Guidance for Unpaid Carer Advocacy in Scotland

What is Advocacy?

Advocacy:

• safeguards people who are vulnerable or whom services find difficult to serve
• empowers people who need a stronger voice by enabling them to express their own needs and make their own decisions
• enables people to gain access to information, explore and understand their options and to make their views and wishes known
• speaks up on behalf of people who are unable to do so for themselves, or who choose not to do so^[1]. This is different from legal advocacy where an individual is represented by a legal professional.

There are many different types of advocacy and these are briefly described in Appendix 2.

The accepted and commonly used term for a person who uses advocacy is 'advocacy partner'. The Scottish advocacy movement has used this term for a number of years. It conveys a message about the equality of the relationship between the advocacy partner and the advocate and the fact that the relationship should be a partnership. In the context of advocacy for carers, many organisations will simply use the term 'carer'. Throughout this document the terms 'carers' and 'advocacy partner' are both used where appropriate.