Page 26 - Community Living Magazine 31 - 4

advocacy
the shrinking of local advocacy

Large organisations are sweeping up tenders to provide advocacy services across the
country. This is threatening grassroots projects that have grown over the years to meet
the needs of individual communities, fears Peter dawson

dvocacy started in the provides advocacy for everyone
1970s and 1980s for me, throughout Derbyshire.
awhen i worked as a nurse Good luck to them and to the
for people with learning growing number of people who
difficulties then as a service need and deserve advocacy
coordinator and training officer in support. I feel it will be hard for
social services. one major organisation to provide
I mistakenly thought at first that the locally sensitive, customised
nurses and other caring personnel response that is so often needed.
would be the most appropriate This is a trend. Advocacy seems
advocates for the people they to be getting increasingly
looked after. Gradually, I realised professionalised and “nationalised”
that effective advocacy should be – by which I mean there are large,
independent of services and based national organisations sweeping
on clear, strong ideas of equality up advocacy tenders throughout
and citizenship. An uphill struggle: Buxton-based Peaks & Dales Advocacy is one of the country.
Having been part of many small providers losing tenders to national bodies The best advocacy is consciously
institutionalised care and knowing based on the principles of
how disempowering it is, I felt strong based in London, is just one voice of people unconditional, positive regard promoted
support for the self-advocacy movement. with learning difficulties; I cannot disagree by Carl Rogers (1959). Like self-advocacy,
From 1990, changing from service with its strong commitment to the it is a tool for empowerment.
provider to advocacy enthusiast, I was principle of “nothing about us without us”. Peaks & Dales Advocacy may have lost
able to work with colleagues with learning In 2004, I became manager of Peaks & most of its funding for one-to-one
difficulties to develop self-advocacy Dales Advocacy, a small charity based in advocacy but it still exists. We support a
groups in Derbyshire and elsewhere. Buxton in the Derbyshire High Peak, an regular self-advocacy group who have
It seemed to me that groups should be organisation that recognises the recently made their own video and plan
as independent and self-managing as importance and centrality of self-advocacy. to produce more. We also are developing
possible but also often need to be We believe that good advocacy starts another tool towards empowerment –
appreciated, understood and supported by and ends with those we call our advocacy community development.
people without disabilities to some degree. partners and what they want to say to Many people in our area want
other people who are usually in some sort meaningful things to do and opportunities
local voices of decision-making role, whoever they to make and develop proper friendships
I had a role in the early days of Our Vision may be. The need for this sort of advocacy and relationships of their choosing. For
Our Future, which is still going strong in will end when society gets the message this, vulnerable people need information,
North east Derbyshire after 25 years. It that everyone has worth and a right to a communication and support to make and
manages itself, has not been hijacked or valued voice in their own lives. sustain informed choices. Maybe this is
taken over by any other organisation and, For nearly 30 years, Peaks & Dales advocacy by another name – inclusion
despite funding cutbacks and other Advocacy has offered support to anyone and equality continue to be our aims.
challenges, continues to grow. in its area who needs it. These are not The work must go on. Our values have
It gives its members constant only people with learning difficulties but to be expressed in the way the work is
opportunities to develop self-confidence, also those with mental health needs, done, not just in the outcomes – which is
skills, interests and a collective voice. They older people and others – anyone who why the people we work with are our
have always employed their own support could be vulnerable to being ignored and advocacy partners. n
and occasionally turn to trusted advisers marginalised. ● www.peaksanddalesadvocacy.org.uk
outside their group for help. It is no
thanks to me that they are still flourishing Professional shift Peter Dawson is an advocate/senior
but, nevertheless, I am proud of that fact However, I fear that much good, advocacy development worker at Peaks &
that, as someone without a learning independent, locally based advocacy, Dales Advocacy
difficulty, I am trusted to be consulted which uses volunteer advocates and
from time to time. knows communities well, is being Rogers CR (1959) A theory of therapy, Stevekraken/Wikimedia Commons
In the early 2000s, while working for replaced by something different. personality, and interpersonal relationships as
values Into Action’s advocacy project, I my own organisation lost its funding last developed in the client-centered framework. In:
came into contact with many advocacy year in a demanding, high-level tendering Kirschenbaum H, Henderson v, eds (1989) The
groups across the country. People First, process. Now, one large organisation Carl Rogers Reader. boston: Houghton mifflin

26 Vol 31 No 4 | Summer 2018 community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk