History

Early 1990's – independent Hampshire advocacy schemes start to meet together informally, and in 1994 they formed part of the Wessex Advocacy Consortium, which brought together advocacy schemes across Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Wiltshire and West Sussex.

From these beginnings, the advocacy schemes in Hampshire joined together as the Hampshire Advocacy Reference Group – HARG. The purpose was to promote advocacy within the wider county of Hampshire, provide mutual support to local advocacy schemes and to engage in dialogue with local statutory bodies.

As HARG works across the geographical area of Hampshire (including cities of Portsmouth and Southampton) it changed its name to be known now as Hampshire Advocacy Regional Group.

In recent years member schemes have decided to formalise this arrangement, and HARG became a fully-fledged autonomous organisation, registering as a company in January 2007 and gaining charity status in June 2008.  This allows us to form consortia to bid for contracts and tenders using HARG as the lead agency, which then sub contracts to member schemes and other voluntary sector partners.  Work that we have secured in this way includes: Hampshire IMCA contract;  Southampton IMCA contract; advocacy and person centred planning for people with a learning disability in Hampshire; person centred reviews and advocacy to support the HCC Transformation of in house services project; self advocacy in Portsmouth.

In October 2009, HARG was accredited as a registered C&G training centre for the delivery of the new National Advocacy Qualification.