CAPS is delighted to announce our new strategic plan! Everything we do comes from our determination to achieve our vision. Our vision is of a Scotland where people who are experiencing disadvantage can express their views and wishes. They will have their views heard and respected in decisions about all aspects of their life. Our strategic plan sets out how we will work towards this vision.
CAPS first started 35 years ago as part of the grassroots mental health user movement. We have grown a lot since then. We have expanded to provide Independent Advocacy to more groups of people. Now we are facing challenging times of change and uncertainty in Independent Advocacy. Reasons for this include:
- a more challenging funding environment;
- the increasing complexity of services and uncertainty in people’s lives;
- diluting of the meaning of Independent Advocacy, allowing organisations who are not independent to compete.
We aim to turn these challenges into opportunities to restructure and reshape the organisation over the next four years. We’ll put our aim of providing high-quality Independent Advocacy to disadvantaged people at the forefront of this work.
Our objectives under this plan are:
1. Preserve and promote the importance of Independence.
2. Work smarter to create organisational efficiencies and improvements.
3. Diversify the means and methods of providing Independent Advocacy.
As the name suggests, Independence is the essential ingredient in Independent Advocacy. If you’re receiving Independent Advocacy the independence bit is how you know we’ll always be on your side. We’ll never follow the agenda of any other organisation. We’re free to help you say whatever is important to you. Our strategic plan includes working with the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA). Together we promote the importance of Independent Advocacy. We’ll tell decision makers such as MSPs and Health and Social Care Partnership leads about the importance of Independence. We’ll also continue to preserve the history of mental health activism and advocacy with the Oor Mad History archive.
Working smarter means we focus our resources. We’ll make sure they can have the most impact for the people we work with. We’ll make our data gathering and evaluation more efficient. This objective also includes researching how we could use automation and Artificial Intelligence. This can help us to improve efficiency whilst staying true to our values.
Finally, we’ll diversify the means and methods of providing Independent Advocacy. This means finding new ways of raising money which allow us to remain Independent. We’ll be able to provide Independent Advocacy to more people. We’ll work with other Independent Advocacy organisations to make the most of opportunities. We will find different ways to provide Independent Advocacy but we will always maintain our independence.
You can read the full strategy document which details these objectives in full.