Advocacy is about:

• Protecting your rights when you are vulnerable
• Listening to you
• Ensuring that you are listened to
• Providing you with information so that you can make informed choices and decisions
• Helping you to express yourself and take part in decisions which affect you
• Respecting your right to make your own choices
• Being there for you without conflict of interest

Advocacy is not about:

• Providing you with legal representation or supporting you in court
• Suing for financial damages or compensation
• Welfare Rights support
• Befriending
• Counselling or Treatment

Advocacy must:

• Be Accessible to all who require it within our remit
• Be Accountable to those who use it and fund it
• Put those who use it first
• Be as free as possible from conflicts of interest

Advocacy is not, primarily about complaining or seeking confrontation. It is about:

• Communication
• Resolution
• Helping you to be heard