About People’s Voices

People's Voices was founded in 1994, beginning life as an Amersham based charity providing advocacy services through volunteers. Over the last decade we have grown in size and extended our scope. We now cover the whole of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes and have both staff and volunteer advocates.

People's Voices is a registered charity. We are independent of social services, health trusts and private care establishments (such as residential homes). We are funded by local authorities (Bucks County Council and Milton Keynes Council) to provide free services to people who qualify for our help across the county of Buckinghamshire.

People's Voices is run by voluntary directors who form our Board of Trustees. Our Board directors come from commercial, health and social services sectors, and bring a wealth of expertise to the management of the charity. Many of our Trustees are also trained advocates.

We recruit and train volunteers to work as advocates and also have a number of staff in each of our offices. Find out more about becoming a Volunteer Advocate.

We have offices in Amersham (Registered Office), Milton Keynes and Prestwood, where we offer free services as follows:

Bucks Advocacy

Based in Amersham

Advocacy services for all adults with learning disabilities, physical and sensory disabilities, mental health service users, covering South Bucks, Chiltern and Wycombe districts.

Countywide IMHA service which covers South Bucks, Chiltern, Wycombe and Aylesbury districts.

Service user and carer involvement programme for Buckinghamshire New University

Milton Keynes Advocacy

Based in Milton Keynes

Advocacy services for all adults with learning disabilities, physical and sensory disabilities, mental health service users and older people. We provide the Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) service for Milton Keynes and also the Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) service. For more details see What Is Advocacy and Our Services.

Support for service users who wish to become involved with planning, delivering and monitoring their services, via MK SURF (Service Users Recovery Forum).

Self Directed Support Advice Service

Based in Prestwood

(Formerly Direct Payments Support and Advice Service, based in Aylesbury)

Advice and support for all in receipt of Self Directed Support payments (including Direct Payments). We provide brokerage (help with deciding how best to obtain services), financial advice on how to administer the payments, and help with the employment process (eg; advertising, interviewing, security checking). This service covers all of Buckinghamshire (see Buckinghamshire County map above).

All our services are confidential. We value diversity and this is reflected in our practices, policies and services.