CONSULTATION ON INDEPENDENT ADVOCACY – GUIDE FOR COMMISSIONERS

Covering Letter

Dear Sir/Madam

CONSULTATION ON INDEPENDENT ADVOCACY - GUIDE FOR COMMISSIONERS

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by 19 July 2013. Please send your response with the completed Respondent Information Form (see "Handling your Response" below) to:

Independent Advocacy - Guide for Commissioners
FREEPOST RLXC-UYZU-HXHG
Mailpoint 1
Person-centred Team
St Andrew's House
Edinburgh
EH1 0BR

Or

E-mail to: advocacyguideforcommissioners@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

If you have any queries please contact Alison McLoughlin on 0131 244 3363.

We would be grateful if you would use the consultation questionnaire provided as part of the Respondent Information Form or could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations.

The Scottish Government has an email alert system for consultations, http://register.scotland.gov.uk. This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). It complements, but in no way replaces Scottish Government distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form attached to this letter as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly. All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library, and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 16 August 2013. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the Scottish Government Library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us consider the way forward. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process along with our response to it in the autumn 2013.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the address given above.

Yours sincerely

Sandra Falconer

Person-Centred Team

Electronic publication and additional copies:

This consultation paper is available via the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/Current

You can use this link to find out more about the consultation; ask questions; submit your views; and view submitted responses.

Or if you want additional paper copies of the consultation paper, or if you or someone you care for require this paper in a different format or language, please contact us at:

Independent Advocacy - Guide for Commissioners
FREEPOST RLXC-UYZU-HXHG
Mailpoint 1
Person-centred Team
St Andrew's House
Edinburgh
EH1 0BR

Or e-mail to: advocacyguideforcommissioners@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Copies of the documents mentioned in this paper can also be obtained from these addresses.

This consultation is being conducted in line with the Scottish Government's consultation process Consultation: Good Practice Guidance^[1]

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is. There will be no charge for this call.