Consulting with Advocates
Over 150 people from the advocacy sector attended 6 consultation events during June and July. The aims of the events were to a) raise awareness and encourage ownership of the development and b) to establish the content, length and level of the course. The participants were mainly advocacy managers, advocates and advocacy trainers however a small number of service users also attended. The project has also met with Leeds Advocacy Network; South West IMCA providers; Warrington Advocacy; Gain (Gateshead); Advocacy Consortium, North West Advocacy Network, Royal Association for Deaf People and the SIAA (Scottish Advocacy Alliance) to discuss the developments.The emerging themes are:
- Preference for the qualification to be offered at Level 3
- Significant demand for a degree level course to be offered
- Significant demand for an entry level course to be offered
- Overwhelming support for a modular structure
- Demand for pathways in addition to IMCA and IMHA
- Concerns over funding
- Concerns that commissioners will only fund services with qualified advocates thus having detrimental effect on user led advocacy services, volunteer advocacy services and self advocates with learning disabilities.
To read a PowerPoint summary of the findings click here.
A full report will be available HERE by 31st Nov.