The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

A MAP OF INDEPENDENT ADVOCACY ACROSS SCOTLAND

AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN ADVOCACY

NHS AYRSHIRE

There are three local authorities within Ayrshire & Arran NHS Board area:
North Ayrshire Council
East Ayrshire Council
South Ayrshire Council

Advocacy Planning Process

The Ayrshire & Arran Advocacy planning Group comprises stakeholders from the health board, primary care trust, acute care trust, each of the three local authorities, and up until recently, there has also been a representative of the Ayrshire & Arran Advocacy Workers Forum and a service user representative in attendance.

Following a series of consultation events, each of the three local authorities have set up separate advocacy steering groups (a Strategy Group in North Ayrshire), reflecting their diverse needs, which are responsible for planning and commissioning advocacy at the local level, supported by and feeding into the health board wide planning group. This model seems to be working very effectively, with the particular advantage of ensuring that all the relevant stakeholders, including users and advocacy providers, are represented on the groups and fully involved in the planning process. Feedback received from members of the group has so far been positive.

Advocacy Organisations in Ayrshire & Arran

Project details

• Not independent. Managed by Barnardo's
• Professional/volunteer individual advocacy
• Children
• South Ayrshire - Ayr North Social Inclusion Partnership

Project details

• Independent

• Citizen advocacy
• People (any age) with learning disabilities
• South Ayrshire

Project details

• Independent
• Professional and volunteer advocacy
• Serves vulnerable clients with housing and related issues
• North Ayrshire
• Evaluated in 2003 by Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire

Project details

• Independent
• Professional advocacy
• People between 16 and 65 with learning disabilities, mental health problems or acquired brain injuries and vulnerable older people
• East Ayrshire (including rural and outlying areas)

*Additional funding in 2003/4 specifically for older people's advocacy (community based) through a dedicated team of full and part time staff

Project details

• Independent
• Professional, volunteer and Citizen Advocacy
• People aged between 16 and 65 with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities and their carers
• North Ayrshire
• Evaluated in April 2003 by ASA

Project details

• Independent
• Self advocacy groups
• People with learning difficulties
• Various venues in South Ayrshire

Project details

• Not independent. Currently managed by Ayr Action for Mental Health but reviewing the feasibility of becoming independent
• Professional and collective advocacy
• People (aged 18-65) with mental health problems
• South Ayrshire
• Evaluated by ASA in 2003

Who Cares? Scotland

• Independent status yet to be confirmed
• Professional Advocacy
• Young People in care, or leaving care
• East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire
• 27,000 from East Ayrshire Council (27,810 in 04/05; 28,644 in 05/06)
• 29,363 from North Ayrshire Council
• 16,500 from South Ayrshire Council (subject to annual review)

The East Ayrshire Youth Advocacy Group has completed a needs analysis and is seeking to initiate a pilot project in Kilmarnock. An application has been made for community funding. A community Learning and Development Officer provides practical advice and support to the project. East Ayrshire Advocacy Steering Group also intends to invite a representative for young people's advocacy to participate in the group.

In North Ayrshire, a worker has been seconded from the Council to develop an Advocacy Strategy for young people, the first draft of which has recently been completed, following wide consultation with children and young people in the region and other stakeholders. The Advocacy Strategy Development Officer is funded through the Changing Children's Services fund to manage the implementation of the Young people's Advocacy Strategy and the North Ayrshire Youth Charter, and to employ a Young people's Advocacy and Rights Worker. 25,000 has been set aside towards the costs of developing the pilot project in line with the Strategy, with a further 6,000 sessional budget to employ staff to work with young people in developing their opportunities.

Total Local Statutory Funding for Ayrshire & Arran Advocacy in 2003/4

*Does not include additional money being invested in children/young people's advocacy in North Ayrshire, as the provider has not been confirmed; nor money for Who Cares? Scotland, as their independence status has yet to be agreed.

Note: The amounts for client groups cited above indicate specific provision, however generic advocacy provision tends to prioritise people with mental health problems, learning disabilities, acquired brain injuries, dementia, and other community care service users, so in real terms the amounts spent on these groups will be higher than indicated for the separate groups listed above.

Similarly the figures cited for each of the three types of advocacy refer to funding that is specifically allocated for these purposes, however, some advocacy providers (notably AIMS and East Ayrshire Advocacy Service) provide a combination of advocacy types which the figures above do not account for, because the proportion of their budgets spent on each is not monitored. Therefore the figure cited for 'individual' advocacy is disproportionately higher compared with 'citizen' and 'collective' than in real terms would be the case.

Gaps in Independent Advocacy

• People with physical disabilities and acute health needs, including the terminally ill
• Frail older people (in North and South Ayrshire)
• Homeless people in South Ayrshire. (East Ayrshire Advocacy Service has established links with Blue Triangle Housing Association to engage with people at risk of becoming homeless, and independent advocacy is provided in North Ayrshire through CHAP)
• People affected by addictions and other 'hidden groups' who do not fall within community care categories, but may be vulnerable due to their situation
• Collective advocacy for people with mental health problems (this is provided in part through the two respective generic advocacy organisations in North and East Ayrshire, Voice Advocacy in South Ayrshire, and through a local mental health forum in East Ayrshire, however users should be consulted on whether they would find it worthwhile to set up, in addition, collective advocacy groups which are separately constituted and resourced. In any case, existing advocacy organisations should monitor the proportion of their budget spent on collective advocacy).

Priorities for Development

• Individual and collective advocacy, which is sufficiently comprehensive to cover the needs of those likely to be affected by the new Mental Health Act. Current provision is unlikely to meet the increased demand that is likely to follow implementation of the Act, for example, for representation at Mental Health Tribunals etc.
• Independent Advocacy for Frail older people in North and South Ayrshire
• Consistency of 3-year funding across the board (The NHS Board and Local authorities are committed to ongoing funding of advocacy, subject to annual review, however this needs to be reflected in all service level agreements to ensure psychological independence)
• Capacity building of existing advocacy organisations to support them to provide ethnically and culturally appropriate services to people from Black and ethnic minority communities
• A strategy of Education and awareness raising on advocacy for all statutory service providing staff
• Promotion of advocacy amongst general public
• Future independence of VOICE and Children's Rights and Advocacy Service
• Ongoing programme of independent evaluation
• Housing and Education Departments to be included in ongoing advocacy planning processes

Conclusions

The advocacy planning partners in Ayrshire & Arran are to be congratulated for their commitment to the development of independent advocacy. This is evidenced by a considerable increase in resources, relative to other areas, as well as in the innovative and inclusive approach they are taking within the advocacy planning process, as described earlier.

In terms of new advocacy provision, two significant developments include the additional resources allocated by East Ayrshire Council towards independent advocacy for frail older people; and in North Ayrshire, the development of a children's advocacy strategy, along with additional funding, to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people. Meanwhile, South Ayrshire Council continues to invest a significant proportion of its budget in advocacy. Nevertheless, as in all areas of Scotland, there remain significant gaps in independent advocacy provision, which require to be filled.

Independent evaluations of two separate advocacy organisations in Ayrshire & Arran indicated that the quality of advocacy provided there is high, and that it appropriately meets local needs. It will be important therefore, to continue to monitor the demand and take up of services to ensure that needs continue to be met, and to review the services regularly (to include independent evaluation), so that quality is sustained, and improved.

This year has also been momentous in terms of the decision of the three local authorities to take the lead on planning and commissioning advocacy in their own regions through separate local authority advocacy steering groups. This decision was taken following local consultation, which suggested that the needs of each area were quite distinct and that people wanted more local ownership of the planning process through involvement in decisions which directly affect them. The Steering Groups have indicated their plans to build the capacity of user members to convene them at appropriate stages.

Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board continue to be closely involved in the planning of advocacy, through regular feedback, and within the Health Board wide advocacy steering group, which oversees all activity. The Chair of the Ayrshire and Arran Advocacy Steering Group also sits on the North Ayrshire Advocacy Strategy Group. The new arrangements, which reflect other local planning processes and structures pertaining to the Joint Future agenda, are reported to be working well. Some work requires to be done to ascertain if and how users and advocacy providers feel they might best be represented on the Ayrshire wide advocacy steering group.

« Previous | Contents | Next »