Advocacy Focus retains county council contract

Accrington-based Advocacy Focus has retained the Lancashire Advocacy Hub contract for five more years following a recent competitive procurement exercise.

Winning the new contract will enable the charity to add to its 70 strong team while widening advocacy support for local people.

Advocacy Focus will continue to provide community and specialist advocacy, with a focus on prevention and upskilling people to advocate for family or friends, via its new Family and Friends Focus service.

This will provide a range of free resources and support, which will help anyone to support key people in their lives through health and social care processes and get the best possible outcomes for them.

The team will also be delivering advocacy training for grassroots charities across Lancashire.

As part of its commitment to Lancashire, the charity has also promised to offer wider benefits via its Community Focus service, providing advocacy support to people beyond health and social care and give them support for housing issues, benefit problems and will assist in helping people to access education, training and employment.

Justine Forster, chief executive at Advocacy Focus, said: "We’ve been 'Looking After Lancashire' for over a decade from our head office in Accrington. Our team live and work in our Lancashire communities and leave no stone unturned when it comes to helping people get the health and social care outcomes they are looking for."