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.

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 Mental 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.

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.