Advocacy Rights Hub

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The Liverpool Advocacy Rights Hub

Liverpool City Council has commissioned Liverpool Citizen Advocacy to develop an independent Advocacy Rights Hub for the city. This is recognition by the City Council and its partners that many people need a range of supports, including independent advocacy, if they are to have an effective voice when facing new opportunities and challenges and making choices that affect vital areas of their lives. This is particularly important in a period when personalisation of services will have an enormous impact on the lives of some of the most isolated members of our communities.

Single point of contact?

The Advocacy Rights Hub will be a single point of contact for any Liverpool resident needing assistance in exercising their rights or in supporting another person to do so. This will include those wishing to self advocate and natural advocates. It will also include service workers and professionals wanting information about advocacy or related supports and services. The Hub’s Information Workers will listen to individuals and ‘assess’ the type of support they need and give them information, signposting and community connections. It will filter requests for assistance or referrals through to the appropriate Advocacy service or other related support e.g. Advice and Information services. The Hub will utilise and enhance existing databases of community-based resources. The Hub will not directly provide Advocacy, Advice and Information services itself or distribute or allocate funding.

The continuum or range of advocacy

The Advocacy Rights Hub will connect the range or continuum of organisations and groups that contribute to ensuring that people’s rights are protected and promoted. This will include Advocacy services plus the whole range of activities and services that would have been included, for instance, in the Community Legal Service. There will also be linkage to broader informal community activities such as those provided by faith, community and leisure groups. The Hub will work to ensure that all of the potential responses and roles that can help to guarantee people’s rights, choices and dignity are connected. It will provide a central point at which people can be put in touch with the support that is most appropriate to their needs.

Choice

The Hub will operate to an Advocacy Plus approach, which recognises the importance of people having choice in which type of support/s they wish to use and by whom these are provided. This approach recognises that there is more to advocacy than Advocacy services, and that much of the advocacy that occurs in our communities is provided in natural partnerships. These are when people stand by and support somebody that they already know. However, Advocacy Plus acknowledges that natural advocates might need help both in coping with the system and in dealing with the possibility of conflict of interest in their role when this arises. They might also need help in recognising when others might be better placed to advocate or when they might, for instance, need specialised Advice or Information.

Independent Advocacy

The Advocacy Rights Hub will also have a specific role in ensuring that when independent advocacy is provided, it is be to a set of agreed principles and standards. This will include having a mechanism for dealing with any conflicts of interest that might affect the real or perceived independence of the advocate. The Hub’s Principles and Ethics Committee will be the guarantor of advocacy being independent of the service system. In order to achieve this, the Hub will develop robustly independent management structures.

Mapping Unmet Need and Social Policy

The Hub’s Data Analyst will use information collected to undertake additional roles related to mapping unmet advocacy needs and social policy work. This

will include providing regular feed back to commissioners on people’s experiences of service delivery. It will also include bringing groups together to develop new responses to unmet need.

If you would like to know more about personalisation, you can visit the City Council’s Making it Personal webpages at www.liverpool.gov.uk/makingitpersonal

Updated 13.11.09