• safeguarding people who are in situations where they are vulnerable
• speaking up for, or standing alongside, people who are not being heard - helping them to express their views and make their own decisions and contributions
• enabling people to make informed choices about, and remain in control of, their own social and health care

What is independent advocacy?

Independent advocacy is carried out by individuals and organisations who are completely separate from the organisations who provide services. Independent advocates do not answer to managers in social work, health, housing, education, or any of the other services that vulnerable people depend on.

Independent advocates do not act in what they see as the ‘best interests’ of the person they advocate for in the same way that a social or health worker might. They do not try to ‘see both sides of the argument’. Instead, independent advocates act only according to the wishes of the person being advocated for. They do not take their own view of what is best or try to influence the person to make a different choice.

Independent advocacy comes in different forms. The main ones are:

• Citizen Advocacy: A one-to-one partnership between a trained unpaid volunteer and a vulnerable person. This tends to be a long-term relationship.
• Professional Advocacy: Paid professional staff with expert knowledge (legal, health or social care) act as advocates. These tend to work with people on a shorter-term basis than citizen advocates, supporting the person with a particular issue or issues.
• Collective (or Group) Self-Advocacy: Support is offered to allow vulnerable people to come together and gain strength from a collective voice.

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What is the role of Social Work Services?

Independent Advocacy is not a ‘service’ offered by Social Work Services or Glasgow City Council. Instead, we work with our partners in Health Services to fund and support independent services. We work with these independent services to identify barriers and shortfalls in the services that we offer.

There are a dozen or so independent advocacy organisations working in Glasgow; some of these are funded by Glasgow City Council and Greater Glasgow NHS Board, either separately or in partnership. These organisations tend to specialise in helping people with particular difficulties, for example older people, children, those with disabilities or mental health problems.

The Scottish Executive has asked Health Boards in Scotland to support independent advocacy. The way that Greater Glasgow NHS Board does this in co-operation with Glasgow City Council and other councils is detailed in the ‘Advocacy Plan for Greater Glasgow’. This plan also lists the advocacy providers that we support. A copy of the latest plan is available here. This is available in portable document format for downloading.  The Adobe Acrobat reader can be freely downloaded from the Adobe web site.

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Links to further information

Advocacy Safeguards Agency
The Advocacy Safeguards Agency is funded by the Scottish Executive to support the development of independent advocacy throughout Scotland. The agency also evaluates projects and sets national standards to ensure that high quality advocacy is provided.

For further information on the work of the agency contact: