All about Advocacy

Hi everyone. I’m Clem Richards, and I manage our advocacy service here at Age UK Sutton. I’ve been invited to write about advocacy, what we do and how we help people in Sutton.

What is advocacy?

In a nutshell, advocacy is about empowerment and communication. It’s about supporting people who - for whatever reason - find themselves in a situation where they need a bit of extra support to be heard. Our advocacy service supports people to have their say, helping them to access the knowledge they need to make informed choices about their situation and assisting them to secure their rights.

When can advocacy help?

Well, it can help in a lot of different situations, because advocacy covers such a broad range of issues. For example, we do a lot of housing related advocacy - such as supporting people to communicate with their landlord or housing provider to ensure their rights as tenants are being met. We also attend appeal hearings to support clients challenging welfare benefit decisions - indeed, we’ve seen a rise in these cases.

These are just two examples, and there are so many more different life scenarios and situations where advocacy can support people to have a voice. We’ve helped people who feel they’ve received poor service from a provider to make a complaint, and we’ve supported individuals involved in disputes with neighbours and family members to come to a resolution.

We call this issue-based support, as it is dependent on the types of situations/issues that people need help with. If you aren’t sure whether advocacy can help - contact us anyway. We’ll listen to your story and even if it’s a case where we’re not the right service, we’ll do our best to put you in contact with someone who can assist.

Our advocacy service is for Sutton residents over the age of 50 who need someone to support them to get their voice heard and their wishes understood. We mainly work directly with people who are feeling vulnerable and want support around an issue. However, more and more carers, including partners and family members, are seeking support on behalf of their loved ones.

Older people, in particular, can face discrimination because of their age. I’ve seen cases where vulnerable people live in unacceptable conditions and receive shoddy service because they don’t want to make a fuss. In these situations, our advocates do their best to explain to individuals that they have rights which aren’t being met, and how to address this.

I firmly believe that anyone, regardless of their circumstances, should have the opportunity to make the most of their later life. Advocacy is one of the many services that enables people in Sutton to deal with the challenges that later life sometimes brings. We work closely with our colleagues delivering other services at Age UK Sutton as well as with other local organisations to empower older people to live how they choose.

I’m lucky to have a team of wonderful volunteer advocates who work with me to support Sutton residents. It’s a big commitment being a volunteer advocate, as it requires a good deal of training but it is extremely rewarding (I’m told!). I’m very proud of my team as we recently underwent a rigorous audit which monitors, among other things, the quality of the service and our adherence to confidentiality and the advocacy code of practice.

I know it can be difficult to fully understand what advocacy is, and I hope my post has made it a little clearer. As I mentioned earlier, we’re always happy to chat and see what we can do to help. And if you're interested in volunteering or fundraising to support our service, I’d love to hear from you, too!

You can call me on 020 8770 4614 or email me at clem.richards@ageuksutton.org.uk