Effective Advocacy in Social Work

Jane Dalrymple, Jane Boylan, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781446201503, 9781446201497
• eBook ISBN: 9781446292891
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Advocacy is an essential skill for social workers who need to be able to speak confidently on behalf of service-users in a range of situations. In this new book, Jane Dalrymple and Jane Boylan explore the theory and research behind advocacy to demonstrate how to achieve best practice.  

 

Key topics covered include:

- Independent advocacy

- Supporting self-advocacy and decision-making

- Challenging oppression

- Negotiating with organisations

 

Each chapter includes rich case examples, which help readers bring the discussion into the real life practice context.

 

 

Effective Advocacy in Social Work will be valuable reading for those studying social work at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as those working in practice and in interprofessional contexts.

 

 

Jane Dalrymple is Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England.

 

Jane Boylan is Senior Lecturer at Keele University.

1

What is Advocacy and How do we Use it in Social Work?

Overview

• Context of social work advocacy

• Defining advocacy in relation to professional practice

• Social work advocacy

• Models of advocacy

• Commentary

• Summary

• Discussion questions

Advocacy has been described as being ‘at the heart of social work’ (Sheafor and Horejsi, 2003: 57), a key function of social work practice in terms of helping service users and carers become independent from service providers and in the process developing the skills to advocate for themselves (Haynes and Mickleson, 1997) and an important element of social work practice (Payne, 2000a). Advocacy can be defined in many ways, but the following definition is a useful starting point. This definition is part of the guidance for Independent Mental Capacity Advocates introduced through the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England. It relates to people who use mental health services and are deemed to lack capacity – a group who can struggle to have a voice in the systems and structures that impact on their lives:

Advocacy … promotes equality, social justice and social inclusion. It can empower people to speak up for themselves. Advocacy can help people become more aware of their own rights, to exercise those rights and be involved in and influence decisions that are being made about their future. (Lee, 2007: 7)

We see here that advocacy involves ensuring that service users are able to have a voice in decisions that concern their lives – to make their views known and be heard. However, there is also a broader meaning to advocacy at the start of this definition which echoes social work values in relation to promoting equality, social justice and social inclusion.

The notion of advocacy as a mechanism to promote social justice is an element of other advocacy definitions from various sources. Social justice reflects the activism of advocacy and has been explained as ‘an idea that mobilises people to act in order to bring about change’ (Newman and Yeates, 2008: 2). While the concept of social justice is contested, the important element here is its ‘mobilising’ potential which has been fundamental in efforts to challenge inequality and injustice: for example, motivating social workers to engage in social action (Hare, 2004). Social justice has been defined as ‘an ideal condition in which all members of a society have the same basic rights, protection, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits’ (Reamer, 1998, cited in Hare, 2004: 416). Advocacy therefore works to ensure that service users and carers, who are often denied these basic rights and opportunities, are empowered not only to regain voice and agency but also to be recognised as citizens. This is reflected in a definition of advocacy by the Scottish Executive, which states that:

[Advocacy is] a crucial element in achieving social justice. It is a way to ensure that everyone matters and everyone is heard – including people who are at risk of exclusion and people who have particular difficulties in making their views known. (SIAA, 2010: 4)

Later in the chapter we will see that this principle is also fundamental to social work practice. However, before thinking about social work advocacy we will first consider models of advocacy more generally, going on to consider the origins of social work advocacy. Finally, the chapter will examine the role of advocacy within social work practice.

Models of advocacy

A way of understanding social work advocacy in contemporary practice is to consider a number of theoretical frameworks which have developed within generic advocacy practice. These are examined below.

Case (or issue-based) and systemic (or cause) advocacy

This model identifies two elements of advocacy:

• Case or issue-based advocacy (where work is focused with individuals or small groups such as families in a task-centred way).

• Systemic or cause advocacy (where knowledge from individual cases contributes to collective advocacy for systemic change to legislation, policy or practice).

For many social workers case advocacy is more likely to be part of their day-to-day practice. The empowering potential of advocacy can best be understood in terms of the relationship between case and systemic advocacy, which identifies how advocacy can contribute to changes at both individual (case) and structural (systemic) levels. However, advocacy at both levels are inevitably inter-related (Mickelson, 1995). Social work advocacy aims to promote change, and a model for understanding advocacy that links both case and systemic advocacy (see Figure 1.1) demonstrates the necessity of this inter-relationship since individual situations provide the information required to promote changes in systems, policy and legislation (Office of the Child Youth and Family Advocate, 2000).

Figure 1.1 Framework for understanding advocacy

CASE EXAMPLE

Case advocacy informing systemic advocacy

The UCAN independent advocacy project was set up in 1994 and worked closely with the local authority until 2005. The work of the project focused in the early days on children and young people involved in child protection and the project worked from the premise that since many children and young people start being ‘looked after’ (Children Act 1989) through the child protection process, they needed to be able to experience ‘a fair and just process at that stage, with opportunity to be heard, take part in decision making and have an understanding of their own protection needs’ (Wyllie, 2002: 6).

In relation to child protection, one way of promoting systemic work was that every time a child or young person used UCAN they had the opportunity for their views and experiences about advocacy, and the processes/systems they found themselves in, to be recorded. With their permission, these views were used anonymously to influence the child protection and ‘looked after’ systems (that is, an ongoing, systematic process at the time that it is important to children and young people) (UCAN, 2001: 15). In this way the organisation was able to identify how advocacy became a tool for promoting change:

Advocacy is a process for change, a process for learning. It stimulates respect for children’s and young people’s rights and promotes participation in the planning and challenging of the systems that impact on their lives. Acting on children’s and young people’s experiences and views, the advocacy extends beyond individual casework. (UCAN, 2005)

Combining the promotion of rights with changes in policy and practice required the advocacy project to:

• Listen to and hear the views of individual young people who had presented feedback about their experiences of case advocacy, the advocacy service and the systems they were involved in.

• Use the views of young people to inform cause or systemic advocacy.

• Liaise closely with the child protection co-ordinator, independent chairs of Child Protection Conferences and social work teams.

• Work together with project staff to facilitate practical ways of working towards greater participation of children and young people.

• Involve children and young people in this process.

These actions helped to shape a number of changes, such as an invitation letter sent to young people about their conference, minutes of the meeting sent to young people, and ensuring that young people had the opportunity to enter the conference room before any of the professionals.

Active and passive advocacy

Another way of understanding advocacy is in terms of active and passive approaches (Jenkins, 1995). The two approaches relate to perspectives of service users either as individuals requiring provision or protection or as citizens and active participants. Passive advocacy involves the advocate speaking up for someone else, and active advocacy is applied to speaking up for oneself. However, these approaches can also be seen as part of a continuum (Hodgson, 1995), since advocacy in practice is likely to combine both approaches. Furthermore, advocacy is contested, which means that it is difficult to identify what constitutes advocacy. For example, some independent advocates do not necessarily view social work advocacy as ‘proper’ advocacy or recognise social workers as having an advocacy role. Some argue that the advocacy role of social workers is only located at the passive end of the continuum. Hodgson also makes the distinction between case and systemic advocacy, and notes that these are all linked (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Hodgson’s (1995) model of advocacy

CASE EXAMPLE

Active and passive advocacy

Mika (age 5) and Alec (age 7) have been living with foster carers for just over a week, having been brought into the care of the local authority because of concerns relating to emotional abuse and neglect. Their parents both have learning difficulties. There is a close bond between them and their children. Alec told the foster carer that he wanted to see his parents. He explained to the carer that he was worried that Mika was not well because he was normally very noisy and lively and he thought that this was because he missed his mother. Alec said that his mother was not well and that he understood that she could not look after them properly but that they needed to see their parents. The foster carer realised that while Alec had some understanding of the situation, Mika was finding it more difficult. The carer contacted the social worker and asked her to visit the children to explain what was happening and to arrange for them to see their parents as soon as possible. The social worker visited Alec and Mika and tried to explain to them why they were living away from their parents. In talking with the children she observed that Mika was very withdrawn as a result of not seeing his parents, and she listened to what Alec had to say about the situation. He said ‘It’s OK living here and we like it. But I’m worried about Mum and Dad ’cos they will be unhappy now. I used to help them and I love them very much. I want them to be OK too. It would be nice if they could live here.’ At a review¹ of the placement the social worker represented Alec’s views and felt that regular contact would be in the best interests of the two boys. However, the professionals involved were not in agreement about what should happen. The social worker spent time with Alec to promote his involvement in the decision making by looking at ways he could present his views and ensure that they were heard at the next review meeting. The options included Alec attending all or part of the meeting, Alec drawing a picture or making a wishlist that either he or the social worker could present to the meeting, or the foster carer supporting him either to attend the meeting or by presenting his views. Alec wanted to go to the meeting with the social worker so that he could tell people what he wanted. He drew a picture which he took to the second review to explain how he felt. Before the meeting he practised what he wanted to say with the social worker and his foster carer.

In this situation both passive and active advocacy were used to support Alec and his brother:

• The foster carer advocated for Alec and Mika in asking the social worker to visit to explain what was happening.

• The social worker represented Alec’s views at the first meeting.

• The social worker enabled Alec to have a more active role where he was supported to be engaged in the decision-making process and was encouraged to self-advocate.

External and internal advocacy

This model fits well with social work advocacy. ‘External advocacy’ refers to advocates working outside a system, while ‘internal advocacy’ relates to advocacy by social workers and other professionals working within a system. In the early development of advocacy theory, external advocacy was defined as ‘an independent movement of consumers … and their allies to monitor and change human service agencies’ (Bicklen, 1976: 310). Internal advocacy was described as ‘a continuous and cooperative process of interactions’ between service users and professionals guaranteeing the rights of service users to appropriate services. Internal advocacy has been identified as ‘a critical component’ of the partnership relationship that needs to exist between service users and social workers or other professionals (McLoughlin et al., 1979).

CASE EXAMPLE

External and internal advocacy

Parents for children and young people with specific needs will come into contact with a range of professionals and often find that they are the only people fighting for their children’s rights. They also work with professionals to ensure that their children receive the services they need and that they are supported as carers. The co-operative process (internal advocacy) can sometimes be challenging for the professionals involved. It has been suggested, for example, that after a series of negative experiences with professionals, parents may be categorised as either ‘resistant’ (afraid of professionals and sceptical about procedures) or ‘compliant’ (agreeing with anything that professionals say, agreeing with decisions and letting professionals take the lead). The challenge for social workers in such situations is to defuse any resentment and defensiveness with those parents who may be finding it difficult to work with professionals and to encourage participation of paren...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle
• SAGE Social Work
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1   What is Advocacy and How do we Use it in Social Work?
• 2   Contextualising Social Work Advocacy
• 3   Reclaiming Advocacy in Contemporary Social Work
• 4   Advocacy Skills
• 5    Participation and Partnership
• 6   Advocacy Across the Life Course
• 7   Representation and Complaints
• 8   Independent Advocacy
• 9   Conclusion: Developing a Culture of Advocacy
• References
• Index