Today (Monday 6th January), Sefton Council has started a six-week consultation on the Borough’s social care and health advocacy services.

Making their voice and opinions heard

Advocacy services provide people with support in making their voice and opinions heard when they can’t, for whatever reasons, do so for themselves.

Sefton Council provides advocacy services for adults, parent carers, and children who need support with health and social care needs.  This can be for issues such as support when they are receiving assessments, making complaints about NHS services or for just general support from an advocate on other issues that are important to people such as support with financial, legal and housing issues.

As wide a range of people as possible

The Council wants to hear from as wide a range of people as possible who use, have used, or may need to use advocacy services in Sefton.

This includes groups such as parent carers, people who access health services and those who use social care services and who may require advocacy services to support them when they are working with health and social care professionals to look at their needs. Support will be provided for those who might need extra help to fill the online survey, or for people who are not digitally connected.

The Council will also be consulting with those who provide advocacy services and other stakeholders to make sure that high quality advocacy services for the future can be commissioned.

You can find out more about the consultation and provide your feedback by taking part in the survey, here.

Vital support

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health said: “Advocacy services provide vital support for people who need them when they are speaking to health and social care professionals and when accessing services.

“Sefton Council provides those services to anyone in the Borough who need them, and we think it is important that the future of those services is shaped by the people who use them.

“Their views will help shape the types of organisations we work with in the future to make sure their needs and wants are put firmly at the forefront of all decisions.”

Details of the consultations and other guidance including an easy-read explanation are also available on the website.

Full picture

Cllr Moncur continued: “To get the full picture, we need to hear from advocacy service providers and other stakeholders because they are the experts at supporting people in Sefton.

“We want them to help us work out how we can make advocacy services easier to arrange and more suited to the people who use them.

“And, importantly, we want to find out if there is anything preventing people from using advocacy services and remove those barriers.”

Feedback will be analysed

Once the six-week consultation has closed, the feedback will be analysed and then a summary of the results will be shared for those who have taken part. The summary will also be made public, and the information used in the ongoing development of advocacy services.

Cllr Moncur added: “This is a real opportunity to ensure we can carry on improving and re-shaping advocacy services and ensure we continue doing the best for people in Sefton.”

You can find out more about Social Services for adults in Sefton, here.