Over the next couple of months, Advonet will be holding three free events, focusing on advocacy and the role it plays in protecting people’s rights in different health and care environments. The events will be run under the Leeds Advocacy Network banner and will see Advonet work in partnership with other organisations.
For further details on each event, please read this blog post.

Advocacy in Care Homes – Thursday 27th June – 10am-12:30pm

Over the last four years, we have developed an effective partnership with the Exemplar Health Care care home group. Since April 2019, we have been delivering the service over a wider geographical area: East Leeds and two care homes in Castleford.
Exemplar are willing to work with us on improving service monitoring. They have agreed to co-host a promotional/learning event about the difference in-house advocacy can make to both care home residents and the ability of care homes to achieve their desired outcomes.
We will also be attending the Care Homes System Oversight Board on Friday 31st May to build interest in our event, but also to explore the potential for advocacy principles to help care homes develop an empowering rights based culture.
This session will include lunch, presentations about the amazing work at Exemplar and a taster session awareness advocacy training for care home staff. This will help participants to see how they can apply advocacy principles in the work.

Lived Experience of Restraint: Friday 5th July – 10am-12:30pm

The Secretary of State for Health asked the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to review and make recommendations about the use of force and restrictive interventions in settings that provide inpatient and residential care for people with mental health difficulties, learning difficulties and/or autism.
You can read the CQC’s interim report on the subject here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/publications/themed-work/interim-report-review-restraint-prolonged-seclusion-segregation-people
Advonet, in partnership with CHANGE, has been awarded funding by the CQC to enable people with lived experience to take part in this. CHANGE and Advonet see themselves as having a valuable part to play, gathering feedback from people who have experience of restraint and seclusion, and their carers.
CHANGE and Advonet will be effective partners of CQC by being critical friends. The event will be intended to help us think through:

  • Key questions
  • Different ways of asking them
  • Different ways of reaching people who we would like to participate locally
  • How we will offer support to people who take part

The full content of the event has yet to be finalised, but Cllr Fiona Venner, Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Children and Families, will be talking about the impact of restraint and seclusion on children and the adults they become.

Safeguarding: Friday 5th July – 1pm-3:30pm

The Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board wants to increase the feedback collected from citizens about their experience of the safeguarding process/experience/outcome, as well as what went well what could have been better. We plan to launch the work and recruit to a citizen’s panel, details of which we will be discussing on the day
As well as being about engaging diverse community partners in the work and its planning, the event provides an opportunity for Health and Social Care professionals to learn about the project. Health and Social Care professionals will be key to engaging a wider group of colleagues involved in safeguarding in our consultation, so we can collect as much feedback as possible. The event will also help us think through:

  • Key questions to ask people who have been through Safeguarding Procedures
  • Different ways of asking them
  • Different ways of reaching people who we would like to participate locally
  • How we will offer support to people who take part

The event will feature Touchstone and Leep1’s work about the importance of Leeds Citizen-centred approach ‘Talk to Me, Hear My Voice’.
Venue: Leeds Town Hall, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AD

For more info on these events, please contact us by email at [email protected] or by calling Advonet’s main office number on 0113 244 0606.