SIAA is working on the systematisation of the information gathered for the Advocacy Map, an essential resource to help track the annual spend on advocacy across Scotland. This helps us understand the current situation of advocacy provision across Scotland to lobby and campaign for increased funding for independent advocacy, increased access to independent advocacy and better strategic planning.
Following the creation of advocacy duties for the Mental Welfare Commission through the Mental Health Act (2015), we provided this information to the Mental Welfare Commission to include it within their report on The Right to Advocacy.
The Right to Advocacy report has been recently published and shows that “the planning and provision of advocacy services across Scotland is progressing, but also finds issues with planning, with budgets and staffing – it highlights a difficulty in recruiting and retaining advocacy staff in the third sector”.
