Building evidence on the value of independent advocacy

There was a significant gap in knowledge, evidence and quantitative data about the independent advocacy sector. We wanted to create an actionable evidence base on the impact and effectiveness of independent advocacy to support future policy development and sustainable funding for the sector.

We began by co-developing an outcomes framework to capture data. Working with the 15 grantees and consulting with stakeholders in this space, we co-designed a simple data collection mechanism and combined this data with interviews, surveys, case studies and financial analysis to build a picture of the impact of advocacy.

We also consulted regularly with our advisory group members and convened a quarterly community of practice over the four years of the programme, using that as a way of sharing what we were learning and centring the input from those with lived experience. 

In 2025, we created a separate steering group for experts by experience, to add more voices from lived experience into our ongoing work from across the programme. We supported Speakup to convene and host quarterly sessions.

All of our outputs have been co-produced with experts by experience and include Easyread versions.

The second phase of the programme focused on how to build long-term stability and sustainability for grantees and the wider advocacy sector. Given substantial funding cuts over recent years, owing to local authority deficits, this is a key challenge for the sector.

We focused on three key questions to explore routes to sustainability:

1. What do advocacy organisations need the most support with? 
2. Would it help to have a national sector body to represent all advocacy organisations?
3. What are the potential funding opportunities for grantee organisations and other similar organisations in the sector?

We explored these questions through conducting a mapping exercise, survey, interviews, community of practice and also created and consulted a new steering group of experts by experience.

Together we concluded that organisations need more support in 3 areas:

• Finding and getting funding
• Training and helping staff learn new skills
• Working with and learning from each other

We concluded that a sector body could deliver real benefits, by:

• Telling the government, funders and the public what advocacy is and why it matters
• Pushing for legislation to make advocacy available in all parts of England 
• Supporting organisations to share ideas, training and tools

However, it is important that any future sector body is founded on the principles we heard:

Henry Smith has separately funded a scoping exercise by the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) to explore this further – read their report Exploring a new membership body for advocacy.

We recommended that organisations explore:

• New paid partnerships with schools, the NHS, universities and disability organisations
• Place-based funding opportunities, e.g. from NHS neighbourhood health initiative, The National Lottery Community Wealth Fund, the Community Enterprise Growth Plan or partnerships with community foundations and local businesses
• Social Outcomes Partnerships (SOPs) in which public organisations (like central government, councils and the NHS), social investors, and community or charity groups all work together to deliver the shared outcomes. In this way, the risk of service delivery doesn’t rest on grantee organisations, and there is greater focus on improving shared outcomes

As part of our involvement with the programme, we prioritised raising the profile of advocacy through engaging with government in direct briefings and by feeding into consultations, such as HM Treasury’s Spending Review. We hosted an event in the House of Commons in February 2025, which was supported by Liam Conlon MP. In parallel we have also published key findings in Big Issue and multiple blogs, been featured on BBC Woman’s Hour, and published an open letter signed by grantees and advisory group members.

Our call to action, published in our final report, is for the government to introduce new legislation to expand and increase advocacy services across England, in line with the laws already in place in Scotland and Wales.

We have estimated that it would cost approximately £45.7 million to fund at least one advocacy service in every area for five years.

Although the programme has finished, at Social Finance we will continue to make a case to government, policy makers and funders of the benefits of advocacy wherever and whenever we can.

We hope that the reports – in particular the proof that advocacy delivers meaningful outcomes and financial value – will be a useful tool for grantees and other organisations in this sector to leverage future funding.

NDTi are continuing the work on establishing a sector body. We have connected grantees to NDTi and linked NDTi to the Scottish sector body (SIAA), to enable peer learning and joint working on next steps.

The cost-benefit analysis remains a key reference document for building outcomes-based funding models for the sector and has been shared widely by stakeholders within and outside of this programme.

We have created a connected ecosystem of professionals, grantees, experts by experience, academics and practitioners who are committed to sustaining the collaboration informally – helping to build durable, long-term systems.