National Care Service - independent advocacy: co-design insights and next steps

Co-design sessions

Since 2023, we have carried out 47 co-design engagements to explore independent advocacy with people from diverse backgrounds and communities across Scotland.

The people who took part had experience of accessing social care support services or supporting someone who has. Some people had experience of accessing or delivering independent advocacy support, while others had never heard of it before.

These engagements were mostly group discussions or workshops, but also included one digital survey.

Sessions were held across Scotland in:

• Aberdeen
• Cumbernauld
• Edinburgh
• Elgin
• Grangemouth
• Hawick
• Inverness
• Kirkcaldy
• Livingston
• Perth
• Glasgow
• Strathpeffer

We also held sessions online for people who could not travel.

For some of the sessions, we worked with organisations who support people from groups and communities who often have barriers to engaging with government. This was done to make sure we engaged with groups who were not as involved as other groups in earlier sessions.

You can read our other co-design reports on gov.scot. Reports that also cover independent advocacy include:

• National Care Service - Making sure my voice is heard: regional forums – findings summary
• National Care Service summer forums: supplementary report
• National Care Service - Making sure your voice is heard: seldom heard voices co-design report
• National Care Service - Independent advocacy: seldom heard voices co-design report

These engagements explored:

• gaps in existing independent advocacy services
• barriers to accessing support
• people’s needs and preferences

We did this by looking at:

• how to make it easier to access independent advocacy
• what people want an independent advocate to help them with
• ideas for improving independent advocacy services