A volunteer working at Advocacy in Wirral’s West Kirby Drop-In Centre has scooped an award to recognise his contribution.

The Mayoress of Wirral, Cllr Moira McLaughlin presented the Silver Award for Long Service Volunteering to Mick Miller at an event at the Floral Pavillion, New Brighton on 19 January 2012.  The award is for people who have been volunteering for 5 years or more, and was organised by Wirral CVS.

Mick was delighted to receive the award, after being nominated by Working Life.  At the West Kirby Drop-In Centre, Mick helps out with preparations for lunch and organising activities, as well as keeping a record of everyone who attends.

“I really enjoy the book-keeping side of my role at West Kirby, as well as socialising with other people attending,” said Mick.

At a time when Advocacy in Wirral is busier than ever, we’ve been investing a lot of time and energy in developing our staff to ensure we can continue to provide a quality service while resources in society are getting tighter.

There’s no doubting that the current economic malaise is having a severe impact on people on the Wirral, and we are seeing this reflected in the increased workload carried by our staff and volunteers.

Earlier this year, Advocacy in Wirral was fortunate to receive a large award from the Government’s Transition Fund to help us manage the uncertainties of contract changes that are affecting large parts of the third sector.   The award was a public endorsement of the valuable work we do in helping vulnerable people with mental health, substance misuse and alcohol issues.

Advocacy in Wirral is now almost half-way through our Year of Transition, so here’s an update on what we’ve been working on with our Transition Fund monies up to now:

• All of our admin staff have now completed a two day Mental Health First Aid training programme, and Tony Lawrence (our Senior Advocate) has qualified to teach this course.
• Advocates working for our Hospital Advocacy Project have all been trained as Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) and our project managers are undertaking the National Advocacy Qualification which is accredited by City and Guilds.  We will be looking to ensure all our advocates achieve this qualification in due course.
• We’ve undertaken a review of our admin systems, and have started to implement recommendations that will improve our responsiveness to clients and customers, including customer awareness training for staff.
• Working with Cull Micro Imaging, we’ve digitised our client records (around half a million sheets of paper that were stored in filing cabinets!) to reduce our reliance on paper storage and create a digital archive.
• We have reviewed our expenditure on printing, generating savings in expenditure that will improve the viability of projects where funding is limited.
• We are working with a consultant towards achieving the prestigious ISO 9001 Quality Standard before the end of the year, and are about to embark on accreditation for Investors in People.  We will also be embarking on Action for Advocacy’s Quality Performance Mark certification, and are training a group of managers in the process of measuring Social Return on Investment.
• We have undergone a major review of data security, working with specialist security company DataShield.
• We have contracted with Drurypsm to provide Human Resource and Health & Safety support to Advocacy in Wirral.   Two of our staff are close to completing the IOSH Managing Safely qualification.

So, as you can see – we’ve had a busy six months working behind the scenes to improve our infrastructure.  Advocacy in Wirral is getting ready for the challenges ahead!