Dear commissioner of advocacy services,
This survey asks about the non-statutory advocacy that exists for adults with learning disabilities within your local authority area. We are interested in finding out about the number of non-statutory advocacy organisations and what they do, as well as advocacy funding and the impact of advocacy services in your area.
The Improving Health and Lives: Learning Disabilities Observatory is concerned with the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities and the health inequalities they face. We are carrying out this survey as a part of a project that seeks to get a sense of the extent of non-statutory advocacy services in England, whether they have changed recently and how they are likely to change in the future. We also want to know if advocacy services have helped people with learning disabilities get better health and address health inequalities.
This survey of commissioners of advocacy services for people with learning disabilities is accompanied by a survey of advocacy organisations, and we are planning some in-depth case studies in selected local areas.
All the information provided is confidential and, while responses may be published as part of the project findings, steps will be taken to ensure that individual responders cannot be identified.
By completing this survey you are helping us to gain a greater understanding of advocacy services in England, which will help to inform policy developments in the future - thank you very much for taking the time to do this.
Please complete the survey by Friday 13th January 2012.
If you have any questions about this survey you can contact Hazel Roberts at the Improving Health and Lives: Learning Disabilities Observatory, at h.roberts@lancaster.ac.uk.
