Mapping Local Advocacy Services
Connected Voice Advocacy was commissioned by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) NHS Trust and Inclusion North to carry out a mapping exercise to create a better understanding of advocacy services across the North East of England and North Cumbria for the benefit of service users, patients and multi-agency working. This forms part of the National Advocacy Review by NHS England/Improvement.
The report based on this research has been published and gives a comprehensive picture of the current advocacy landscape across the region, as well as exploring wider themes in the sector around quality measurements, training, innovation, networking and funding sources.
All 17 statutory advocacy providers replied to our survey and their responses provide rich detail about the complex mix of statutory, non-statutory/community and NHS Complaints advocacy across the region. Whilst the research focuses on statutory advocacy, many of the organisations deliver a mixture of statutory and non-statutory services.
Providers range from small local to larger national organisations, with some delivering only advocacy services and some part of organisations delivering a range of other services. The report identifies some of the benefits of working together across the advocacy sector:
Share best practice and developments
N-Compass
Shared experience and learning, more seamless service delivery across the region, and a better experience for service users
Adapt North East
Build knowledge. Share experience. Build relationships. Drive improvements. Influence policy
People First
Improved knowledge, awareness of best practice, training, improved service delivery
Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind
Respondents also spoke of challenges: “Networks have become complicated due to competitive tendering and concerns about revealing commercially sensitive information to potential competitors. A number of networks have not survived e.g. North East Regional Advocacy Network. The demise of networking and a supportive environment across the sector can only be detrimental to the people we work with.”
The report identifies trends including:
- Many providers are now using an integrated advocacy model, using multi-qualified advocates to follow the patient journey into the community and stay with them for continuity across advocacy types. This brings more flexibility but can incur higher training costs and more planning for service managers.
- Given that there is so much good practice to share in the region, people talked about wanting to avoid re-inventing wheels, and wondered how this can be facilitated.
- An eagerness to improve inconsistencies around referral criteria and streamline referral pathways across geographical borders.
The report evidences great commitment across the sector to providing highly-skilled advocacy to ensure that all people across the region with a right to an advocate under legislation have their voices and wishes heard in decisions made about them.
We are grateful to Connected Voice for their undertaken work and research around the Advocacy provision across the regions, which we were able to commission via a project enabled by the NHSE/I National Advocacy Review. This will help strengthen understanding of Advocacy to support system-wide working
Agata Wiorowska (Programme Manager, Trust Innovation Group CNTW NHS Trust)
