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Speak Out is an advocacy project which is managed by Ace Advocacy and funded by South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire.

It aims to help people with learning disabilities to speak up for themselves so that they can participate in decisions about their lives. If a person cannot speak up for themselves, Speak Out will provide a spokesperson who will express that person's opinions as if they were his or her own. The project was established in 1997 to support people living in South Lanarkshire (excluding Rutherglen and Cambuslang) whose lives are changing.

What We Do

Speak Out Advocacy Project provides an advocacy service for individuals with learning disabilities. Our aim is to assist people to have more say in the services they receive and to obtain information in order to be able to make choices. We also assist people with raising issues which concern them, in order that these can be properly addressed. Speak Out also has access to channels to raise more general issues regarding Learning Disability Services.

How We Do This

We will meet with the person to discuss the issue for which they require advocacy support. If we can assist them we will make an agreement about the steps we can take to resolve the issue. If we are unable to assist we will try to put the person in touch with someone who can.

How Long For

We offer advocacy support for individual issues. Once an issue has been resolved, or taken as far as we have agreed with the advocacy partner, the advocacy support will come to a close. If the person should wish advocacy support with another matter they can ask about this at any time.

Confidentiality

The advocacy worker will discuss their work with his/her supervisor and may share information with the team to access knowledge on issues. They will not pass on information about their advocacy partners to others unless this has been agreed with the person regarding the issue being pursued. The only time confidentiality would be broken if there were serious concerns for the advocacy partner's safety or the safety of others. In this case we would need to share the concern.

Data Protection

Speak Out Advocacy Project holds basic information relating to the people we have contact with on a database. The information is used only to assist the work of the project and for general statistical purposes. No personal information held will be disclosed to any other agency. If any advocacy partner has concerns about this information, or wishes to see the details held about them, they should speak to their advocacy worker.

If you would like to make a referral to the project, or become a volunteer, please click here to find out how to contact us, or click here to download a referral form from the downloads section.