Vulnerability
Our housing guidance site
The advocacy charter
Camden’s advocacy charter sets out minimum behaviours and expectations of the advocate, the tenant, and officers.
This aims to reassure residents that advocacy arrangements are safe and working to their benefit, ensure accountability on the part of the advocate, and help to build confidence around navigating difficult situations and setting boundaries.
In this charter, the responsibilities are as follows:
Officers in Camden are committed to:
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Encouraging and valuing the involvement of advocates to support people with finding the right solutions for their lives.
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Supporting advocates who might come across difficult issues or find themselves in stressful situations.
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Making its casework processes as transparent and accessible as possible, including ensuring that people don’t have to repeat information about themselves or be concerned with the details of administrative processes
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Communicating in ways that are sensitive and easily comprehensible to residents and advocates, always prioritising their perspective.
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Ensuring that residents remain the core focus of advocacy arrangements, while enabling residents to be adequately heard without an advocate’s involvement.
The advocate is committed to:
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Treating other parties with others with respect, accepting that points of view will differ at times.
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Agreeing to seek resolutions to issues and avoid escalation wherever possible.
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Focusing their efforts on the best interest of the tenant. Efforts to use individual advocacy to advance wider or unrelated disputes can be detrimental to the client’s interests.
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Agreeing not to divulge sensitive casework details or share personal details (both of the tenant and member of staff) beyond the advocacy arrangement, for example, on social media or in public meetings.
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Where possible, enable the client's decision-making. It is normally expected that both the resident and the advocate take part in conversations.
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Let us know of any changes that may affect their ability to be your nominee.
The tenant is committed to:
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Ensuring the council knows who their advocate is, and that they have consent when dealing with the advocate.
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Making themselves available for a conversation when Council staff want to ensure consent is still in place or need to hear from the resident themselves.
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Understanding that the advocate cannot achieve things for the client that a resident without an advocate would be denied. The rules of eligibility and equality still apply.
When applying to be an advocate via the online form, tenants and advocates are made aware of the charter and their responsibilities.