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The wording of an announcement about a 12-week pilot scheme for a new independent advocacy service that led to concerns among members of Jersey’s autism community was “unfortunate”, the Government has said.
The announcement said the service provided by charity My Voice would focus on helping “complex individuals who have been formally diagnosed with a learning disability or autism”.
It led to concerns from charity Autism Jersey and the Autism Advisory Council, who said that they hadn’t been consulted, and expressed concerns about the negative implications associating mental illness, learning disabilities and autism could have.
My Voice CEO Patricia Winchester has since clarified the nature of the pilot scheme, saying it is designed to support islanders with difficulties in understanding and making decisions with their complex care planning and safeguarding – not an advocacy service for people with autism and learning disabilities.
“The wording of the Government press release, whilst well intentioned and enthusiastic, was unfortunate,” she said. “This service has a very specific remit, and we will not be labelling our clients in any way. Our goal is always to treat every person as an individual and to offer the very best, independent, well-qualified advocacy.
"Every client can choose whether to engage with us, and can disengage at any point. Our team have a range of skills and qualifications and work to our charitable objectives, which include helping our clients to understand and access their rights, to represent their views, and supporting them to live their own lives in line with their values, choices and wishes, as far as possible.”
Pictured: Ms Winchester explained the new service aimed instead to provide advocacy in complex care planning and safeguarding.
Ms Winchester explained the new service aimed instead to provide advocacy in complex care planning and safeguarding for people who “verge” on having capacity issues.
“There are some people who do not have capacity but there are also some people who find difficulty in understanding what is going on and with whom we need to spend more time to explain exactly what is going on and support them in taking part in the decisions.
“The people who can speak for themselves are not the people who we will be supporting. The service is for people who have substantial difficulty in understanding and making decisions, it may include people with autism or learning disabilities, but it is for people who have really difficulties in having their view heard. It’s more of an extension to the capacity work we already do.”
A spokesperson for the Government said they agreed it was "unfortunate" the wording of the press release had caused offence.
“We will ensure better clarity in future communications regarding this positive pilot service," they added. "The service will be offered to those with complex needs and have difficulty in participating in decision making. Those with autism and/or learning disabilities are examples of those who are eligible to access this service.”
Pictured: The service aims to support people in complex care planning and safeguarding.
They explained that the service had come about as a result of services having to adapt their ways of working during the pandemic.
"To ensure that all Islanders remain protected by usual service provision, we established a need to implement a temporary, interim measure for advocacy services in order to meet the gap as a result of covid," the spokesperson said.
“Due to the nature of the pandemic, and considering those with the most complex needs and those who have difficulty in participating in the decision making process were identified as high risk, we needed to act quickly.
"We would not have wanted to see a gap in advocacy services which are an integral element for equal access to care and support. We were in a very fortunate position to have been able to work with the temporary provider to meet this need, while we explore future, permanent options with interested organisations and individuals.
Ms Winchester said the launch of the service was a positive one for the island noting that the Government was following best practice on the issue, even though there is currently no legal requirement to provide such a service.
“We are delighted to have been appointed to deliver a Care Advocacy service to which social care professionals can refer the relatively small number of people in Jersey who require significant levels of care and support and who have difficulty in participating in the decision-making process.
"Whilst there is no Care Act in Jersey, local services wish to embrace the fundamental principle that people should be active partners in the key processes of care assessment, planning and review.”
“Advocates can play an integral part as their goal is to actively support individuals to participate as fully as possible within the decision-making process,” she added.
“As specialists in maximising a person’s ability to consider complex information and express their views, advocates are able to ensure that services respect the individual’s specific wishes and needs. People who will be eligible for support must have complex needs which will include substantial difficulty in engaging with the process due limited mental capacity and have no one else available or who they want to support them.”
Autism and learning disability advocacy service launched
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