One of the strengths of advocacy is its independence from
service providers. This allows clients / partners to know
that the advocate’s first loyalty is to them. Independence
relates to organisational structure, funding sources and
psychological independence – the belief in your ability to
challenge institutions.

Different advocacy groups have different levels of
independence. Our preference would be for fully
independent services. Until groups reach that stage
we need to be clear about the current level independence,
safeguard the functional independence of services
and ensure that clients / partners know how a service
ensures its independence.

Clients / partners should
- Know in what way the service is independent and any
  limits to this independence.
- Be assured that the first responsibility of their
  advocate is to them.

Advocates should
- Know that their loyalty must be with their client / partner.
- Be aware of potential conflicts of interest.
- Declare any conflict of interest.

The Co-ordinator / Manager should
- Be alert to potential conflicts of interest.
- Ensure that initial training highlights the importance of
  independence to advocacy.
- Promote independence through supervision or
  support of advocates

The Management  Committee / Service should
- Be independent in management or operation.
- Ensure that the safeguards of independence are
  written into funding agreements or service delivery agreements.
- Ensure that at least one third of management
  committee members are representative of people
  who use the service.
- Have a strategy to counter the potential influence 
  of a managing or funding agency which might have a stake
  in the outcomes of specific advocacy situations and threaten
  the effectiveness of advocacy.
- Ensure that funders cannot control the length of advocacy
  partnerships, the means of referral or the decisions as to
  which individuals should or should not receive advocacy.

DEMONSTRATING INDEPENDENCE
These are some ways that a service might choose
measure, record and demonstrate its level of independence.

Information to clients / partners
- Level of independence is stated in initial information to
  client / partner
- Clients / partners are explicitly told that the first loyalty
  of an advocate is to them.

Information to advocates
- Advocates’ Job Description includes a reference to the
  need for them to be independent
- Psychological independence is fostered and enhanced
  through training
- Psychological independence is fostered and enhanced
  through supervision or support

Policy
- There is a policy that states the independent nature of
  your service
- A record of conflict of interests is kept

Information to funders
- The organisation’s loyalty to their client / partner is
  clearly stated in funding agreement
- The funding agreement states that the route by
  which advocacy can be accessed is to be decided by the service
- The funding agreement states that only the service can 
  determine the nature or length of the advocacy process.

Management
- Management committee structure ensures the project functions
  independently and remains true to its aims
- Management committee aims to have more than one
  source of funding.