Welfare, rights, health

Advice, Advocacy and Legal services

Also see under specific issues, and general sector umbrella bodies/networks.

• Advice Services Alliance, the body for networks of advice services, has created Advicenow, the “best information on the law and your rights”. In Northern Ireland, the similar body is adviceNI.
• Action for Advocacy resource agency closed 2013.
• Citizens Advice The national body for local citizens advice services. The online Advice Guide is now integrated into the main site.
• Citizens Advice Scotland.
• London Advice Services Alliance Also their RightsNet website provides social security information and news for advice workers. New summer 2014: advicelocal, borough-by-borough social welfare resource for London’s advice and information community.
• Public Law Project aims to improve access to public law remedies for those whose access is restricted by poverty, discrimination etc.
• Resource Information Service is now part of Homeless Link. ‘Provider of information to the homelessness and advice sectors’.
• Scottish Legal Action Group ‘promotes equal access to justice’ and produces a monthly journal.

Disabilities

• Action for Blind People has merged with RNIB.
• Action on Hearing Loss (was Royal National Institute for Deaf People).
• ARC “an umbrella organisation which brings together those who provide for people with a learning disability”.
• Association of Disabled Professionals.
• UK Disabled People’s Council an umbrella organisation that represents organisations run by disabled people.
• British Dyslexia Association.
• British Institute of Learning Disabilities Membership body for those working in this area. Produce quarterly journal.
• Disability Information Scotland.
• Learning Disability Wales.
• National Association of Disability Practitioners working in UK Higher and Further Education Institutions.
• Visionary, membership organisation for local sight loss charities (previously National Association of Local Societies for Visually Impaired People)
• Royal National Institute for the Blind.
• Talking Newspaper Association UK.
• UK Council on Deafness.
• Vision UK Umbrella organisation for national or regional organisations with a focus on visual impairment.
• VODG Voluntary Organisations Disability group is an umbrella group of national voluntary sector providers of social care support to disabled people.
• Youreable.com Information, products and services for disabled people.

Health

Also see Self-help/Support groups. and Issue based support.

• The Asian Health Agency.
• AidsMap AIDS and HIV information.
• Allergy UK.
• Association of Medical Research Charities.
• Attend (replaces National Association of Hospital & Community Friends) exists to promote and develop the role of volunteers in health and social care services throughout the UK.
• Cancer Research UK.
• CHEX (Community Health Exchange) provides a resource in supporting community development approaches to health improvement and challenging health inequalities in Scotland’s health sector.
• Children’s Hospice Association Scotland.
• Community Food and Health (Scotland) aims to help improve diet and health in in low-income communities.
• DrugWise has taken over from where DrugScope left off (March 2015), inclduign archived materials.
• International Alliance of Patients’ Organisations Based in London.
• International Planned Parenthood Federation Areas include reproductive rights, family planning, sustainable development.
• Involve promotes and supports active public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research.
• Kings Fund is a charity producing research on health issues. Good links section under Resources.
• Leprosy – LEPRA.
• NHS Choices (England) to find out about local and national services (plus links to Wales, Scotland and NI).
• Scottish Association for Mental Health.
• Sight Savers International.
• Sustain works on food issues – it advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture. Represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.
• Terrence Higgins Trust London-wide HIV counselling service.
• Together for Short Lives lobbying, campaigning, support for the children’s palliative care sector (was Children’s Hospices UK and ACT).

Human Rights, Immigration

See also Refugees (Communities page).

• Electronic Immigration Network Has resource page with alphabetical lists of useful organisation.
• Amnesty International or UK office.
• Anti-Bullying Network.
• Anti-Slavery.
• Article 19 Campaigns to promote freedom of expression and access to information world-wide.
• British Institute of Human Rights Educational body.
• Children’s Rights Alliance for England.
• Child Rights Information Network.
• Human Rights Watch.
• Huridocs Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International.
• JCWI Free advice and casework, training courses, publications.
• Kurdish Human Rights Project.
• Liberty Civil Liberties campaign group.
• Minority Rights Group.
• Right to Remain (was National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns).
• Practitioner Alliance for Safeguarding Adults Not just for health/care professionals.

Offenders, Community Safety

• Clinks “supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders and their families”.
• Howard League for Penal Reform.
• Prison Reform Trust.
• Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
• Catch22 – was Crime Concern- helping youngsters in danger of/who get into trouble.
• Neighbourhood Watch.
• Restorative Justice Council – quality assurance and national voice for the field of restorative practice.
• Scottish Justice Matters.

Poverty, Social Exclusion, Work

• British Association for Supported Employment Supporting the needs of agencies and staff working in Supported Employment.
• Child Poverty Alliance NI.
• Church Action on Poverty.
• Oxfam has a UK programme.
• Poverty Alliance – Scotland.
• Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian Uni.
• Social Firms UK ‘Creating New Employment for people with disabilities & disadvantages in the open labour market’.
• Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion ‘tackling labour market exclusion’.
• TAEN – The Age and Employment Network., run by Shaw Trust.

Employment Rights are largely covered within our Employment Briefing page. Includes TUC.

Social Care

See also Disabilities section above, and Children, Elderly on the Communities page.

• Barnardos.
• Care Leavers’ Association.
• Carers UK.
• Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), incorporates Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care.
• Children England (was National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations).
• CCPS Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland Association of voluntary sector organisations providing care services in Scottish communities.
• Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.
• Contact A Family.
• Coram BAAF ‘adoption and fostering academy’ for those “working with or looking after children in or from care, or adults who have been affected by adoption”.
• Fostering Network Has Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland site links too.
• Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) (was National Childminding Association).
• NSPCC.
• SharedLivesPlus network for family-based and small-scale ways of supporting adults -was National Association of Adult Placement Services.
• Social Care Institute for Excellence Has subsumed National Institute for Social Work.
• Social Care Online from SCIE.
• SCILS (Social Care Information and Learning Services) Semi-commercial.
• UK Home Care Association Membership services include insurance packages and legal helpline.

Tags: health, issues, rights