All about advocacy
Information and practical guidance for professionals, commissioners, and partners working alongside advocacy and involvement services.
This section focuses on how advocacy works in practice, when to refer, and how to support people’s rights, voice, and participation.
Looking for something that’s not here? Please let is know – we’re always looking to expand our resources and support the community in which we work.
A deeper dive
Click below to find out more.
When and how to involve an advocate
Advocacy can be helpful at many points, but it’s particularly important when someone may struggle to understand information, express their views, or have their wishes heard in decision-making.
Involving an advocate early can prevent issues from escalating and helps make sure that processes are fair, inclusive, and focused on the person.
Advocacy may be appropriate when:
- A person finds it difficult to speak up or be listened to
- Decisions feel complex, pressured, or high-risk
- There is a clear power imbalance
- A person disagrees with decisions being made about them
- Someone has substantial difficulty understanding or weighing information
- Non-instructed advocacy may be needed to represent wishes that are not easily expressed
Advocates do not replace professional roles or decision-makers. Instead, they support people to understand what is happening, express their views, and have those views taken seriously.
If you’re unsure whether advocacy is appropriate in a particular situation, or what type of advocacy may be needed, we’re happy to talk this through. More detailed guidance and case-specific advice is available through our commissioned and spot-purchase work.
Working well with advocates
Advocates work alongside professionals, not instead of them. Good partnership working is built on mutual respect, clarity of roles, and a shared focus on the person.
Working well with advocates means:
- Understanding that the advocate’s role is to represent the person’s wishes, rights, and feelings – even when these differ from professional views
- Sharing relevant information in a timely way, with appropriate consent
- Giving advocates reasonable access to meetings, paperwork, and decision-making processes
- Allowing space for the person’s voice to be heard, even when it is challenging
- Seeing advocacy as a tool for better outcomes, not an obstacle
- Strong professional–advocate relationships often lead to clearer decisions, reduced conflict, and more inclusive practice.
We offer tailored guidance and training on effective partnership working with advocates, including role clarity and managing complex situations. Get in touch to find out more.
Voice, involvement and co-production
People with lived experience are experts in their own lives and in the services they use.
Meaningful involvement goes beyond consultation, it creates space for people to influence, shape, and improve services.
Voice and involvement can include:
- Speaking-up groups and user forums
- Service design and review
- Policy and strategy input
- Quality improvement and evaluation
- Co-production with commissioners and providers
Effective involvement is:
- Accessible and inclusive
- Properly supported
- Clear about what influence people will have
- Valued as expertise, not anecdote
One day this might mean sitting alongside commissioners at a planning meeting, another day it could involve reviewing accessible information or sharing experiences to improve services for others.
We support organisations to design meaningful involvement and co-production approaches that are accessible, ethical, and impactful. This includes planning, facilitation, and evaluation support. Contact us for a chat about how to make space for real, meaningful co-production.
Accessibility and inclusive communication (for professionals)
Accessible communication is essential for ethical, effective, and lawful practice. When information isn’t accessible, people are excluded from decisions that affect their lives.
Good accessible communication means:
- Using plain English as a minimum standard
- Providing information in the right format, at the right time
- Understanding different communication needs and preferences
- Avoiding unnecessary jargon and complexity
- Checking understanding, rather than assuming it
Accessibility is about moving barriers so that everyone can engage meaningfully.
Through our Easy Read Conversion service, we provide specialist support, training, and quality checking for accessible information and communication, including Easy Read and inclusive engagement. If you’d like to strengthen your practice, we can help.
Spot-purchase advocacy and commissioned work
There are times when statutory or community advocacy isn’t available, or when more intensive, specialist support is needed. In these cases, spot-purchase or commissioned advocacy can provide a flexible, person-centred solution.
Our commissioned work supports:
- Complex or time-limited advocacy needs
- Situations requiring specialist knowledge or experience
- Additional capacity where demand exceeds local provision
- Independent involvement in reviews, investigations, or service development
All commissioned advocacy remains independent, rights-based, and focused on the person’s wishes and wellbeing.
If you’re considering spot-purchase advocacy or commissioned support, we can talk through options, scope, and suitability. Further details are available via our spot-purchase advocacy page, or contact us directly for a chat to find out more.
Safeguarding, confidentiality and advocacy
People who struggle to speak up or be heard can be at greater risk of harm, exclusion, or having decisions made without them. Advocacy plays an important role in safeguarding by supporting people to express their wishes, rights, and feelings, including in complex or high-risk situations.
This section outlines how advocacy sits alongside safeguarding and confidentiality duties, including non-instructed advocacy, and how advocates and professionals can work together to promote safety, dignity, and wellbeing.
Confidentiality and trust
If you work with us as a professional, commissioner, or partner, confidentiality is central to how we build trust – with you and with the people we support together.
When working with The Advocacy Project, you can expect us to:
- Handle shared information responsibly – information is shared on a need-to-know basis and only for agreed purposes.
- Be clear about boundaries – we are transparent about what can be shared, when consent is needed, and the limited circumstances where information may need to be shared to prevent harm.
- Keep the person at the centre – wherever possible, people are involved in decisions about their information and understand how it is being used.
- Work collaboratively with professionals – we support good information-sharing practice and work with partners to balance confidentiality, safeguarding responsibilities, and effective joint working.
- Follow clear policies and legal duties -our approach is grounded in data protection law and clear organisational policies, which all staff, volunteers, and trustees are trained to follow.
A shared responsibility
Good confidentiality practice is not just about compliance, it’s about respect, clarity, and strong working relationships. We encourage partners to:
- Check consent before sharing personal information
- Be clear about purpose and expectations when information is exchanged
- Raise questions early if something feels unclear or sensitive
- See confidentiality as part of inclusive, ethical practice, not a barrier to working well together
For full details, including how we manage safeguarding and risk alongside confidentiality, please see our Privacy Policy and safeguarding page.
If you’d like to talk through how advocacy, safeguarding, or information-sharing works in a specific partnership or piece of work, we’d welcome that conversation. Contact us to find out more.