How to create Evidence

The purpose of your portfolio is to capture your advocacy competency.  You do this by creating evidence which demonstrates you are skillful in each learning outcome.

The qualification is all about practical skill, so the portfolio needs to reflect what you do in practice.  Remember that practical competency is not the same as knowledge.  Knowledge is showing you know what to do, competency is actually doing it.  Think about this: knowing what advocacy is, is not the same as being a good advocate. 

There are eight different types of evidence that you can use within your portfolio:

1. Work product

2. Self reflective account

3. Written answer

4. Witness testimony

5. Observation (completed by assessor)

6. Case study

7. Question + Answer (completed by assessor)

8. Professional Discussion (completed by assessor)

Our advice is to concentrate on the first four.

1. Work products

The easiest way of doing this is through the use of work products that are real and clearly show you in the role.  Work products can be any relevant products of your own work, or to which you have made a significant contribution.  Typical work products will include case notes, reports, emails, letters, complaints, feedback forms, referral forms, presentations and supervision notes. For example your advocacy case notes will usually capture you are able to action plan with a client, can make records, have found out the client’s wishes and outcomes and may record your research and conversations with other relevant people.

Example work product

An example of how to record confidential work products which ensure confidentiality is protected

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2. Self reflective accounts

You can also write self reflective accounts which explore your work and look at why you did what you did.  Reflective accounts describe your actions in particular situations and/or reflect on the reasons for practising in the ways selected. They provide good evidence that you can evaluate your knowledge and practice across the activities embedded in this qualification

Example self reflective account

An example of how to produce a self reflective and cross reference this across a range of units

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3. Written answers

You can produce written answers or assignments to evidence your knowledge and understanding of a particular area.  Your assessor can set you a question or you can set this yourself.  It is always better to relate this knowledge to your practice by including examples of when you have used this knowledge in your work.

Example written answer

An example of how to set out your written answer

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4. Witness testimonies

These should be from people who are in a position to provide statements of what you have done in practice. Where testimony is sought from individuals who are service users, care should be taken to ensure the purpose of the testimony is understood and no pressure is felt to provide it.  The witness simply records what they witnessed and where.

Example witness testimony

An example of how a witness testimony can be written up

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Student pack

For more information about different types of evidence.
Read more

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