About our Golden Thread Advocacy Programme

Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Part 10 Code of Practice (Advocacy)

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 came into force on the 6 April 2016 and it will have a big impact on the types of Local Authority services that are delivered and how they are delivered in Wales. It puts people right at the heart of service delivery. It also means that in certain circumstances local authorities must ensure that an individual has access to advocacy.

Independent Professional Advocacy is a service that can support someone to participate fully in decisions about their well-being and ensure that their views, wishes and feelings are heard, respected and taken account of. Advocacy supports people to have their rights upheld, to express their views and opinions, to make decisions about things that affect them, and if necessary to represent people's views at meetings.

The Golden Thread Advocacy Programme was funded by Welsh Government for four years (2016 to 2020) to run alongside and support the implementation of Part 10 (Advocacy) of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.

The programme's key aims were

• To support the commissioning of independent professional advocacy through a sustainable, strategic approach
• To improve the availability of advocacy services to adults across Wales
• To improve the well-being of individuals through advocacy and to give them a stronger voice

This national programme

• Supported strategic health and social care management/commissioning teams and front line professionals in understanding their responsibilities regarding advocacy under the Act.
• Supported the development of sustainable models for advocacy service delivery.
• Worked with new and existing service providers to ensure they are tender ready for statutory advocacy commissioning processes.
• Created a framework for collaboration between statutory bodies and service providers in using resources more efficiently to support well-being outcomes.
• Worked with representative groups of potential service users and carers to raise awareness of advocacy in all its forms, in exercising control over their well-being outcomes
• Promoted positive approaches to well-being and support improvements to safeguarding by giving people with protected characteristics a stronger voice.

What did people get from the programme?

At the end of the programme all stakeholders:

• had a greater understanding and knowledge of the value of advocacy
• were equipped with the communication tools to champion the need for the development of advocacy services and to identify where advocacy may be best prioritised
• able to apply best practice in advocacy as an integral part of commissioning intentions.