POhWER Reviews 56

Tried to put in a complaint about this appalling organisation. Even that was ignored. This organisation needs to be shut down. It causes more harm than good.

absolutely terrible , non helpfull, uncaring , please please do not waste your time with these as they will promise you help but totally let you down in every aspect , the worst service i have ever encountered. total waste of time and effort going to them . there total disregarding attitudes has been going on for ages. very very unprofessional service

Frustrating! And waste of time!
They were appointed by the court to be my son's advocate. But, I have no clue what they are doing. Did not seem.to make an impact nor representation for my son whatsoever. I have informed them of my son's breach of DOLS, I copied them to mu emails but rather inactive or non reactive at all. I have informed the advocate that my husband at the time is due for a heart bypass and I have asked for staff provision to cover the care that my husband provide Advocate made a visit and told me that she is moving on ha ing promotion but no other advocate is yet assigned to my son. I contacted the number and the name she left a week before the Operarion. It has between 2 weeks now after the operation and have not yet heard anything from them. What is actually the role of POHWER advocacy? I am rather confuse as we are left without support for my son. Can anyone in POHWEr enlighten me, please.

The worse experience I have ever had. Please, do not use them. Their attitude is diabolical. Filled in their forms in Oct 2023, to help my disabled son, I receive confirmation in Feb of 2024 they will assign a advocate, I then received an email from this advocate Michelle Robertson stating she will ring, then to be told on the day that their system is being updated so she would have to make another date, and today it was suppose to be a phone interview, and she phoned from a private tel number 3 times and did not leave her number so I can phone her back, as her calls went straight to record (as they will and do) and my phone did not ring. I then sent an email, as the phone number on her website states a number to call - again, no response. So, in all of this, what a bloody shambles they are, and avoid at all cost, as they clearly are avoiding you as they have been told to do!

BARNET POHWER:

So far my experience hasn't been pleasant, I filled in all my paperwork 9 weeks ago and am still waiting for a case handler to take my case.

If you call them most of the time they Don't answer the phone or they keep you waiting atleast 40 minutes before they do.

I had dealt with voice ability in the past and they atleast answer the phone and gave you a rough estimate of how long it would take for a case handler to be assigned your case, but there's no point in focusing on the past for some reason voiceability lost the contract and pohwer got it.

Dreadful experience. They refused to meet or speak to me but wanted a consent form to speak on my behalf. She then went ahead & met with GP & carers with no clue what the issues were. Managed to make things worse & was served notice yo leave GP as a result of the advocates poor advice. So now left with complex medical issue & no access to GP
They Didn't have any clue or understanding of issues. I was treated like I didn't exist.

I have contacted POhwer to receive advocacy support on my complaint against the NHS, this was the reply;

Good morning Max,
Thank you for contacting PohWER.
Unfortunately we do not currently operate in Coventry and would be unable to support.
The advocacy provider for the area is Voice ability.

I have contacted VoiceAbility and I was suggested to contact POhwer....all these organizations are kept alive thanks to money from the taxpayers because despite being registered as a charity they received money from the government...going what? causing trouble and distress to patients....Shame of you all this material will be included on my website....

To reply to you; You can confirm that your service along with VoiceAbility is a circus service, one body discharges the patient on top of the other one and vice versa.....get out of business and avoid causing problems who has already a lot of problems....

I have already processed a review on the company websight through Google. Interested parties may benefit from an appraisal of these reviews also...

Pohwer are not fit for purpose and a review of the services being provided would be beneficial and bring to light the failures of this organisation...
Complaints should also be raised with the Charity Commission and local Public Services as well as copies addressed and provided to management. Documents of Articals of Memorandum, or the Notice of intent and Purpose are in the public domain upon request. (These should be provided free of charge upon request, by the Charity, I believe.) As a charity, Pohwer must give notice of annual/biannual meetings open to the general public to attend and have their say, or to vote off or on the Committee Members, the Trustees, the Management Team and how the charity needs to be run and managed.
F.Y.I. If any Charity does not achieve its registered purpose, then the public can commence deregisteration of any Registerd Charity.
The Duty of Care to provide an advocacy Service is a mandatory legal entitlement written within the Care in the Community Act, also other acts of Parliament like the Mental Health Act and within the NHS Constitution and Patients Charter.
I also have fallen victim to the low levels of service standards, communication and lack of effective training of allocated advocates.
The time spent with this company is now seven months and I am no further forward into gaining a Community Care Needs Assessment, or a Written Care plan to date. Again a mandatory Entitlement and not a privilidge...
There appears to be very little progress from day one. Many opportunities available to support my own disabilities are not open, or available to me due to the fact this written Care Plan as not been drafted by Adult Social Services...
Pohwer are receiving funding to support people to gain a voice and gain access to relevant referrals and gain the support of additional Services in the community...
I concur, telephone contact needs to be initiated by the advocates and regular confirmations of developments, or requirements need to be implemented by allocated advocates. This one matter of concern needs to be looked into and adopted forthwith so as to improve the service and not rely on those with LD or MH issues to make contact with the company, before any progression is made to the clients advantages...
There appears to be a complete breakdown with corporate communication and advocates claiming they were not aware of telephone messages, or can telephone receptionists discuss position with clients.
Emails are not responded to or completely ignored. There is no correspondence received to confirm the position with their Disabled Clients. There are no regular updates as to current positions, or state of play with the Community Services whether Public or otherwise...
In my opinion, a complete overall of Management and effective training to volunteers is required with immediate effect...
I would confidently agree and confirm a Public Enquiry in respect of the service provided to the Disabled and recommendations on how to improve these services is needed before continuation of Services is provided by those higher up the food chain...
I believe the funding the organisation receives could be put to much better use for the benefit of those who need this service. If indeed the organisation do receive Public Funding as well as private donations then this Public money is such a waste. I believe the Charity would benefit from an effective investigation into its daily working practices as some of their failings maybe in breach of Civil Law and Human Rights violations...
In my own experience the organisation do not follow the rights of the individual within the Equalities Act 2010. This Act clearly states the protective characteristics of those suffering Disabilities, Race, Age, Religion and Belief, Gender and Marital Status...
My advice. Sort yourselves out pohwer. I would not recommend this service to anyone. It is poor at best and requires urgent attention immediately to bring it into a position of being FIT FOR PURPOSE, the 21st century and to meet the needs and not at the detriment of your clients...
Thank you for such experience of feeling to be unworthy and placed into a characterization of a less position within Society than a dog, or a pig that appears to hold more rights than the human beings commonly referred to as clients...
A collective shame on all of you working for or volunterring for Pohwer. I am disgusted with the current standards and Working Practices within this organisation and feel nothing but sympathy for those Disabled Clients who approach the organisation for moral or professional support...
We deserve better!!!

I have read the reviews on trust pilot, and you think that power would actually read the reviews they’re getting. I read the reviews on trust pilot, and every experience that I read I have had in the past six months. My advocate failed to provide a copy of the final response letter from the hospital. Which the advocate had A final response to my complaint with the hospital trust in her email which she failed to read I tried to make a complaint against the advocate and I got someone that was clueless about the advocate and my previous complaint that I made. I couldn’t tell me when I will get a new advocate. My current advocate of been with me for nine months and she has left power, a year wasted ,power is not fit for purpose, plain and simple.

Shocking service, more to support staff than ‘ clients’ — staff should be vetted before ‘supporting’ vulnerable people. Also, did not receive any of the promised support, regarding official complaint of nhs psychiatrist. V bad experience, do not recommend.

Total waste of time.
Why are they still operating with so many bad feedbacks.
Joke

I referred my adult daughter to pohwer for Community Advocacy, as she required support to communicate with her social worker and placement staff/management. Also as an employee of pohwer, I thought nothing of it and emailed referral in thinking an advocate will be in touch in a weeks time. Big mistake! Few weeks went by and she hadn't heard a thing. I contacted helphub only to find the referral not only hadn't been added, but they were waiting for me to get in touch to check some of the details?!?! Why not just get in touch? I had included everyone's contact details. Then in sheer blind panic, pohwer added the referral on twice and gave my daughter 2 advocates! Bearing in mind my daughter has LD and struggles to communicate, 2 advocates just made the whole situation a mess! No one even did anything about this until I raised it with management.

Even after this was sorted, nothing was done about the actual issues the referral was made about. Staff at my daughters placement wouldn't pronounce her name properly, they were disrespectful towards her diet and religion, no support to access community. Placement Manager was repeatedly seen smoking within the building, which my daughter had raised with social worker and locality manager, but she felt ignored so we thought an advocate could support her with having her voice heard. No training in BAME, no training provided in LD, Autism or understanding communication formats. Avoid at all costs. Advocates need far too much hand holding, no initiative, no understanding of how to support vulnerable adults with LD. You need to know exactly what you want, how you want it and when you want it, in order for advocate to do anything.

I had an interview a couple of years back for an Advocate role. One of the men interviewing me was aggressive rude and openly hostile. It was really bizarre. Luckily I found a more pleasant job shortly afterwards. If this man was representative of this charity I am appalled and sympathise with people who have to deal with them

Waited nine months for an advocate despite automatic response stating referrals actioned in five days. Multiple emails just being ignored at present and refusal to given any time frame when I can expect to be assigned. Most organisations have a 1 yr complaints limit so some of the things I need help with are now out of time but pohwer retain contract in my area. Pretty appalled by this whole experience - how can one have any faith once assigned an advocate when treated so poorly by those who are supposed to support in the face of failures?

Had a bad experience with powher 17 months the advocate hasn't helped implement 5 hrs care. No time frames , assertiveness or diligence. I've had 3 brilliant advocates in the past so know how an advocate should operate. When I asked when did powher take over my case got told 2 different answers by the advocate and manager November and December. If they looked at their paper wk they would of seen it was October.

So glad I've seen these reviews definitely not going for the offer a new advocate which was refused in September my old advocate said I have a right to ask for 1. Good job I have those good experiences as a measure otherwise would think it was normal.

NO advocacy, NO support, No help.

Absolute disgraceful service, shouldn't be advocating for anyone let alone the vulnerable, they do not follow the advocacy guidelines, they are unprofessional, their complaints mechanism is a complete shambles and to quickly summarise politely they should be struck off !

Everything negative people have written on here is true. They are an absolute sham, and should be struck off from the advocacy register. They should not be allowed to deal with vulnerable people, the fact that they do is very, very worrying. I wish I had read the reviews before I contacted them but PALS passed me onto them. I will add a word to describe them and that is Con-artists.
They need to be investigated and immediately!!!!!!!!

BAD BAD BAD SERVICE!!!!!!
If you have any mental health conditions. POHWER Will make you feel worse. You are constantly doing their job for them. Everyone who has had a bad experience should take the time to write a review.

I found pohwer to be very unhelpful and frankly a waste of everyone's time.

I contacted pohwer for advocacy support, after an initial phone assessment that included personal and probing questions I was told pohwer would be able to assist. I was then asked to
complete lengthy with repetivtive probing and sensitive questions. Only to be told pohwer do not have any advocates to assist and they are unable to give me any indication of when any would be available. If this had of been explained initially I wouldn't have bothered to waste my time completing all the forms.
I was disappointed by Pohwer lack of transparency and lengthy and pointless process's.

Pohwer telephone staff were equally disappointing, I spoke to a lady on two occasions who assured me that my concerns would be passed to a manager who would call me back to discuss - however made no attempt to take my name or contact details