Ms Joanne Condon:

Advocacy is growing, is now more familiar to people and is now more embedded in systems in a way that perhaps it was not even ten years ago. Advocacy just has not got the focus, but we are calling for that now. Given its recognition in relation to the legislation and, in particular, today's discussion, if advocacy is to be a core part, then there needs to be a look at how it is going to be resourced into the future, what with the other growing demands it is going to meet. It goes to the very heart of the Act in terms of making sure that this is person centred and people are kept at the heart of it. The simple reality is that, without advocacy access, a lot of the people we support are not going to be able to seek a review of their orders if they are not happy. They are perhaps not going to be able to contact the Decision Support Service by themselves to make a complaint if things are going wrong. So, advocacy is a fundamental part.

We have to first and foremost see our waiting lists eradicated. It is not acceptable that people must contact us to tell us about their distress very often and the very difficult circumstances they find themselves in and then have to sit on a waiting list for months in order to get an advocate to help them.

Our first priority would be eradicating the waiting list, but we are obviously mindful that there needs to be a strategic examination of exactly what level of uplift is required in future for other developments, such as the protection of liberty safeguards, which is not dealt with under this legislation, and deprivation of liberty issues. There are also lots of other developments to come in the space of disability.