The impact of generic advocacy on service users: using a social return on investment approach

Abstract

Advocacy has become a popular way to support the most vulnerable in society, to overcome and resolve the issues they face within the health and social care sector. Advocacy today takes on many forms and has received attention from research over the years. One form of advocacy, however, has not received much research attention and is known as generic advocacy. Traditionally advocacy services have focused on either a particular user group or issue, and sometimes both. Generic advocacy services do not focus on particular group or issue, but are open to all who required advocacy support. Whilst there is available research on advocacy in general, and its impact and effectiveness, little is known about generic advocacy and the impact it has on those who use it. This study, using Social Return on Investment, as a methodological approach has explored the impact of generic advocacy on those who use it. The study has found generic advocacy services produce a variety of outcomes. Although these outcomes could be considered trivial by some, they are extremely important to those who experience them. The impact of the outcomes experienced by the participants in this study is often positive and life changing, making a real difference in their lives.

Date of Award	Sept 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bedfordshire
Supervisor	Gurch Randhawa (Supervisor) & Ravi Kohli (Second supervisor)