This page

Advice, Advocacy, Legal services;  Disabilities; Health / Medical;

Human Rights / Equality/ Immigration;  Offenders / Community Safety;

Poverty / Social Exclusion / Work;  Social Welfare / Care.

Elsewhere

Areas of Concern home page to find a different category.

See our Self-Help and Support Groups page - largely dealing with health and disability issues for individuals. Those below are more about campaigning, general info or co-ordination of organisations working in the field.

Also see social care Regulatory Services.

Housing and homelessness have a separate page.

Apologies for the crude categories - anything more sophisticated would need more complex software and longer downloads! If you can't find it here, an organisation may be referenced on another page. Use our site or section menus, or try the search engines.

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Advice, Advocacy and Legal services

Also see under specific issues; Umbrella bodies/networks.

• Advice Services Alliance Main membership is national networks of independent advice services. The body behind Advicenow, the "best information on the law and your rights". In Northern Ireland, the similar body is adviceNI.
• Action for Advocacy is a resource agency.
• Citizens Advice The national body for local CABx, for which there is a search facility, as well as a list of email addresses and web sites where they exist. Also an online Advice Guide - no substitute for human guidance on what is useful on a particular issue, but a good starting point which will also suggest where to go next.
• Citizens Advice Scotland.
• Community Legal Advice aims to provide impartial information and advice about legal rights and help with enforcing them, for residents of England and Wales (legal aid funded).
• London Advice Services Alliance Also their RightsNet website provides social security information and news for advice workers.
• Mentoring and Befriending Foundation.
• 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 homelessnesss and advice sectors'.
• Scottish Legal Action Group 'promotes equal access to justice' and produces a monthly journal.
• Online Benefits Calculations etc We have reproduced Cambridge OnLine City Advice Links on a separate page (may be a bit out-of-date).

Disabilities

• Action for Blind People.
• 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.
• INDI South East Infrastructure Network for Disability Information - networking and information service.
• Learning Disability Wales.
• National Association of Disability Practitioners working in UK Higher and Further Education Institutions.
• National Association of Local Societies for Visually Impaired People Phone 01904 671 921.
• Royal National Institute for the Blind.
• Talking Newspaper Association UK.
• UK Council on Deafness.
• Update Scotland's disability information service. Has good front page news items.
• Vision2020 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.

See our Web Accessibility page for issues around internet use.

Health

Also see Self-help/Support groups.

• The Asian Health Agency.
• AidsMap AIDS and HIV information.
• Allergy Alliance.
• 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.
• DrugScope Email news service, events etc.
• Food Access Network run by Sustain, working to tackle diet-related ill health.
• Health for All Network "enables those working to improve the health of local communities and apply Health for All principles, to meet and share information, research and experiences."
• Help the Hospices Hospice information service. Training courses, hospice search facility etc.
• International Association 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 health in action.
• NHS UK to find out about local and national services (plus links to Wales, Scotland and NI).
• Scottish Association for Mental Health.
• Sight Savers International.
• SPECS, which helped organisations dedicated to helping people with eye conditions, has run out of funds. See Contact a Family for directory of rare eye conditions and ongoing support.
• Sustain Combines the National Food Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance. Sustain 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 - was Children's Hospices UK and ACT.
• United Kingdom Public Health Association (link problem Jan 2012).
• Voluntary Health Scotland network of voluntary organisations.

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.
• Forced Migration Online 'A world of information on human displacement'.
• 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. The Voluntary Sector Advice Service has now been integrated with its general service (helpline 0845 123 2307).
• Migrant Organisations Development Agency - supporting and giving a voice to migrant and minority ethnic community organisations across London.
• Minority Rights Group.
• National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
• Practitioner Alliance against Abuse of Vulnerable 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.
• London Action Trust (was Community Safety Advisory Service) includes voluntary sector capacity building to reduce crime.
• Neighbourhood Watch#.
• Humberside Association of Neighbourhood Watch Groups has good link to further info.
• Centre for Corporate Accountability, promoting worker and public safety, closed but archive still online.
• A blog on criminal justice: CjScotland.

Poverty, Social Exclusion, Work

• British Association for Supported Employment Supporting the needs of agencies and staff working in Supported Employment.
• Church Action on Poverty.
• Debt on our Doorstep is an alliance of local activists and public organisations campaigning for change to lift millions of people in the UK out of debt.
• Oxfam has a UK programme, with a useful resource page.
• Scottish Poverty Information Unit.
• 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'.
• For an international trade union perspective, ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions) has a good set of links.
• Poverty Environment Net is dedicated to promoting improved efforts to address poverty-environment relationships globally (but has Asian slant).
• TAEN – The Age and Employment Network.

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

 

Social Welfare / Care

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

• British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering 'A national voice promoting best practice'.
• Barnardos.
• Care Leavers' Association.
• Carers UK.
• 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.
• Electronic Library for Social Care.
• Fostering Network Has Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland site links too.
• Government Info for Carers.
• National Childminding Association.
• NSPCC.
• Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care.
• SharedLivesPlus network for family-based and small-scale ways of supporting adults -was National Association of Adult Placement Services.
• Short Breaks Network (was Shared Care Network) Co-ordinating national body for short break scheme organisers.
• Social Care Institute for Excellence Has subsumed National Institute for Social Work.
• SCILS (Social Care Information and Learning Services) Semi-commercial.
• UK Home Care Association Membership services include Insurance packages and legal helpline.