Your Voice Counts Advocacy Services
How can a Your Voice Counts advocate help you?
An advocate is someone who can help you have your voice heard when decisions are being made about your life.
Your advocate is independent. They will listen to you, help you understand your rights and options, and support you to say what matters to you.
An advocate can:
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listen to your views and concerns
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help you access and understand relevant information
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help you explore your rights and options
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support you to express your views and make your own decisions
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help you prepare for meetings, assessments or complaints
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attend meetings with you
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contact people, write letters or speak on your behalf - with your agreement.
An advocate will not:
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tell you what to do
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make decisions for you
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judge you or your choices
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take over from you
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promise a particular outcome.
Our advocacy services
We provide different types of advocacy depending on the person’s circumstances, the decision or issue involved, and where they live.
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Care Act Advocacy
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General Advocacy
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Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA)
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Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA)
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NHS Independent Complaints Advocacy
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Relevant Person’s Representative service
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Rule 1.2 Representation
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SHOUT - Young People’s Advocacy
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Advocacy for people with learning disabilities
Availability and eligibility vary between services and local areas. The individual service pages explain who each service is for.
For information about support available for carers, download the leaflet below:
Not sure which service you need?
You do not need to work this out before contacting us.
Call 0191 478 6472, call freephone 0300 303 1248 or email mail@yvc.org.uk. We will listen to what is happening and explain whether one of our advocacy services may be able to help.
If we are not the right organisation, we will try to identify another service that may be able to support you.
Make a referral
You can refer yourself, ask someone you trust to help you, or be referred by a professional. Some statutory advocacy referrals must be made by the responsible local authority or NHS body.
Visit Make a referral to choose the appropriate form and find out how to send it to us.
If completing a form is difficult, please contact us. We can take initial referral information by telephone or email when appropriate.
Information and resources
If you are already working with an advocate or would like more information about your rights and the different types of advocacy, visit our Resources page.
Independent, free and private
Our advocacy services are independent and free to the people we support.
We keep information private. We will explain if we need to use or share information because someone may be at risk of serious harm or because the law requires us to do so.