York Advocacy hub supports partnership working as we feel having good relationships with partner agencies benefits the people who access our services.
We support people who need advocacy across a wide range of enquiry areas including housing, complaints, access to services and employment. Our advocates work in partnership with those who require advocacy. We work under instruction and not in best interests which means that we don’t influence the decision making process, nor do we provide professional or personal opinions on which option we think someone should follow.
Advocates provide information and options that are available to someone, dependent on their personal situation, so that they can make an informed choice, based on what they want to do, and not what others think is best for them. This may sometimes mean that we challenge decisions being made by other professionals, services or family members about someone’s care and treatment. It is important that an advocate retains their independent and impartial stance as our aim is to support people to have their own voice.
If someone has communication, understanding or capacity issues which may impact on their ability to either clearly communicate or instruct an advocate we will look at other approaches to advocacy such as Non-Instructed Advocacy (NIA). Even in these cases an advocate will not work in best interests or undertake capacity assessments.
An advocate can help someone to negotiate with other professionals to resolve issues and concerns as quickly as possible which benefits everyone involved as difficult situations are more likely to impact on someone’s health and well-being and direct time and resources away from organisations delivering their service
