POhWER Reviews 56

I shouldn't be surprised. People are people and for some reason an advocate is needed to get advocacy.

Pohwer Hertfordshire: Namely Edna. Condescending , combative , dismissive, coercive gaslighting of the vulnerable including children and adults.
Someone is a position of trust withholding support.
I have a few issues that seemed to cross over leading me to be overwhelmed. Edna would interrupt me constantly while I was trying to illustrate how the issues developed , but at the same time apologising for doing so continued. When expressing the educational needs of children she stated that all children must be in school, how draconian and dark. Access to education does not mean access to school.
What was most concerning was when I said that I would have to leave the call. Edna didn't like that, so I was bombarded then with, ' but what about your issues'. The same issues you keep preventing me from speaking about . This is the kicker.
Me:I am going to have to end the call.
Edna:Why?
Me:because I feel that I need to leave this conversation.
Imagine she didn't want me to go..
Edna:So you want me to close the case?
Me:I have stated that I feel I need to end this call, and you have paraphrased for me to have the case closed.
If that is what you heard and comprehended from the words I have spoken then it is in your professional capacity to decide once the phone is down what you will do.
To date Edna has not called back so I guess the case is shut.
I also feel that I must take this to the MPs.
Self referrals are treated like an inconvenience. So why have them so as to give a notion that there is equal opportunities and accessibility.
Edna should be ashamed of herself.
And Pohwer needs a heavy audit just like the Ombudsman service

People who approach these services are not here for fun, we aren't flicking through a page of a book and having a aha moment. Finding and approaching Pohwer is intentional and therefore every individual where thrid party referral or self should be treated as vulnerable as they are seeking help. They should not be spoken to with impersonal , harsh criticism and when making a decision not to further their own discomfort and actual extension of their concerns. Be met with..
If you don't put up with this then I won't help you.
Honestly my stomach turns for anyone that has to cross paths..

Someone from the POHWER service in Leicester turned up at my property without notice and with someone from the service that I needed help communicating with. I obviously couldn't speak to the POHWER advocate in front of the person from the service that I needed help communicating with, so I ended up closing the door on both of them. So sad that POHWER is a letdown for so many people.

EDIT: Complain against this sham charity to the charity commision. This is the only way to have scam charities like Powher closed down.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Absolutely useless.
They never answer the phone, never call back.
Only contact I managed to get was via email
Emails were written poorly regarding spelling and grammar, and after apparantly reading the notes, they had no understanding whatsoever of the complaint.
So their response then is to direct me to the PHSO. But, PHSO won't touch it until I've made a complaint in the first instance!
I honestly don't know how or why they exist, complete amateurs with no expertise.

It took this advocacy service 3 months to call me and the advocate provided to me sent emails to an incorrect email address because she didn’t check it, neither did she check to see if the email had bounced back into her inbox. So she sent an emailed to an address that doesn’t exist. Didn’t think to call me either then when she finally sorted herself out after 5 calls chasing her up. She emailed me instructions of what to do and also that due to time delays, caused by her they may have now closed the complaint. Meaning I cannot now pursue it.
This is all down to their mismanagement and bad service

Extremely poor. Dismissive. Didn’t listen. Talked over me. Didn’t acknowledge mistakes. Refused to pass on concerns to a supervisor when asked- demanded I call a ‘hub’. Gave no information about what the number of the hub is.
Appalling treatment of a child with significant disabilities.
Would give zero stars if possible

I am alone with stage 4 cancer . I contacted this company for help and have had nothing but rude 1 lines saying to go somewhere else. Signposted. Rude. Unhelpful.

If zero stars were an option, that’s what this experience would merit.

This review follows a formal complaint I made about POhWER’s handling of advocacy support for my brother, a vulnerable adult.

After meeting with a POhWER advocate, providing detailed information, and completing all onboarding paperwork, my brother and I were left with a clear and reasonable understanding that POhWER would act as his advocate during an upcoming reassessment. At no point was it explained that this might fall outside remit, or that a different category of advocacy might be required.
When we were later told that POhWER could not support him in that reassessment, the withdrawal came as a shock and caused significant distress. I explicitly raised concerns at the time about the emotional impact this would have on my brother, who had only just begun to trust that an independent advocate would support him. I also made clear that I am not a professional advocate and could not be expected to understand technical distinctions between different advocacy frameworks — that responsibility sits with the organisation.
In October 2025, POhWER upheld my formal complaint, acknowledging that the distinction between Community Advocacy and Care Act advocacy had not been made clear and that this had caused distress.
Two specific outcomes were agreed:
• A seamless and immediate handover to the commissioned Care Act advocacy provider, including contacting the allocated social worker to flag the need for Care Act advocacy (subject to consent)
• A personal explanation and apology directly to my brother
Despite the complaint being upheld, these outcomes were not implemented.
After repeated follow-up, POhWER confirmed that the case had been closed without contacting the social worker and without carrying out the agreed facilitative handover. Responsibility was later reframed as sitting entirely with us, despite the clear wording of the upheld outcome.
As a result, the process stalled for months at a critical point in my brother’s care. We were eventually forced to initiate the next steps ourselves to secure advocacy support — something that should not have been necessary given the upheld complaint and agreed actions.
The personal explanation and apology to my brother also never took place. A written apology contained within a complaint response addressed to me was treated as sufficient, despite the outcome explicitly stating that my brother should receive a personal explanation.
This experience has been exhausting and distressing, and it has undermined confidence both in POhWER’s complaints process and in the advocacy service it claims to offer. While complaints may be upheld in principle, the lack of follow-through raises serious concerns about accountability and real-world support for vulnerable people.

After reading all these negative responses I may end up having to pay for private advocate who has the time focus to challenge Hertfordshire adult services as I am disabled wheelchair user and moved from Westminster council to Herts 7 weeks ago . My care plan in westminster 42 hrs a week and zero contribution . Herts finance first time round want me to fund £187 per week towards my care ! Asked for review of DRE they reduced to £157 per week and I live on benefits . I now will write to MP Oliver Dowden

Do not bother putting in a referral, as you will probably not get any help at all and just waste your time waiting for each response in between months while you have to continue fighting and thinking soon someone will respond and get in touch with support, when they are just playing you.

I contacted them more than half a year ago to hopefully get some help advocating for some mental Healthcare. They got to my referral pretty quickly at first. However we never got anything done at all, or even began to discuss the support for advocacy I was looking for, as the worker would take weeks, or even a whole month and more, in between each text I responded to from her. Any arranged check up/follow up calls I already could barely schedule in, due to the few weeks to month long waits for her response between each text message sent from me, were all missed completely by her, or she'd propose a time, I'd confirm, only to be met with no response for weeks again.

Every time I had something new I wanted help with, I'd bring it up immediately on the same day when she sent a check in text to me (after the already month long delay of when she was supposed to reply to my last message) only to be left on delivered for another month in between each text message I sent replying to their long awaited response.
Which by the next time they'd message me back about my previous message with details 1 month later, the appointments for whatever help I needed, mentioned in my last text with them, would be long over

Have also texted the worker and enquired for details about their advocacy service and what they are actually able to offer help with, as I was confused with the slow and lackluster service, thinking I was mistaking the picture of this advocacy service for something else I had in mind, along with mention of other details of what I needed help with. No response at all in regards to my advocacy or any details about the service, and never answered my question either.

The only quick text reply I've ever gotten was from today, when they asked if I still needed advocacy, which I had enough of and said no thanks and that I did not need the service anymore, which they replied to almost instantly!
Dissappointing and let down, especially since they are a charity advocacy service to help vulnerable people who cannot speak up for themselves.

What an absolute shambles Powher is.
The whole thing is ran by narcissists.
Should be shut down. Another drain on government resources to no gain for society other than Powher staff to be paid a wage.
Thank you Ellie! Thank you so much for treating me as a sub human!

We needed advocacy for my son with LD. After years of issues dealing with social care in Oxfordshire.
The lady was pleasant enough, but knew nothing to do with our concerns.
Nothing about the Care Act 2014 or regulations 2015.
Was a complete waste of time.
Sadly things don't seem much better than this anywhere else.

First person was helpful, but she got a new job. She was replaced by a guy who could not be less engaged/interested/bothered.

When I challenged him on that he just said something along the lines of "I have a lot of clients".

I have been through a long drawn out process with the NHS that has destroyed my health, and this is the best help you can get, no wonder the NMC involved them.

Edit:

They have updated me that as I did not wish to raise a complaint they would take no further action. It is a a gravy train organisation, I I for ed them what happened, I know it has happened before with eh same person, but because I will not go through a charade, they say nothing will be done.

At least I have some choice emails for publication, oh and there is still no response as regards what I asked.

Edit 2:

Several months later and still no response, not even from the complaints people, wondering if they recruit their staff from something like NHS (complaints (mis)handling now.

Had I read those reviews, I would not have wasted my time with Pohwer. I was advised incorrectly and my so called advocate disappeared without a trace before the end of the complaints process. I was failed by the NHS, failed by the ombudsman and failed by Pohwer. It is very clear that the NHS are not interested in learning the lessons and the ombudsman fails to take them to task. As far as Pohwer goes, ultimately, they didn't help, just created more work.

Pohwer are currently helping with the medical centre that I'm registered with, the person trying to help is very polite and has sent and email to the practice however, prior to the person contacting me I had been passing information over to another person who was supposedly adding it to my case, but I found the person dealing with my case seemed not to know what the ombudsman had done even though I'd sent their emails to Pohwer and that the person appears not to fully read my emails due to errors she makes in her responses and the email she sent to the medical centre.

I'm giving her 4 stars because she didn't really have to help me or contact the medical centre and it's a free service. I'm hoping that I get the outcome that has been requested by the officer and will update this at a later date.

Edit - After today I'm really bemused at the fact that the person supposedly helping me doesn't know how to read an email properly and has now twice put the wrong information when requesting further assistance from the medical centre. I may have to tell her to leave it at this rate as I feel she's not going to get anywhere with putting the wrong info in emails. Also what is the point in me sending information onto Pohwer only for the person helping not to bother reading it, ie emails from the ombudsman.

Due to MY experience I believe it was a huge mistake even contacting them PohWer, WHY. Because the same as any big organisation their can be moles and other types of folks. When I consulted the doctor who I divulged to PohWer was part of what I thought was a conspiracy I could tell immediately I looked at his face he was prewarned that I had made a compliant. What a dispicable situation.
Of course I have no concrete proof that the advocate that had my data and of course was bound by the data act did the judas on me but someone advised that doctor I was 'coming for him.'???????

Dreadful experience.
Awful service. Awful people.

Spoke to a representative today to get some advice, the lady was not paying attention from the get go. I felt like I wasted my time repeating things to her. She was not paying attention nor communicate clearly.I won’t be calling POHWER again. Avoid at all cost. I am glad I decided this was not for me. I am glad I looked at Google reviews during the call because she wasn’t helpful. If you need to complain and can’t write it, go to fiverr.com and get someone to write it for you for a fee, then make a formal complaint to your hospitals/ healthcare provider and if the hospital is stalling/not investigating then complaint to the ombudsman. Also look at AvMA.

My so-called advocate shut my case whilst it was still ongoing. He had helped by talking to the health service ombudsman and also by reading the local government ombudsman's report and giving me an outline of it. This was when he was with Equal Lives. He moved to Pohwer and my case was transferred with him. He then shut my case shortly before the health service ombudsman sent their report. I got the report asked my advocate to do as he had before. He refused, pretending not to know what I wanted him to do. I explained in simple words that I wanted him to do what he'd done before. He didn't even answer me. I emailed again, saying 'You left me to it'. He ignored that. I started an official complaint to Pohwer. It was ignored. Pohwer is taking money for doing a worthless job.

eighty phone calls, no answer.
Is there an advocacy service to advocate for me to help me receive this service?

Dreadful company