Since 1994, we have enabled the voices of the vulnerable.

What An Advocate Does  

• An advocate is someone who can help you to speak up.

• Advocates listen to you and help you to explain yourself.  

• Advocates can speak on your behalf if you want them to.  

• Advocates will not tell you what to think or say.  

• Advocates can come with you to important meetings.  

• Advocates can find the right people to help you.  

• Advocates can help you to be treated fairly.  

• An Advocate will be on your side not anybody else's!

 To enable the voices of vulnerable people to be heard through the provision of a range of independent advocacy services, tailored to the needs of individuals.

A bid for a citizen and self advocacy project was submitted to the North Tyneside JCC for joint finance funding in spring 1994 by members of Community and Health Care Forum.  At the same time, the District Health Authority put in a bid for a resettlement advocacy project.  The JCC decided to amalgamate these two bids, and advised this project to re-submit a combined bid.  Following this successful bid, a public meeting was organised where people were encouraged to put forward their views about the advocacy needs of the borough and the direction the project should take.  Many areas were seen as high need, including people with learning disabilities or mental health problems, the elderly, children and young people as well as people with sensory or physical disabilities.

A steering group was formed and officers appointed.  The project was named North Tyneside Advocacy Project.  A development worker was appointed, who started work in the September of 1994.  An initial arrangement was made whereby the worker ‘lodged’ at the Disability Advice Centre: the Disability Advice Centre was also paid for project management of the project’s first year.

Initial work was done to investigate and clarify project priorities.  It was decided to focus initially on people who had learning disabilities or mental health problems.  Although there would be no upper age limit, there was an effective lower limit of 16 years.  It was acknowledged that work with children and young people would almost certainly require a separate approach as legislation in this field was so different.  It was also agreed to focus on both citizen advocacy work and self advocacy work, with an acknowledgement that staff would be prepared to become involved with individual work as appropriate.

In order to avoid loss of funding owing to slippage, the committee brought forward appointment times for more workers to January 1995. 2 part-time self advocacy workers and 1 full-time administrator were appointed in spring of 1995.

During the spring and summer of 1995, a constitution was developed, and following the inaugural general meeting in September, the project was registered as a charity on 7th October 1995.

Since then there have been many changes and it was decided in 2001 that the charity had ‘outgrown’ its ‘project’ title, changing to Independent Advocacy North Tyneside.

In 2009 IANT established an Independent Mental Health Act project, IMHA advocates are statutory advocates whose role and powers are enshrined within Mental Health legislation. This statutory service provides case work to people who are qualifying patients within the Mental Health Act, either formally detained in Hospital or people on a Community Treatment Order, or under Guardianship. 

In the same year, IANT introduced a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Relevant Persons’ Representative worker (whereby the Local Authority can detain a person in a care home to prevent harm). Prior to making this decision, the Local Authority caried out numerous assessments to establish whether this person would suffer harm if they were to continue to reside in the community.  The DoLS RPR worker carefully considers the  justification outlined in the assessments and may request further reviews of initial decisions.  The DoLS RPR worker works closely with the Local Authority, Court of Protection and professionals as well as their client.  

By 2011 IANT successfully ran nine separate projects to deliver advocacy in a range of ways to vulnerable people of the borough.  This includes: People from a Black or Ethnic Minority background; people with a mental health issue; vulnerable older people; people with a learning disability; people with a physical disability or sensory impairment; people with acquired brain injury and young people in transition.  IANT also facilitate two weekly drop in clinics whereby people may more easily access advocacy support; a specialist BME clinic is held at Wallsend Peoples’ Centre and MH clinic on the mental health ward of local hospitals. Further to this, IANT also facilitate 3 self advocacy groups, this includes Women Together, Good friends and Group Friends Too.  These groups provided members with a forum in which they feel comfortable and able to raise issues they find difficult to talk about elsewhere.

Due to the substantial growth of our charity, our organisation implemented a complete review and restructure; this led to a new Chief Executive Officer being appointed.

By 2012 the Organisation had grown substantially, in order to ensure future success, the Executive Committee agreed that it was necessary and advisable to dissolve the charity so that it may become a charitable company, limited by guarantee.  On the 9th of February 2012 IANT held an Extraordinary General Meeting where there was an unanimous vote by members to dissolve the unincorporated charity and form a charitable company, limited by guarantee. 

In 2013 the Organisation changed its company name to Independent Advocacy North East to reflect its increasing area of service delivery. 

We moved to the Linskill Centre in 2020, where we benefit from level access for all service users, a café, and plenty of parking.

Independent Advocacy North East (IANE) is a charitable company, registered with the Charity Commission on 6 October 1995 (Charity No: 1148607) and registered with Companies House (14 February 2012).