed are detrimental to our beneficiaries and would remove independent scrutiny of public services and the important role of advocacy.

We are calling on a wider study and equality impact assessment to understand the realities on the wider UK population, requesting for a meeting to share case studies and evidence on how HRA benefits the people we support every day through public authority independent scrutiny and mitigates often wider escalations in the legal process. Scrapping HRA would be detrimental to our beneficiaries, public authorities and wreak havoc with framework of other intersecting rights laws and codes of practices.

Our society remains unfair and unequal – the millions of people who sought support through our Charities should serve as significant reminder that the Human Rights Act 1998 and other protection laws are not currently being necessarily always upheld by local and central government bodies. Independent scrutiny, challenge, and freedom for people to empower themselves is a fundamental part of our society and democracy.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Moulinos, Chief Executive, POhWER

Jo Moore, CEO, Accommodation Concern

Peter Walsh, Chief Executive, Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA)

Mr Abe Ncube, Advocacy 1^st, Community Connex

Leanne Hignett, Service Delivery Director, Advocacy Focus

Elssa Keegan, CEO, Advocacy Matters

Judith Davey, Chief Executive Officer, The Advocacy Project

Sabrina Solomon, Head of Service Delivery, The Advocacy Project

Ian Maxey, Deputy Head of Service Delivery, The Advocacy Project

Natasha Fox, CEO, Advocacy West Wales-Eiriolaeth Gorllewin Cymru

Philip Bramson, Chief Executive, Advonet

Ewan Roberts, Centre Manager, Asylum Link Merseyside

Sr Ruth Miller, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Theresa Mawson, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Kevin Keech, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Bridie Sharkey, Trustee, Asylum Link Merseyside

Kacey Jones, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Peter Simm, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Ged Edwards, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Gareth Hankinson, Staff, Asylum Link Merseyside

Steve Hawkins, Trustee, Asylum Link Merseyside

Mike Storry, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Dr Paula Grey, Trustee, Asylum Link Merseyside

Shahzad Wilson Mukerjee, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Hilary Hopkin, Volunteer, Asylum Link Merseyside

Jannatul Chowdhury, Staff, Asylum Link Merseyside

Chris Vick, Service Director, Advocacy Services for North East Wales (ASNEW)

Emily Barratt, Deputy Director, Brighton and Hove Speak Out

Chris Mounsher, Advocate, Brighton and Hove Speak Out

Emma Lopez, Engagement officer, Brighton and Hove Speak Out

Jeanette Goodman, Advocacy Team Leader, Brighton and Hove Speak Out

Sarah Coombes, Volunteer Coordinator, Brighton and Hove Speak Out

Sanchita Hosali, CEO, British Institute of Human Rights

Philip Kerr, Carers Federation

Angus Claydon, Director of Operations, The Care Forum

Kevin Peltonen-Messenger, CEO, The Care Forum

Michèle Stokes, Chief Executive Officer, Carers in Hertfordshire

Roma Mills, Policy and Engagement Manager, Carers in Hertfordshire

Colin Ling CEO, Chinese Wellbeing

Di Burbidge Service Development Manager, Chinese Wellbeing

Jack Davey, Advice Service Lead, CHAS Bristol

Alice Tibbert, Director, CHAS Bristol

Suzi Henderson, CEO, Cloverleaf Advocacy

Cherry Pedler, Manager, Community Support Network South London (CSN)

Garrick Prayogg, Project Manager, Cultural Diversity Network

Maria Dolly Galvis Zapata, Chief Executive Officer, The Elfrida Society

Ali F. Jabeen, Operations Manager, Specialist Advocacy Services for Parents with Learning Disabilities and/or Difficulties, The Elfrida Society

Deborah Kober Specialist Advocates for Adults and Parents with Learning Disabilities and/or Learning Difficulties, The Elfrida Society

Janay Crooks, Specialist Advocates for Adults and Parents with Learning Disabilities and/or Learning Difficulties, The Elfrida Society

Nikki Chivers, Group Facilitator for Adults with Learning Disabilities, The Elfrida Society

Lynne Stafford, Chief Executive, Gaddum

Ben Whalley, Head of Operations, Gaddum

Caroline Ridley CEO, Impact Initiatives

Louise Peim Operations and Contracts Manager, Impact Initiatives

Sam Grant, Head of Policy and Campaigns, Liberty

Katy Porter, CEO, Manor Gardens Welfare Trust

Saiqa Sahotra Community Advocate, Mary Seacole House

Alex Coombes Specialist Advocate, Mary Seacole House

Ben Allen Community Advocate, Mary Seacole House

Miatta Mac-Boimah Outreach Worker, Mary Seacole House

Simon Torkington Advocacy and Training Manager, Mary Seacole House

Dr Melvin Bradley, CEO, MhIST

Gillian Unsworth, CEO, Mind in Brighton and Hove

Sharn Tomlinson, Chief Executive Officer, Mind in Mid Herts

Michelle Kabia, CEO, Mind in Tower Hamlets and Newham

Fiona Scaife, Operational Director for Advocacy Services, Mind in Tower Hamlets and Newham

Shelu Miah, Operations Director, Mind in Tower Hamlets and Newham

Rita Hirani, CEO MindOut.

Mandy Bigden-Slack, Advocacy Service Manager, MindOut

Teresa Jennings, Chief Executive, n-compass

Rita Waters, Group Chief Executive, NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service)

Kate Harvey CEO, Onside Advocacy

Suzanne Watterson Advocacy Services Manager, Onside Advocacy

Janine Daniels- Stretch Advocacy Services Manager, Onside Advocacy

Tony Kildare, Board Chair of Trustees, POhWER

Elyzabeth Hawkes, Deputy Chief Executive, POhWER

Fiona McArthur-Worbey, Director of Fundraising & Engagement, POhWER

Sandra Black, Associate Director, POhWER

Caroline Caesar‑Caston, Associate Director, POhWER

Martin Humes, Associate Director, POhWER

Jayne Degiorgio, Head of Service London and South East, POhWER

Rose Humphries, Head of Service Central, Northeast & Scotland, POhWER

Anna Hansell, Head of Service South West and Wales, POhWER

Olivia Guerini, Suicide Support Therapist, Rethink Mental Illness

Gary Underhill, Spearman

Arran Evans, Director, Sussex Interpreting Services

Emma Edwards, Director of Operations & Quality, Together

Tracy Moss, Operations and Development Manager, Together

Penelope Gibbs, Director, Transform Justice

Leslie Billy, Chief Executive, Viewpoint

Sharon Cullerton, Director, Vital Projects

Sara Firth, Chairperson, Vital Projects

Jonathan Senker, Chief Executive, VoiceAbility

Patricia Curran, Advocacy Service Manager, York Advocacy Hub

Charter for Employer Positive About Mental Health

April 11, 2022 10:42 am Comments Off

Advocacy Focus are proud to have signed the ‘Charter for Employer Positive About Mental Health’

Established in 2004, Mindful Employer is a UK wide initiative run by Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

Providing employers with easier access to professional Workplace Mental Health training, information and support, the initiative aims to help empower employers to take a lead in supporting the mental wellbeing of their staff.

By signing the ‘Charter for Employer Positive About Mental Health’ Advocacy Focus have made a public statement of our desire to support the mental health of our staff across the organisation.

UK Businesses Hit by Staff Wellbeing Issues during the Pandemic

10:24 am Comments Off

New statistics have shown that 49% of small businesses and 73% of larger businesses have been impacted by poor employee mental health over the last year.

Surveys by Lloyds Bank and digital wellbeing provider LifeWorks, have shown that mental health has declined throughout the pandemic, with employees reporting that they feel overworked, under pressure and are struggling with poor work/life balance.

Read the statistics below.

Source

Invest in Mental Health Training for your workplace and give back to your community at the same time!…

How? When you choose Advocacy Focus as your workplace training provider, we invest 100% of your profits back into the community. When you book your mental health workplace training or mental health first aid training with us, your money supports people in the community with complex care needs and mental ill health. And as a charity with over 20 years of supporting people with mental ill health, we’re the experts when it comes to helping you to support your workforce.

Check out our mental health training courses for businesses here.

Not sure what you’re looking for? Give us a call on 0300 323 0965 or email training@advocacyfocus.org.uk.

The Advocacy Sector – The Forgotten Cog of the Pandemic?

7:09 am Comments Off

By Leanne Hignett, Service Delivery Director.

Over the last 18 months, the health and social care has faced huge challenges. Constant changes, goalposts moving, new legislation in the Coronavirus Act and much of the sector mobilised or redeployed to deliver the COVID19 response. Organisations rewriting workplace policies, training our teams in how to don and doff their PPE and navigating the physical and psychological move to remote working. Technological challenges, digital exclusion and ever-growing waiting lists across the board began to bite at overstretched services. The last 18 months has taken its toll on everyone, when people needed services the most, services closed their doors or were difficult to access and navigate.

For us, every single one of our services was affected by the pandemic and the demand for support increased tenfold at a time when we couldn’t physically get into our communities. Rights and freedoms were restricted, vital care and support was cancelled or postponed, and news broke of unlawful practices, most notably the unlawful implementation of blanket DNACPR decisions. People needed us now more than ever before.

The world shut down, Advocates turned up.

Even though our team faced their own personal challenges, they continued to show up and put their heart and souls into delivering critical services. They came up with creative ways to reach and support those who needed us, they continued business as usual, despite the challenges they faced. But because not much is known about advocacy outside of the health and social care sector, in my eyes, they ultimately did not get the credit they deserved. They were the ironically silent heroes of the pandemic, upholding rights, fighting for freedoms and helping people access the care and treatment they needed.

Indeed, throughout the outbreak, little credit has been given to the amazing Advocates across the country. Not much was said about how organisations like ours continued to support our teams, how we ensured their rights were upheld, how we ensured they had the support they needed, how we ensured their safety when out and about seeing people face to face during a pandemic, and how we ensured they stayed mentally well. The world shut down, Advocates turned up.

Valuing Voices

Last year’s Valuing Voices report detailed the results of a nationwide survey of 450 Advocates in the UK. Advocacy organisations, including ourselves, worked in partnership with the NDTi to run the survey and launch the report. The report showed us that Advocates were seeing more unsettling cases – at a time when safeguarding referrals dropped by 45% – and were helping more and more people to reclaim the most basic of rights. We know that our Advocates were extremely frustrated and concerned at their increasing workloads and the things they were up against.

In the survey, half of the UK’s Advocates reported that care providers had stopped all visits and almost half (47%) reported that people were confined to their rooms. Three quarters of Advocates said that peoples’ human rights were not fully upheld, and only 7% of advocates reported being able to fully access the living places of the people they supported. 48% reported not being able to meet with people at all.

All this has led to a negative mental effect on the country’s Advocates, and even, many of them returning to roles in social care, or finding alternative paths to take. The toll was huge. Yet they didn’t receive claps on doorsteps or praise from the media.

Supporting Advocates

We like to think of ourselves as experts in workplace wellbeing, we have the awards to prove it, and a plethora of people who have used our services who can attest to the five-star rating of our workplace mental health training. We recently came second out of 114 national organisations in Mind Charity’s Workplace Wellbeing index for our own internal policies and procedures.

During the pandemic, over half of our Advocates (56%) accessed our mental health support tools.

In our workplace survey, we found that during the pandemic, over half of our Advocates (56%) accessed our mental health support tools. As a supportive workplace, it is comforting to know that 75% of our team feel confident disclosing their mental health at work and that a large majority are using them. I have to say, I wasn’t surprised at all by the number of people in our team needing additional support during this time. We know as an organisation, how important it is to support our Advocates, so that they are in a better position to support the people in our communities. A whopping 98% of our team said they were provided with sufficient guidance and resources of how to stay well during the pandemic from us.

So what did we do? We upped our avenues for free mental health support, giving them multiple options to turn to, we helped ease them into the new working world with an action packed training and development calendar, we introduced new wellbeing initiatives such as weekly wellbeing hours, virtual team huddles and wellbeing days, we ensured we continued to facilitate an open and accepting organisation – albeit remotely, our dedicated wellbeing team went above and beyond to deliver useful tools and resources, and our managerial team continued with the All Fine Helpline, a dedicated number for Advocates to ring if they had any issues or concerns, to offload, knowing they will always be taken seriously and to be listened to.

Not only that, but we went to great lengths to ensure they stayed safe at work, issuing weekly guidance and updates from our dedicated COVID response team, training them extensively in how to use PPE correctly and we ensured that we took their lead on how they felt about their safety.

Moving On from the Pandemic

We know that the job of an Advocate is only going to get busier. We await with some uncertainty to see what the winter will bring and nervously accept that we must learn to co-exist with a virus that stopped the world in its tracks. You can already see the sector bracing itself for another potential outbreak as the winter months creep in, that’s where we need to be ready, ready to respond to the needs of our communities- no matter how that looks.

Not only do our Advocates have to think about the people they support and their increasing workload, they also live with the constant worry that their job is never entirely safe.

What we do know, is that the demand for health, social care and advocacy will only increase. The COVID response, although necessary, set our sector back in so many ways. Many services now have significant waiting lists, emergency funding is drying up and we once again enter the competitive arena of bidding for work to ensure sustainability and continuation of services for our beneficiaries. Not only do our Advocates have to think about the people they support and their increasing workload, they also live with the constant worry that their job is never entirely safe.

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom, I’m confident that as a sector we can all pull together. By working together and remembering why we got into health and social care in the first place, we can face all these upcoming challenges head on. We can learn, adapt and grow together, improving outcomes for those who need us. For the people that rely on our support, failure is not an option.

As Advocacy organisations, we must get better at demonstrating the impact our services have in our communities, and the outcomes the people we work with achieve. We must work together to demystify this word ‘Advocacy’ that’s often met with confused faces and associated with legal services, so that the sector can get the recognition it deserves. And we must get better at praising our Advocates on the ground, who are supporting people and bringing change in people’s lives, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, a partner, a supporter, someone who is truly there for the person.

So, this Advocacy Awareness Week, I’m hoping to raise awareness of the amazing work carried out by all the Advocates nationally, a silent and vital cog of the health and social care sector. Let them be recognised for playing such an essential part over the last 18 months. We have learnt a lot along the way, suffered losses and have been filled with grief, and through it all we will come back stronger, as individuals, organisations, and a sector – with many lessons learnt.

Here’s to the next 18 months – we are coming back stronger.

Author Archives: Kim Walsh

We are proud to announce that Advocacy Focus has been awarded Top Employer, out of the 119 organisations that took part in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index.

Today is #WorldRefugeeDay and it’s hard to think of a period when the international refugee regime has felt more under threat.