Advocacy Partners
McMillan House, 54 Cheam Common Road, Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 8RH
Tel: 020 8330 6644 Fax: 020 8330 6622
E-mail: Web: www. advocacypartners.org
May 2009
Dear Applicant
Thank you for your interest in working with Advocacy Partners. I am pleased to enclose an application pack.
Advocacy Partners promotes the Rights, Voices and Choices of people with learning disabilities, older people, and people with physical impairments or mental health needs. We provide independent advocacy so that people can have control over their lives, take decisions, be treated fairly and participate as equal citizens. We have a strong focus on advocating alongside people with the greatest needs.
Established in 1981, Advocacy Partners was the first advocacy scheme in the U.K. We have continued to lead work locally and nationally to enable greater choice and control by people who use social and health care.
A Job You Can Believe In
You will need to be flexible and adaptable. Able to provide effective support to people who face discrimination or disadvantage. The ability to work effectively with key stakeholders, including family members and professionals will also prove vital to your success.
Advocacy Partners is committed to enabling each member of its team to fulfil her or his full potential. With a clear programme of induction, regular one to one support from skilled managers, an emphasis on team working and a structured approach to your personal and professional development, we will help you to develop the skills you need now and in the future.
Moving into Advocacy?
This is a very good time to be considering a move into advocacy. Appreciation of the need for independent advocacy is higher than ever before in many different sectors.
Specific previous experience of providing independent advocacy is not required. We encourage applicants from a wide range of career backgrounds who have the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and values. If you are considering moving into advocacy and would like to find out more, www.actionforadvocacy.org.uk provides a good starting point for web-based research.
Further Information
Further information about the post is provided in the following enclosures:
· Returning your application and key dates.
· Job Descriptions and Person Specification.
· Practical Information sheet.
· Application Form together with Guidance and Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
The closing date for applications is 10am on Monday 8th June 2009.
We look forward to receiving your application.
Yours sincerely
Jonathan Senker
Chief Executive
Returning Your Application and Key Dates
PLEASE NOTE
If you are applying for more than one post, a separate application must be completed and submitted for each post applied for. This will help ensure that you clearly give the relevant information to meet the different person specifications for different posts.
By post
Please return your application form and equal opportunities monitoring form to:
Admin Team
Advocacy Partners
McMillan House
54 Cheam Common Road
Worcester Park
Surrey KT4 8RH
By Email
Applications are also accepted by email to . It is your responsibility to ensure that applications are received, so if emailing you may want to use “request receipt”. Short-listed candidates will be asked to bring signed applications to their interview.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 10am on Monday 8th June 2009.
Short-listing
Invitations to interview are expected to be sent to short-listed candidates by Thursday 19th June 2009.
Advocacy Partners: Purpose and Summary of Activities
Advocacy Partners
Advocacy Partners promotes the Rights, Voices and Choices of people with learning disabilities, older people, and people with physical impairments or mental health needs. We provide independent advocacy to enable people to have control over their lives, make decisions, be treated fairly and participate fully in community life. Formed in 1981, Advocacy Partners was the first independent advocacy organisation in the UK.
A – Direct Services
Advocacy Services for people with learning disabilities
We aim to ensure that there is a range of advocacy support available, so that each person can have assistance tailored to their own requirements. Our services include Professional Advocacy, Citizen Advocacy and support to Self Advocates and Self Advocacy groups. These services are provided in the London Boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond - Upon-Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth, and in Kent Surrey, and West Sussex. We have particular advocacy services which work flexibly in a number of areas to enable younger people with learning disabilities to express views and make changes.
Older people with disabilities
Our service for older people with disabilities in Merton and Sutton enables these people to have a voice that is heard and respected. We work especially with people who face the greatest disadvantage, including those who are using mental health services, are isolated or very physically frail.
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA)
In order to promote and safeguard the interests of people who may otherwise be amongst the most vulnerable, we provide a statutory IMCA service. In London, this service is provided in Camden, Croydon, Islington, Merton, Sutton, Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth. We are also the IMCA provider for people in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex. We are expanding the IMCA teams in order to respond the new requirements of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
People who use specialist mental health services
Many of the people with whom we work across our services have experience of mental distress. We also have two dedicated services especially for people who use mental health services. In Lewisham, our team provides a service to people receiving in-patient services, especially people detained under the Mental Health Act. In Sutton, our service supports older people living in specialist mental health provision.
Advocacy services for adults who use or require social care
Established in September 2008, our London Advocacy for Independence service will work especially our main areas of operation in the Capital, to enable people with high support need to have greater choice about and access to Personalised Budgets and Direct Payments.
Support Brokerage
Support brokerage enables people to plan and arrange social care support, often using Personal (or individual) Budgets. Advocacy Partners is developing Support Brokerage both by employing Support Brokers and finding ways in which different people and organisations can assist people to plan and arrange their own social care. We are also actively involved in emerging thinking and development in relation to Personalised Budgets and the transformation of social care in several areas and have helped to shape thinking especially on the development of Support Brokerage both locally and nationally.
Quality
We are committed to ensuring excellent advocacy and to continual improvement. Our professional advocacy services were independently assessed on behalf of the Community Legal Services Commission and awarded their Quality Mark. Our internal systems are geared to the maintenance of this standard. We are also involved in the development by Action for Advocacy of a Quality Mark specific to this sector and embrace this as an opportunity to demonstrate our high standards and promote further improvement
B – Scale of operation
· 1,500 people used our services (2007/8).
· Main services in 11 London Local Authorities and Brighton and Hove, Kent Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex.
· 65 members of our staff team.
· Over 100 volunteers.
C – External Activities- Recent Examples
We are reliant for our ability to promote the rights, voices and choices of people with whom we work, and for the organisation’s development, on numerous partnerships and networks. We work closely with Action for Advocacy, the leading national resource and support agency for the advocacy sector, which is chaired (in a personal capacity) by the Chief Executive of Advocacy Partners.
Building on our successful advocacy provision, we continue to play a leadership role in our sectors, work to inform debate nationally, and promote positive change.
Our team have spoken widely to encourage better responses to the concerns of people who use social care services and increase awareness and understanding of the role of advocacy in securing equal rights and justice. Examples include key-note speeches at conferences ranging from Community Care’s A life like any other conference to a symposium of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Intensive Care Society; and include speeches to key events organised by the Ann Craft Trust, All Party Parliamentary Groups, Association for Supported Living, Office for Disability Issues and Care Services Improvement Partnership.
We have supported Frances Clarke, a powerful self advocate who has profound and multiple learning disabilities, to inform and inspire people through her presentations at national events.
Advocacy Partners has played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of the Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) service. We developed large parts of the first national compulsory advocacy training which was for IMCA. Under commission from the Department of Health, we have developed this material so that it can be formally accredited as a part of an initiative to ensure advocates are trained to nationally agreed standards. We are now writing national training materials on the Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards and specialist guidance on safeguarding vulnerable adults (the latter together the University of Cambridge and the Ann Craft Trust). Both of these sets of work are, again, commissioned by the Department of Health.
Our work has been published widely. Recent major publications/ book chapters written or co-authored by Advocacy Partners team members include: a review and recommendations for successful support planning and support brokerage in the evaluation of In Control’s second phase; a forthcoming book chapter about IMCA; the review and republication of Response-Ability, a practical guide to working with men with learning disabilities who sexually abuse; the revision of Sex and the 3R’s Rights, Rights and Responsibilities and writing on inclusion and older people with learning disabilities. Articles be our team have been published recently in Community Living, Community Connecting, the Journal of Adult Protection, General Medical Council Magazine), Learning Disability Today, Living Well, Planet Advocacy and Working with Older People.