Advocacy
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy offers individuals one to one or group support to:
- Tell others what they need or want
- To make decisions about their life. To make choices and to take control of situations.
- To understand their rights and to implement these rights in their daily life.
Sussex Advocacy Partnership
Our 1-1 Advocacy services are delivered as part of the Sussex Advocacy Partnership. The Sussex Advocacy Partnership brings together specialist advocacy providers to deliver an integrated advocacy service across Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.
As part of this new partnership, Speak Out will continue to provide Issue Advocacy, Citizen Advocacy, Drop-in Advocacy, Care Act Advocacy services in Brighton and Hove.
Want to make a referral?
Advocacy is a free and confidential service. Referrals can be made to Speak Out for someone who:
- has a learning disability
- is 17+ years old
- lives in Brighton or Hove
You can make an online referral by downloading a referral form >>
Issue Advocacy
An issue advocate gives support to someone when they need help with a particular problem.
These are some problems people have:
- They want to live somewhere else
- They do not feel safe
- They do not understand their rights
- They need help talking to a wide range of professionals
- They need help to prepare for and speak up at meetings with service providers
- They need support to access services and build networks
An advocate will agree a plan for the advocacy so that everyone is clear what the advocacy is about and when it will end.
Find out more:
If you want to find out more about advocacy:
Drop-in Advocacy
At our Drop-ins, people can meet our 1-1 Drop-in advocate in private. They can support people to deal with a problem.
They can support people to:
- Understand information
- Make calls to professionals and services
- Send emails
- Talk about their options, if they need to make a decision
- Link to other services
- Represent their views
- Build self-confidence and self-advocacy skills
We have drop-ins across central, east and west Brighton. To find out more about when and where our drop-ins take place, please click here: link to 3C: Drop-ins??
Find out more:
Please contact Ana:
Parents' Advocacy
We provide advocacy for parents involved in Child Protection proceedings.
An advocate will support individuals to:
- Understand their rights
- Understand information shared by professionals
- Be involved in decisions about their life and their child’s life
- Have their voice heard by professionals
- Access to support services and build support networks
- An advocate will agree a plan for the advocacy so that everyone is clear what the advocacy is about and when it will end.
Find out more:
Citizen Advocacy
Citizen advocates support their advocacy partners in many ways, including:
- Offering longer term advocacy support
- Building the skills and confidence to speak up for themselves
- At care review meetings, making sure that they have a say about their care plan
- Helping them speak to staff, professionals and family about things that important to them
- Making sure they get the services they need including; health, education, employment and leisure opportunities
- Supporting them to take part in their community
- Building networks of support
At present we are only able to support a small number of Citizen Advocacy partnerships.
Find out more:
Please contact us for more information:
Care Act Advocacy
Care Act advocacy is a statutory right for individuals who experience substantial difficulty or have no one appropriate to support them.
We provide support to individuals to prepare for and become involved as much as possible in:
- Care assessments
- Care and support planning
- Care and support reviews
- Safeguarding
- Transition planning
Find out more:
Referrals are accepted on the Sussex Advocacy Partnership Care Act referral form. Please contact Pohwer:
