What is Advocacy in Care?
Advocacy in care means ensuring that every person’s voice is heard, their rights are protected, and their choices are respected. This means supporting individuals to express their views, make informed decisions about their lives, and access the services they need.
Every person, regardless of their age, disability, or health condition, has the right to be treated with dignity and to have control over their own life. Advocacy is a vital part of care provision, and is usually commissioned by social care and delivered by trained professionals. Advocates, including Independent Mental Capacity Assessors (IMCAs) are required to be separate from the delivery of the care service to ensure impartiality.
Why Advocacy Matters in Home Care
Home care is deeply personal. When care is provided in someone’s own home, we’re entering their private space, their sanctuary. This makes advocacy even more important. Receiving care doesn’t mean losing autonomy. It helps maintain independence and ensures we find ways to support people while respecting their desire to remain in control.
Advocacy means ensuring that care is provided in a way that upholds dignity and recognises each person’s worth. Every person deserves respect, regardless of their care needs. It also enables choice. People continue to have a say in what happens to them from simple daily decisions to major life choices. Most importantly, advocacy builds trust, and creates the foundation for effective care relationships.
Advocacy in Practice
Independent advocacy professionals work alongside care services to make sure every person’s voice is heard. These trained advocates are separate from care providers like Aster Care to maintain impartiality, but working together is crucial. When an advocate is assigned to someone receiving care, they might spend time simply listening, really trying to understand what the person is saying, even when they communicate differently or need more time to express themselves.
Professional advocates are skilled at supporting decision-making. They help people understand their options and support them to make their own choices. They often challenge assumptions, asking whether care plans truly reflect what the person wants, rather than what professionals think is best. Advocates regularly help with communication, acting as a go-between for the person and various services. They help people navigate complex systems and make sure their voice is heard in meetings and assessments.
As care providers, we support this process by making sure advocates can access the person when needed, sharing relevant information (with permission), and working together to put any changes into practice that come from the advocacy process.
Advocacy for People with Learning Disabilities
For adults with learning disabilities, advocacy becomes particularly vital. Society often underestimates what people with learning disabilities can understand and decide for themselves. Good advocacy means using accessible communication methods that work for each individual and allowing extra time for decision-making processes. It’s important to support people to develop skills for self-advocacy, while ensuring that families and professionals don’t speak for someone when they can speak for themselves. Creating environments where people feel safe to express their true preferences is essential.
Advocacy for People Living with Dementia
- Learning to communicate in ways that work for each person at different stages
- Looking for non-verbal cues and alternative ways of expressing preferences
- Involving families and friends who know the person well, while still respecting the individual’s voice
- Advocating for approaches that maintain personhood and dignity
- Ensuring that past wishes and values are considered in current care decisions
Family Advocacy and Support
- Understand their loved one’s rights within the care system
- Navigate complex health and social care processes
- Balance their own needs with their advocacy role
- Access respite and support services
- Communicate effectively with care providers and other professionals
The Legal Framework: Rights and Protections
The Care Act 2014 places a duty on local authorities to provide advocacy services for people who would otherwise struggle to be involved in care assessments and planning.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 ensures that decisions are made in someone’s best interests when they lack capacity, and that less restrictive alternatives are always considered first.
The Equality Act 2010 protects against discrimination and requires reasonable adjustments to ensure equal access to services.
Building an Advocacy-Centred Approach
Staff Training: We provide regular training for all our care staff on communication skills, rights-based approaches, and person-centred thinking. Our team learns to recognise and respond to different communication styles and needs.
Care Planning: We ensure that every care plan reflects genuine choice and preference, not just professional recommendations. Our care planning process involves extensive consultation with the person, their family, and other important people in their life.
Regular Reviews: We create dedicated time and space for people to voice concerns, celebrate successes, and adjust care approaches. These aren’t just tick-box exercises – they’re meaningful conversations about what’s working and what could be better.
Accessible Communication: We work with each person to find communication methods that work for them, whether that’s through visual aids, extra time, or involving family members who know them well.
Partnership Working: We collaborate closely with independent advocacy services, local authorities, and other organisations to ensure comprehensive support for the people we care for.
Common Challenges with Advocacy in Care
Complex Family Dynamics: Sometimes family members have different views about what’s best. The key is always to center the voice of the person receiving care while supporting healthy family communication.
Capacity Concerns: When someone’s capacity fluctuates or is questioned, it’s important to assume capacity unless proven otherwise and to support decision-making rather than replacing it.
Resource Limitations: While resources are often limited, creative approaches can often find ways to respect choice within constraints.
The Difference Advocacy Makes
- People report feeling more respected and valued
- Care relationships are stronger and more collaborative
- There are fewer complaints and safeguarding concerns
- People maintain their independence for longer
- Families feel more confident and supported
- Staff feel more satisfied knowing they’re making a real difference
Moving Forward: A Call to Action
IMCAs and trained professionals are crucial to delivering advocacy in care but it doesn’t have to begin and end with them. Whether you’re a care provider, a family member, or someone who might need care services in the future, you have a role to play in promoting advocacy-centred approaches.
For care providers, this means regularly asking: “Are we truly listening? Are we supporting choice? Are we challenging assumptions about what people can and cannot do?”. For families, it means learning about rights and services, speaking up when something doesn’t feel right, and supporting your loved one to maintain their voice wherever possible.
For society as a whole, it means recognising that needing care doesn’t diminish someone’s worth or their right to make decisions about their own life. When we get advocacy right, care becomes less about what we do to people and more about what we do with them. It transforms care from a service that happens to someone into a partnership that empowers them.
