Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some answers to questions we are asked regularly. If you don’t find an answer you’re looking for here, you’re welcome to contact us to ask a question.

Email: info@sheffieldadvocacyhub.org.uk
or call: 0114 2261674

FAQs

Click on any question that you can see below and the answer should drop down. If you have any other questions, please do get in contact with us!

An advocate is a person who empowers someone who has a health and social care related issue to have their voice heard. Advocates are trained to know about the health and social care systems. They are trained in people's rights, and their focus is to enable you, the individual, to have a voice and a say in their own lives. They might help you research information, look through options, help you communicate with other professionals, and walk through the process with you. They are not there to judge or have their own opinion, but rather to champion your views and rights. You can see more on our "What is advocacy?" page.

Advocates support you to make your own decisions as much as possible. They will give you information, support you to think of pros and cons of a decision, and to look into options. An advocate does not make decisions for the people they support. They encourage independence, self advocacy and empower the people they work with.

In some situations, you may have a statutory (legal) right to advocacy support. We also have some funding so we can help people even though they don't have a legal right to advocacy (generic advocacy). This all depends on the situation you're in, and what type of advocacy you qualify for. You can look at our "What we do" page for more information on the types of advocacy, or give us a call to chat through your situation.

Unfortunately, our advocacy service can not support with benefits or PIP applications. Our colleagues in the Advice service may be able to give you some information and/or advice around what to do regarding your benefits. You can call them on 0808 278 7820. If you call our number, we will not be able to help you and will instead signpost you back to the Advice number as it is a separate service to us.

We are an issue based advocacy service. You come to us with a particular issue. We support you with the issue, and when the issue is resolved or there's nothing more we can do, then we close the case. You can come back to us in future if there is a new issue and we'll open a new case.

We work one to one with an individual. We don't work with a whole family. It may be that we work with an individual who gets support from their family (or friends) and want us to talk to them. We will talk to family and friends if asked or if that would be in the person's best interest. Our focus is always on the individual's views and wishes as this is our role.

Most of our advocacy types restrict our advocacy work to adults. However, Independent Mental Capacity Advocates as well as our Generic Health Advocates support people aged 16 and above, Care Act Advocates can support those aged 16 and above to transition from Children's to Adults Social Services, and we can support inpatients of the Becton Centre (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and their families. There is no age limit for IMHA cases so anyone can access advocacy if eligible for an IMHA. If you want to chat through whether we can support someone, please do get in touch.

We are a confidential service. We store your personal information in a secure and private place that only our Advocacy Hub team have access to. When we are instructed by you, we follow what you want regarding your data. We will only share your personal details if you give consent, unless you or someone else is in danger. If we have to share information for safety reasons, we will only share what is necessary. When you can't instruct us (don't have capacity/ understanding of the issue we're helping you with), we will only share the information necessary with the people who need it so we can support you with your issue. For example, if we're supporting with a deprivation of liberty, we would share information about you with the team in the council (DoLS team) who are responsible for keeping you safe. Please do tell us if there is a particular person that you don't want information shared with so that we are aware of any risks to your safety/ information.

No, our advocacy service is a free service. You don't pay us anything. We get our funding from various places including the council and health services, but we are independent from these services. We work separately to them.

Mental health advocacy

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

This includes:

General mental health advocacy for over 16s
General mental health advocacy for over 18s
NHS Complaints
Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) for most people subject to the Mental Health Act
Advocacy support for inpatients of the Becton Centre (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and their families

If you live in Sheffield and need to access mental health services, or are already using them and need advocacy support, call us to discuss how we can help.

Mental health advocacy

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

This includes:

If you live in Sheffield and need to access mental health services, or are already using them and need advocacy support, call us to discuss how we can help.

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

This includes:

If you live in Sheffield and need to access mental health services, or are already using them and need advocacy support, call us to discuss how we can help.

General mental health advocacy for over 16s

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield. Citizens Advice Sheffield Advocacy Services provides independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

Independent mental health advocacy support to people using mental health services in Sheffield.

News & campaigns

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1 January 2023

Advocacy Impact Report 22-23

Download our report on the work of Sheffield Advocacy Hub, led by Citizens Advice Sheffield with our partners Cloverleaf and Disability Sheffield in 2022-23

29 May 2025

Navigating change

We've partnered with Lamplight, our database provider, to publish a Navigating Change E-Book for charities to learn from our change process over the past year.

3 June 2025

Self Advocacy Training

As part of the Self and Peer Advocacy groups we are running self advocacy training, delivered by our partners Cloverleaf advocacy.

View all news

Contact us

You can contact us to ask a question about our service, about advocacy, to get information or to put in a referral.

Make a referral

Referrals

If you need an advocate for yourself, friends or family

Email us

We will aim to respond within 3 working days. You can also request a call back.

Speak to us

Call us

You can speak to us to put in a referral or ask a question

Access points

At the moment, we can only only accept referrals by phone or email. We are developing access points which we hope will increase access to our services. This space will be updated when they are available.