Advocacy ServiceAnnual Report2014/15

Author: K E Ryder

Date: 27th August, 2015

1

Table of Contents

Page 2 - Introduction

Section 1 : Service ProvisionPage 3 - Publicity

Page 4 - Advocacy Provision

Page 6 - Recruiting and Training the Advocates

Section 2 : Equality MonitoringPage 7 - Equality Monitoring user statistics

Section 3: AppendicesPage 11 - I – Equality Impact Assessment

Page 14 - II – Quality Audit targets and progress

Appendices 3 – 5 are appended to this report

III – Sessional Worker Supervision Pack

IV – Partnership Information Pack

V –Publicity Material

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IntroductionIn the first 4 years, the One Voice has had a contract with Wolverhampton City Council to provide a peer advocacy service for people with long term physical and sensory impairments. In the last year 18 months we have also been providing an advocacy service for other groups of disabled people – people with mental health issues, and people with learning disabilities, and in the final quarter of the year 2014-15, we provided a one-to-one advocacy service for older people, family carers, and people without mental capacity, who were unable to get a service with other organisations.We have enjoyed developing our client base, as it has helped our advocates to gain valuable experience, knowledge and expertise in more areas. This will help contribute to our efficiency when we begin the new advocacy contract for disabled people, non-professional carers, older people, and people with alcohol/substance misuse issues.

We requested a quality audit from the City Council in the final quarter of 2014/15, so we could make sure we were in a healthy state to deliver the new contract.This took place in January 2015.The targets arising from the audit, and our progress against them, can be found in the Appendices.

This report covers the work done on the One Voice Advocacy Project in the financial year from April 2014 to March 2015.Sections One and Two cover the service objectives required by item 19 of our contract with Wolverhampton City Council.

If you need a copy of this report in Large Print or on audio cd, please email us:mail@1voice.org.uk

Or you can download a copy of the report on the downloads page of our new advocacy website, here:http://wolvesadvocacy.uk/downloads/

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Section 1 : Service ProvisionPublicityWhile more people are finding their way to us, and more agencies are referring people to us, we still have the problem that not every citizen in our client group who needs our service, will know about us, and therefore be without the support they need to help make informed decisions about their lives.

We have attempted to address this by increasing the mode and number of our promotional activities:

Going to community groups and meetings to talk about our service, Regular drop-in service at venues that our client groups use, Attending events to publicise our service, Word-of-mouth of current/past service users Listings in online and print service directories

We do regular drop-ins at the Well-Women’s Centre, Gender Matters, and Access for Independence.We will increase our drop-ins in the coming year, to cover places attended by our new service user groups.We have contacted or done talks at partner organisations, including Access to Business, Age UK, WFTA, Wolverhampton Homes, Eyes, LGBT, Gender Matters, Voice4Parents, Aquarius, and Mental Health Groups.We attended the City Show, Castlecroft Home, Accord Community Day, Low Hill Community Centre Health & Wellbeing event, Voluntary Sector Council Health & Care Sector event, and the University Mental Health Day.We distributed over 400 of our leaflets during the year.1

1 Copy of leaflet is in Appendix I

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Advocacy ProvisionIn 2014/15 we saw a lot more clients than in previous years – 185 people – an increase of 33%.During the year 130 of those cases were opened and completed – with in most cases a result that pleased the service user. Those cases that have not yet been closed are around issues that require intermittent support – such as helping a person with a learning disability to come to a decision about supported housing.The graph below shows the breakdown of referrals, open and closed for the 2014 – 2015 project term.

Referral

Open

Closed

020406080

100120140160180200 185

134

70

The largest referral source of 78 is self-referral followed by 36 from Social Workers 10 Women’s Well Being Centre, 8 Healthy Minds, Advocates, Age UK and Family equally 6, 4 Friends, Support Worker, Access to Business and Job Centre equally 3, 2 from The Maltings and West Park Hospital. Equally 1 from Beacon Centre for the Blind, CAB, Rethink, Civic Centre, Sandwell Advocacy, Care Worker, St Georges Hostel, Specialist Mentor, Welfare Rights, Advisor Direct Life, Pohwer, West Midlands Police and Independent Age, making a total of 184.

The graph below shows the breakdown of where our referrals came from and the number of cases from different providers.

5

A4I

Socia

l Work

er

Health

y Mind

s

Age U

KFri

end

Acces

s to B

usine

ss

Malting

s

Beaco

n Cen

tre fo

r Blin

d

Rethink

Sand

well Adv

ocac

y

St Geo

rges

Spec

ialist

Men

tor

Adviso

r Dire

ct Lif

e

Pohwer

1

78

36

10 8 6 6 6 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Referral Agents

Our largest areas of support covered are benefits 67, social issues 36, care 24, child protection, 14 debt, 12 housing followed by social service issues, accessibility, financial, medical, safeguarding, guardianship, education and hospital.

Benefi

ts

Socia

lCare

Child P

rotec

tion

Debt

Housin

g

Socia

l Ser

vices

Acces

sabil

ity

Finan

cial

Medica

l

Safe

guar

ding

Guardi

ansh

ip

Educ

ation

Hospit

al

67

3624

15 14 12 7 2 2 1 1 1 1 1

Services Areas of Complaints

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Recruitment and Training of AdvocatesDuring the year, we trained 3 new advocates. We recruited trainees from the Black and Asian communities, since most of our BME advocates were no longer available for a variety of reasons - full time work elsewhere, full time education, DWP mandatory work experience (the placements are decided by the DWP), and long term ill health. So far only one of the 3 new trainees has completed his portfolio, and he passed the course.Since then, we have also had 2 advocates return to us.

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Section 2 : Equality MonitoringAll of our clients are asked to or helped to fill in an equality monitoring form, and we use these combined statistics to identify any gaps in service provision. So, for example, if we find that we are not serving many Asian people, or gay people, we will target groups that serve those people, or places they go, to let them know about our service and how to access it.

This year, in common with some previous years, not everyone has filled in a form, and advocates and co-ordinator have not strongly encouraged them to do so. We think this is a weakness that needed to be addressed. In order to amend this, we now do the form with the new client as part of our advocacy partnership paperwork, which is done at the first meeting.

These are the equality statistics collected in 2014/15 before this adjustment was in place.

Asian In

dian

Black B

ritish

Black C

aribbea

n

Mixed R

ace

White

British

White

Black C

aribbea

n

Black A

frica

n

White

Oth

erOth

er

Prefe

r not

to sa

y104070

10010

80 74ETHNICITY

8

75%

25%

SEXUAL ORIENTATIONStraight Prefer not to say

8

53

215

65

Religion

CatholicChristianSikhHinduNonePrefer not to say

9

10

40

16

33

24

12

38Disability

46%54%

GENDERMale Female

10

Divorce

d

Marrie

d

Single

Separ

ated

Civil P

artn

ersh

ip

Widow

Widow

er

Prefe

r not

to sa

y

03060

172259

1 2 3 2

78

MARITAL STATUS

10

101334

12

5516-2425-3435-4445-5465+Prefer not to say

AGE RANGE

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AppendicesThe purpose of the Appendices is to include examples of our work, how our performance meets agreed targets, the paperwork we use with our clients and other things that don’t readily fit into the main body of the report.

Appendix 1 - Equality Impact AssessmentWhenever One Voice makes a change to our service, we analyse the Equality impact. Although this is not legally required, it is required of the Local Authority, and since most of our contracts are with the local authority, it is good practice to analyse policy or practice changes for equality implications.

Our Equality Impact Assessment should:

Assess likely impact of proposed policies or projects – what is it, who is it for who might be excluded(why)

Monitor for any adverse impact Adjust project or policy accordingly

The Assessment can be seen in the following table, which is a modification of the general template we use for impact assessment

Policy/Project Change: Expanding service to cover new client groups2

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Stage process What effect did this have

ConsultationWho have we

consulted:

Disabled people

Present Service

Users

What did they say

The identified need from this project arose from disabled

people – via what they told the council they wanted via

the Long Term Impairments service plan, and via things

identified to One Voice in our wide-ranging research of

disabled people’s agendas, published in our What

Disabled People Want and Need reports (2004, 2009).

The expanded services has the effect of increasing the

range of disabled people who can get the service, and

increasing the potential number of disabled people

trained as paid advocates.

At our AGM and via discussions with groups and service

users, the view was unanimously positive

Modification Has consultation led

to modification?

In line with our

intentions

What did we do:

When we were proposing to run the service we applied

the things disabled people had said to us, making it an

opportunity to train and give paid work experience to

unemployed disabled people, adding value to the

service, and enhancing it as a service provided by and for

disabled people.

We have trained and employed disabled people as

advocates from a wide range of impairment

backgrounds.

2 As well as long-term physical/sensory impairments the service is to be extended to cover people with mental health issues, people with learning disabilities

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Update November 2014

But as a result of the service expansion we have gone

out to other groups of people who will be entitled to our

service and recruited from there.

We will be doing the same in 2015/16 when our service

users will also include family carers older people and

people with substance misuse issues.

Monitoring

How and how often We monitor the service through our user data and

feedback every 6 months

Results of

Monitoring

Does monitoring

show equality

failures

(ie effect on one

group appears to be

different from

another group).

No

There has been an increase in people with learning

disabilities, and people with mental health issues using our

service, without detriment to our pre-existing service user

group

Other

commentsnone

Appendix II – Quality Audit targets and progress

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We requested a quality audit from the Council’s Quality Assurance Team in the final quarter of 2014/15 to test our readiness for our new contract commencing april 2015, and indentify improvements.

There were some problems with the record-keeping of the previous project co-ordinator, so we had already put some improvements in place, but we wanted to ensure good practice for the 3 year contract due to commence in April 2015

Below is the Action Plan and our target dates

Findings by QAC Team One Voice Action to be taken By whom deadline

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Service user records do not always contain the name and details of Provider referring the client to the Service

New regime – this is checked before assignment to advocate

All have a referred by part of form

All referrals from another agency have to use a referral reform – only Age uk have not done this

all done

2

When someone has signed the partnership form on behalf of the service user, it does not state who the person is, their relationship with the service user and whether they have authorisation to sign the form on the client’s behalf.

It is recommended that it is also recorded how the agreement has been discussed with the service user.

Refresher training for advocates

Users sign to say they have understood and agree.

KR

KR/ALL

done + ongoing

done

done

3

Not all records evidence all support offered to a client, other than face to face contact. For example, if the advocate makes calls to a finance department, who they spoke to and the outcome of the conversation are recorded.

Remedial Training to all advocates

Checked by advocacy supervisor

KR/JS/ALL

KB

May 30

Ongoing

There is currently no evidence to show that where concerns or risks are identified they have been

Refresher training for all – checklist will be distributed

ALL May 30

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4 addressed and risk assessed. Referral agents do risk assessment. Where co-ordinator identifies risk s/he addresses it KB

5

The team has identified some gaps in their systems for collecting information relating to the employment of advocates. There are currently some advocates without application forms on file.

Missing AFs will be redone

All staff files will be updated at next round of supervisions

All co-ordinators + Advocates

June 30

6 There are currently some advocates who do not have supervision contracts in place.

These exist in a mix of electronic and print copies,there will be an electronic file on each advocate, incl the relevant certs, contact details, supervisory etc

[training completed is recorded on a separate spreadsheet]

JS/KB

staff

May 30 ongoing

done + ongoing

7

It is important that Supervisions occur at the frequency detailed within the supervision policy.

Quarterly supervisions scheduled via advocates meeting. Supervisions more frequent where remedial[remedial ones done as and when, with monthly opportunity]

JS/other May 30

done + ongoing

8

There is currently no evidence to show that where a complaint or concern has been raised with a staff member, that this is followed up within the timescales stated on the record. A copy of the follow up review should be placed on file.

Agreed

(problems with previous regime rectified)

[no complaints so far to record]

staff Immediate

done + ongoing

9

The Recruitment policy does not currently cover how advocates are recruited and selected.

It also does not cover how decisions are made if an advocate has a positive DBS, and what support is provided to advocates following employment.

The application form for advocates training currently relates to

To be amended

To be amended

30 th april

30 th april

done + ongoing

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employment as paid advocates which could be confusing.

The Organisation would also benefit from having a procedure regarding advocacy training, including who can apply and what the process is following application.

Amended

Will be rewritten

done

10

There is not a record of all training undertaken by advocates.

Now in existence in personnel file Service co-ordinators

Immediate

done + ongoing

11

Areas of work to be undertaken by volunteers is not currently detailed in the volunteer agreement.

It is added by hand in the form – it is individually tailored re impairment group

done

12

The Service maintains a list of DBS checks for staff and advocates. The list does not currently detail inactive Advocates and would benefit from doing so.

Now in place [JS] Immediate

done + ongoing

13

There is currently not a job description in place for advocates.

Will be written as separate document from charter

30 th april

14

Confidentiality agreement to be reviewed to include internet safety, safe storage of records when out of the building and information sharing with other agencies.

To be reviewed and rewritten May 30th

15 Advocates personnel files do not contain information relating to advocate observations, shadowing etc.

Addressed from now Co-ordinators

Immediate

done + ongoing

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The Organisation are lacking some of the Councils Procedures and best practice tools.

QA&C Officer to send over a copy of the Children’s safeguarding board policy for reference.

QA&C officer to send over good practice guidance in relation to safer recruitment.

QA&C Officer

all

25.02.15

Using our own based on it

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QA&C officer to send over training matrix for use or amendment.

17

The organisation currently only record complaints resolution as part of the annual report. It would be beneficial to review the complaints process to add in an opportunity to record resolution when there is a complaint.

In place done + ongoing

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