Ecay4002.  Giving individuals a voice; empowerment, agency and anti- oppressive practice.
Phillip Morgan

To give Anti-oppressive practice, empowerment and agency simple definitions   is not an easy task, when Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo freire talks about oppression of the lower classes he believes that by keeping certain classes and minorities undereducated you can keep them impregnated and in a permanent state of underclass.  Freire’s theory says that this is also, so the state can maintain a ‘culture of silence’ (P.Freire, p15), Pedagogy of the oppressed. This created culture keeps the majority of the oppressed in ignorance and lethargy and unable to attain critical awareness.  Freire also recognises the need for the right education and prevent authorian style teaching practices. Freire’s education methodology sits with the much used ’Jug and Mug’ method where authorain methods are removed and humanism is embraced (C.Rogers, 1977), the politics of education. In researching it was found that Neil Thompson defines oppression as a ‘negative and demeaning exercise of power’ and ‘Inhuman or degrading treatment of individuals or groups’ (N.Thopson 2006, p40), Anti-Discrimnatory Practice. This essay will show definitions of anti-oppressive practice, empowerment and agency by linking theory, policy and practice in a challenging behaviour work setting.
Oppression is about power and misuse so we must put anti-oppressive practices in place, starting in education and followed through to the work place.  Care settings such as transition units for extreme challenging behaviour can often be a breeding ground for oppression; this can simply start by trying to prevent a service user from hurting themselves. Over time service users can gain a reputation, for example, ‘oh don’t help him, he’s doing it for attention’.  Anti-oppressive practice challenges this type of discrimination through person centered planning, correctly run MDT meetings and correct staff training and fighting for equality for all service users. Anti-oppressive practice encourages us to look past a reputation freely given by other staff about a service user and to find out the reason the service user has the need for the attention. Every time a service user comes of baseline there is a trigger. It may not be obvious, but there will be one. With anti-oppressive practice staff can challenge existing guidelines and procedures without the worry of discrimination against themselves or the service user. The UK government has legislation relating to challenging behaviour and Anti-oppressive practice such as The equality act 2010 which legally protects against discrimination in the workplace and society. Representation of the people act 1976, an important one for transition units to stay up to date with is The autism act 2009. The autism act 2009 is an act that guides us to make provisions about meeting the needs of adults with autistic spectrum conditions and for connected purposes (The autism act 2009, chapter 15). The theory behind anti-oppressive practice is to challenge cultural attitudes, in wider reading, theories from Freire, Thompson, Marxs and as far back as renaissance humanist Thomas More share a common thread that anti-oppressive practices needs to tackle the conscious and unconscious universal belief that there is a supposed superiority hierarchy amongst people in society and to tackle power imbalances (P.Freire) Pedagogy of the oppressed.  
Alongside Neil Thompsons theories about anti-oppressive practice, Thompson also talks about empowerment in society. Thompson defines empowerment as ‘ helping people gain a greater control over their lives and circumstances’ the most important part of Thompsons definition that we need to remember at all levels of care is ‘empowerment is not something we can do to or for people, it is something we do with them’ (N.Thompson, 2007,p22). 
With this in mind we must work with the idea that empowerment in the work place is the platform to express concerns for the people we work with to challenge who we know as the experts if we feel something is wrong.  The right to feel we and anyone we work with, or act as an agent on their behalf has the freedom from persecution when challenging existing social norms, unconscious behaviours that do not co-exist with government policies that should be in the work place and the public services offered to work alongside.   Government policies such as The sex discrimination 1975 and The equal pay act 1975 under the UK government and EU law have helped to put a political step forward in many ways, yet in work settings such as a transition unit a female employees reaction to a restraint can be seen as an emotional response. There must be correct policies in place to challenge any practices we feel are wrong in the workplace, to complaint without prejudice or stereotyping.  Mary C Gentile, whilst can be brash and presumptive in some methods does encourage us to tackle practices that we deem as unethical (M.C Gentile) Giving voice to values.  When there is a work place that keeps employees steady and only trained to a certain level, empowerment can become a complicated issue. Self-empowerment and acknowledgement may be in place, but there are times when we need to seek outside help from agencies and advocates who have a higher knowledge and a better platform to challenge unethical behaviours or social injustices. The mental capacity act 2005 is a good resource of information on your rights as an agent. For example you may see management or co-workers carrying out bad practice, such as too many restraints with service user and you have the empowerment to incite change to a certain degree but an outside agent can provide extra help to actual change policies and procedures.
There are many different types of agents and agency, but in an advocacy context an agent is a person who acts on behalf of an individual or group.  Acting as an agent we must do what the service user wishes, not what we believe may be best for them. Often agents are used to help services users gain access to opportunities denied them, or to help put forward their life choices in a medical situation that may differ from their family wishes for them. Such as the right to not be resuscitated during an operation.  The government can also refer to an agent as an intermediary.  The latin interpretation of agency is simple one but makes a good definition, Qui facit per alium facit per se, this translates in to, he who acts through another, acts for himself.  In transitions units agents are often used for service users who cannot always act on their own behalf, from gaining access to services, benefits or general care standards. Agents and all care providers must work alongside The social services and well-being  (Wales) act 2014 (Consequential amendments) regulations 2016 when acting on behalf of others.
An advocate can act as an agent on the behalf of a service user until there comes a time when the service user is able through empowerment to be their own agent. This is agency in action and can lead to auto agency where a natural moral action against oppression can occur, linking to empowerment and theories by Welton, Lohman – Hancock & Morgan (Power and control in relationships) 2014.  The government guidelines state that we are protected against discrimination under acts such as the Equality act 2010, at work, in education and when using a public services and can take positive action by helping people with a protected characteristic who may be under represented, we can do this through agency and by promoting self-agency, empowerment and anti-oppressive practice. 
In conclusion to this essay it was found that anti-oppressive practice, empowerment and agency are part of the core practices for social care in today’s society for advocates, support workers and all care staff. The three practices clearly show links through practices in the work place and well known theorists such as Paulo Freire, Neil Thompson and social policy authors such as Pete Alcock. Even though many of these theories are not new they are becoming more widely used and more humanist approaches to education and work settings are being brought in by work place policies and procedures and government policies. Theory, then policy, then on to practice is best practice.  The French theorist Michael Foucault states that ‘power is not given, but exchanged’ (cited in Lewis, 2000, p67) Bring this theory together and you get anti-oppressive practice, empowerment and agency working alongside each other.  Theorist and educator Paulo Freire shows us that by in some form if we tackle oppression through education, a platform for empowerment can be opened. An advocate may start as an agent for service users / clients and through promotion of self-agency, self-empowerment we can then lead them to the open door.

Reference list;
Alcock, P. Social policy in Britain
Foucault, M. cited in Lewis 2000 pg67
Freire, P  Pedagogy of the oppressed, revised edition.
Gentile,M.C. (2010) Giving voice to values, 
Thompson , N . Anti- discriminatory practice, 6th edition
Welton, Lohman-Handcock & Morgan, Power and control in relationships, 2014

Wider reading.
Marx, . Das Kapital.
More, T. (1551) Utopia
www.actionforadvocacy.org.uk 
www.advocacymatters(wales).uk  Launched 2002
www.legislation.gov.uk