Our Community Advocacy service has a prioritisation policy. This is where we make sure that people who need advocacy the most from our Community team get seen first.
The policy works like this:

  • We look at the advocacy issue you need help with. We also look at your support needs too e.g. if you are disabled
  • If we prioritise you for one-to-one advocacy but cannot support you straight away, we will add you to our Community Advocacy waiting list
  • We cannot say how long you will be waiting. However, we will call you once a month to say where you are on the waiting list.

It is important for us to be able to contact you. If you are making a referral for Community Advocacy, please say how we can get in touch. This could be by phone, email or by calling someone who is helping you, like a family member or support worker. If we cannot contact you, we cannot help you.

Other support

If we are not able to give you one-to-one advocacy, we can help you in other ways. Here is how we can do that:

  • Telephone or email advocacy. This is where one of our Community Advocates will speak or write to you and give you some information to help you
  • Self-Advocacy. This is where we can help you to use some of our self-advocacy tools to help you speak up for yourself and your rights
  • Group or Peer Advocacy. This is where people who have had the same issue as you can give you some support

How we work

You and your advocate will agree what practical help you need and what work the advocate will be able to do. This is called an Advocacy Agreement.
When we have done everything we have said, we will close your case. If you need advocacy again, you can make a new referral. You or someone you know can do this for you.
When we get your referral, we will be able to tell you what advocacy support we can give you. If we can’t help you, we will tell you why. If you are unhappy with the advocacy help we have said we can give you please tell us.
To make a Community Advocacy referral, please click here. If you have any questions, please contact our office by phone on 0113 244 0606 or by email at [email protected].