Independent advocacy: amplifying the voices of women with learning disabilities
Women with learning disabilities who have experienced abuse face specific challenges when interacting with services – including stereotyping, stigma and being disbelieved. In this context, independent advocacy can be a critical tool for women to have their voices heard.
We met with Angela and Suzanne, two Advocacy Workers at Central Advocacy Partners, to get a better sense of what independent advocacy is and how it can give more control to women with learning disabilities when engaging with services and processes. We also discussed what services can do to better meet the needs of women with learning disabilities who are involved in selling sex.
What is Central Advocacy Partners and how do you support survivors of abuse?
Suzanne: we are an organisation based in Falkirk and covering Forth Valley, and we provide independent advocacy to people with learning disabilities and autistic people. We offer a few services at the moment: a survivors’ project as well as general advocacy, victim support for victims and witnesses of crime, a project for young autistic people, and we provide advocacy in some residential settings.
Angela: our advocacy is relationship-based, which is so important for people with learning disabilities – this means we're not task-orientated. Instead, we take the time to get to know the person and build trust. Suzanne and I specifically work in the survivors’ project, which is for women and girls aged 16 and above with learning disabilities or autism who are referred to us because they have experienced domestic abuse.
Can you tell us more about what independent advocacy is?
Suzanne: because we are independent, the advocacy we provide is completely unbiased. We can say to the women we support that we are on their side, and whatever issues they raise to us or however that advocacy might look for them is solely about their needs, wants and wishes. For our advocacy to be truly independent it means we don't provide any service other than advocacy. We also don't receive local authority or statutory funding – all our funding is from charities and trusts, so we can really say we are independent. This is really important when working with people who maybe have a negative experience of other services, or the relationship with that service has broken down.
Angela: in the survivors’ project we work with many women who don't have their children. It's so common that women who have experienced domestic abuse and have a learning disability have had their children removed, especially if the perpetrator happens to be the father and he doesn't have a learning disability. What we find is that he keeps the children and that allows the coercive control to continue legally. So for the women to trust us is really important that they hear that we don't have local authority funding – because it's the local authority that has their children.
How do you build trust with the women you support? And how do you build that understanding that your approach is different from their previous experiences with other services?
Angela: we make it very clear that the women are in control of our relationship. That's why we call them partners, because it shows that equality in our relationship. We are very much led by them. We don’t offer advice; we don’t tell them what to do. We let them know their options and talk them through those options, but ultimately it's their decision. We also make it clear that we are not decision-makers in any of the processes they are going through. It's important that their voice is heard. It doesn't always change the outcome unfortunately, but it's important that their voice is heard and that they feel listened to.
We also take it at our partners’ pace – if they need to meet us a couple of times a week, we will do that. I have a partner who is autistic, she’s suffered a lot of trauma and I had to build my relationship with her through text messages. By doing what I said I was going to do for her, she then started to make phone calls and then allowed me into her house. It just takes time, but you've got to be trauma-informed and take it at their pace.
Suzanne: a lot of services don't tailor their approach to meet the needs of the person. So they'll, for example, maybe send a letter to say “I'm coming out this date and time to see you” but a lot of our partners can't read, they can't understand letters, so they won't be in for that appointment. Then they'll be seen as non-engaging, and that service could close to them, which we see quite a lot. As Angela said, it's all about building a relationship. Initially it might be through phone calls or allowing them total control over where and when we meet.
Angela: it's also about giving yourself enough time in appointments. If you have somebody who has a learning disability or is autistic, it's very important that you know their history. Many times, they will want to go back to the beginning of what happened because it's the only way they can process it. A lot of other agencies give them a 10 to 15 minute appointment – that's not enough for our partners. We give them that time, which helps to build the relationship and trust.
What support do you offer for women who have experienced abuse?
Angela: we can refer our partners for trauma counselling, something that's never been offered to them before. We have a close relationship with the Meadows in Falkirk, which is the forensic unit, so we can take them there to meet the person running the unit for a very informal chat. There's no pressure on them to disclose anything, but it just makes them familiar with the surroundings. We can accompany partners to places like Rape Crisis and Women's Aid and help explain their story, which is so important, because sometimes women are not able to voice it, especially when meeting a worker for the first time.
Suzanne: a lot of our partners who've experienced abuse tend to have many things going on in their lives at one time. They could be involved in legislative processes, adult protection processes; if they have children, there could be child protection processes, children's hearings, court attendances… We make sure that we spend the time to explain these processes and help them prepare for and attend any meetings and understand the outcomes of those meetings.
Angela: we also have a survivors’ group which runs weekly, which helps to develop women’s understanding of domestic abuse. Women attending also validate each other, they can tell there's no pressure to disclose anything. We've had women who have been blamed for the domestic abuse because of the learning disability, saying that it was a poor choice of partner. We've also had women whose children reported the abuse at school, then the police came out, and because the woman was autistic, they decided to interview her with the husband present, who was the perpetrator of that abuse. It's that lack of understanding of learning disabilities and autism. Our partners often feel that because they have a learning disability, they are not believed or taken seriously when they disclose abuse.
Suzanne: even though the perpetrator has abused his partner, he's still viewed as a better parent because he doesn't have a learning disability.
Can you tell me more about how you take referrals? Are you guided by women coming forward and asking for the service?
Angela: it's important to say that we don't need an official diagnosis of learning disability or autism. A lot of women, a lot of people, don't get a diagnosis because they don't want the stigma of having that label attached to them – there is that fear of losing control of their life or being judged.
Suzanne: or they're on waiting lists for years. To try and get a diagnosis of autism as an adult is extremely difficult.
At the point of referral, we'll go out and do an initial visit just to gather a bit more information, explain what advocacy is and to establish if the person would like that. During the visit we can ask about the school they went to, because if they went to one where they had enhanced provision or specialist provision, that's a telltale sign that they've got a learning disability. We also ask about other services that they've engaged with. We're acutely aware that often people who have learning disabilities don't present like they do. Often they mask – they can present as really articulate because they've learned the language. Yet, they don't necessarily understand what they're saying. With our relationship-based approach we really get to know our partners and can understand their difficulties.
Could you tell us more about your experience of supporting women with learning disabilities involved in selling or exchanging sex?
Angela: for a lot of the women, they don't see it as selling or exchanging sex. They see it as a way of breaking the isolation and the loneliness that they feel. They want a relationship, and a part of that is a sexual relationship. They want that closeness, and I think they feel that if they give that part of themselves, this person will stay. That's the main motivation.
Suzanne: A lot of the women we support are very isolated and vulnerable. I have supported women who have been targeted by men and they have had sex with them because, having these men around makes them feel more protected. Women don’t often realise or recognise the dangers at the time. I have also supported some women through adult protection processes, enabling them to be taken to a safe place and engage with social work and other services. My role then was to support them to participate in and attend meetings, understand the process, their options and to make sure they felt heard and had their views considered.
What challenges have you noticed for women with learning disabilities when disclosing their involvement in selling or exchanging sex?
Suzanne: they don't realise that they are being used for sex, they don't realise what's happening until perhaps they speak to one of us or another service and we can help them understand that what they're doing is providing themselves to other people who have sex with them in exchange for something. But they don't always understand or realise what is happening.
Angela: and they can feel judgement. If a woman has experienced domestic abuse and is told “that's your poor choice because you have a learning disability”, they're not going to disclose that they're selling sex for company because, again, they will be judged. It's the intersectionality of abuse. People need to dig deeper as to why is a woman selling sex, rather than judging on surface level. What's going on in her life that she's been driven to do this? Is it because she is trying to provide for her children?
Women also don't want to have social work involvement, they don't want to lose control of their life and the decisions they're making.
Suzanne: and particularly if they have children whom they are maybe fighting to see more or trying to get home. The fear of disclosing something, the consequences that might have on them seeing their children would prevent them from speaking to anybody. Because it would be through every report, through all the papers at the Children’s Hearing, it would be there forever more.
Angela: it would also be stated as a fact. There wouldn't be context to what this woman has gone through to be in that position. It would just be stated that this is what she does. So that's very difficult for a woman to read. We have women who have panel papers that come in and the chronology goes right back, and they read things about themselves that are very triggering because it was a trauma response, and it's written down that “that's who they are”, rather than something that happened to them.
What has been your experience of women with learning disabilities who have experienced abuse and didn’t get independent advocacy sooner?
Angela: they don't have support. They can end up losing their children. If they don't have a lawyer, they're going to panels on their own. They don't speak during these panels because their anxiety is so high, they don't understand the process or the situation, so they're deemed as either not engaging or minimising concerns because they don't appear to be concerned. But they don't appear concerned because they're anxious and don't understand what this is about, so they lose their voice in that process.
Suzanne: many of our partners who had not had advocacy previously felt like procedures and decisions were happening to them, but part of our role is to inform people about their rights and to help our partners influence decisions that are being made.
I have supported some women to appeal decisions that have been made in relation to their children because they didn’t agree with them. Parents with learning disabilities feel that their learning disability is held against them and used to evidence that they are not capable parents. I have supported a mother to challenge a decision and the sheriff ruled in her favour. However, without advocacy, they would be unable to challenge these decisions on their own. Some partners have told us “It’s easier just to agree and get this over with”. How many women have been in this situation before and have just ‘gone along’ with processes even if they didn’t agree with them? That’s why advocacy is so important. Just because she's got a learning disability doesn't mean that she's not capable of caring for a child, with the right support. People need support, but they should be getting that regardless of whether or not there's a legal order in place.
Angela: a lot of people go through the system because there’s suspected neglect of their children or whatever that issue is. But actually, it's not until they're involved in that system, for example child protection, that they get support.
It strikes me that people assume that a person with learning disabilities has support. And the reality is that not everyone does.
Angela: people that would have had support in the past now do not meet the criteria to get that social work involvement and that support process, because services are constantly being reduced and cut. So it's really difficult to uphold people's human rights when the services are no longer there.
How would approach supporting a woman with a learning disability who discloses she's involved in selling or exchanging sex?
Angela: by developing that relationship with the woman. Finding out her story, her truth of what is happening and what she would like to do. If we believe somebody is a harm to herself or others, then we have a duty of care to go down the Adult Support and Protection route. We can signpost to other agencies, we can support women at these appointments. It's about being with them on that journey and making sure they feel in control. And it's finding out, what's going on in her life? What has led her to be where she is today. Unpicking that story and seeing what supports we can refer to and put in place so that she feels empowered to leave the situation without judgement and without anyone taking away that control from her life.
Suzanne: in terms of learning disability, what services aren't always good at is making reasonable adjustments. We can make requests to services to provide accessible information. If that person's linked to a more local learning disability team, we can try to get Easy Read information made for them so they can understand the information. And if appropriate, we can do some safety planning with them.
Angela: and if they have involvement from health, social work, housing, we can share that safety plan with them. I have a partner the now where every multidisciplinary team member knows her safe word. If she was to phone us and say the safe word, we know right away that we have to phone the police for her. We also help partners to risk assess, because again people don't always recognise the risks in their behaviour. Part of our work is to develop that understanding of abuse, risk and safety. A lot of people are very marginalised in society. And if they've been brought up in an environment where abuse or selling sex is the norm, it's to help them understand what a healthy relationship looks like, what good choices look like, but also we give them options. We help them to know their options, know the consequences, the pros and the cons from those options. But ultimately, it's their decision and it's their choice and we have to respect that.
Why do you think it's important that any services supporting women with learning disabilities consider referring them for independent advocacy?
Suzanne: there's a misconception about advocacy, and people can get a bit defensive thinking that we're going to go in and be challenging. And that's absolutely not the approach that we take. We are there to enhance and support people through these processes and we work together as a collaborative team. We do appreciate that things can be challenging. Services are short staffed, don't have perhaps the time or resources available to them to really invest in people the way that we can…
Angela: that's where we come in because, if it is a process that someone doesn't understand, we can speak to them, spend that time to make sure they understand and then feed back instructions from our advocacy partner.
Another important thing we do through a relationship-based advocacy is recognising when our partners are becoming heightened and stressed, and we can ask for timeout in a meeting. Our partners would storm out of a meeting if they couldn't take it anymore. We can see the signs of that, step in, say “can we just have 5 minutes, please” and support them with that. It's so important for our partners to have the time to regulate their emotions and process what's going on in the room.
Suzanne: on the other hand, if for example social work have been involved before and removed their children or made a decision that they're not happy with, that relationship’s completely broken down. There's no trust, so they're not getting a true reflection of that person’s needs and wants. Often, they’re reluctant to share what's happening in their lives with social work because of fear of the consequences. Whereas we can really help rebuild that relationship, we can support our partners to meet the social workers, rebuild the trust. And if we can add their voice to the process and make sure that they're being heard, it really helps the other services do their job more effectively.
We met with Angela and Suzanne, two Advocacy Workers at Central Advocacy Partners, to get a better sense of what independent advocacy is and how it can give more control to women with learning disabilities when engaging with services and processes. We also discussed what services can do to better meet the needs of women with learning disabilities who are involved in selling sex.
What is Central Advocacy Partners and how do you support survivors of abuse?
Suzanne: we are an organisation based in Falkirk and covering Forth Valley, and we provide independent advocacy to people with learning disabilities and autistic people. We offer a few services at the moment: a survivors’ project as well as general advocacy, victim support for victims and witnesses of crime, a project for young autistic people, and we provide advocacy in some residential settings.
Angela: our advocacy is relationship-based, which is so important for people with learning disabilities – this means we're not task-orientated. Instead, we take the time to get to know the person and build trust. Suzanne and I specifically work in the survivors’ project, which is for women and girls aged 16 and above with learning disabilities or autism who are referred to us because they have experienced domestic abuse.
Can you tell us more about what independent advocacy is?
Suzanne: because we are independent, the advocacy we provide is completely unbiased. We can say to the women we support that we are on their side, and whatever issues they raise to us or however that advocacy might look for them is solely about their needs, wants and wishes. For our advocacy to be truly independent it means we don't provide any service other than advocacy. We also don't receive local authority or statutory funding – all our funding is from charities and trusts, so we can really say we are independent. This is really important when working with people who maybe have a negative experience of other services, or the relationship with that service has broken down.
Angela: in the survivors’ project we work with many women who don't have their children. It's so common that women who have experienced domestic abuse and have a learning disability have had their children removed, especially if the perpetrator happens to be the father and he doesn't have a learning disability. What we find is that he keeps the children and that allows the coercive control to continue legally. So for the women to trust us is really important that they hear that we don't have local authority funding – because it's the local authority that has their children.
How do you build trust with the women you support? And how do you build that understanding that your approach is different from their previous experiences with other services?
Angela: we make it very clear that the women are in control of our relationship. That's why we call them partners, because it shows that equality in our relationship. We are very much led by them. We don’t offer advice; we don’t tell them what to do. We let them know their options and talk them through those options, but ultimately it's their decision. We also make it clear that we are not decision-makers in any of the processes they are going through. It's important that their voice is heard. It doesn't always change the outcome unfortunately, but it's important that their voice is heard and that they feel listened to.
We also take it at our partners’ pace – if they need to meet us a couple of times a week, we will do that. I have a partner who is autistic, she’s suffered a lot of trauma and I had to build my relationship with her through text messages. By doing what I said I was going to do for her, she then started to make phone calls and then allowed me into her house. It just takes time, but you've got to be trauma-informed and take it at their pace.
Suzanne: a lot of services don't tailor their approach to meet the needs of the person. So they'll, for example, maybe send a letter to say “I'm coming out this date and time to see you” but a lot of our partners can't read, they can't understand letters, so they won't be in for that appointment. Then they'll be seen as non-engaging, and that service could close to them, which we see quite a lot. As Angela said, it's all about building a relationship. Initially it might be through phone calls or allowing them total control over where and when we meet.
Angela: it's also about giving yourself enough time in appointments. If you have somebody who has a learning disability or is autistic, it's very important that you know their history. Many times, they will want to go back to the beginning of what happened because it's the only way they can process it. A lot of other agencies give them a 10 to 15 minute appointment – that's not enough for our partners. We give them that time, which helps to build the relationship and trust.
What support do you offer for women who have experienced abuse?
Angela: we can refer our partners for trauma counselling, something that's never been offered to them before. We have a close relationship with the Meadows in Falkirk, which is the forensic unit, so we can take them there to meet the person running the unit for a very informal chat. There's no pressure on them to disclose anything, but it just makes them familiar with the surroundings. We can accompany partners to places like Rape Crisis and Women's Aid and help explain their story, which is so important, because sometimes women are not able to voice it, especially when meeting a worker for the first time.
Suzanne: a lot of our partners who've experienced abuse tend to have many things going on in their lives at one time. They could be involved in legislative processes, adult protection processes; if they have children, there could be child protection processes, children's hearings, court attendances… We make sure that we spend the time to explain these processes and help them prepare for and attend any meetings and understand the outcomes of those meetings.
Angela: we also have a survivors’ group which runs weekly, which helps to develop women’s understanding of domestic abuse. Women attending also validate each other, they can tell there's no pressure to disclose anything. We've had women who have been blamed for the domestic abuse because of the learning disability, saying that it was a poor choice of partner. We've also had women whose children reported the abuse at school, then the police came out, and because the woman was autistic, they decided to interview her with the husband present, who was the perpetrator of that abuse. It's that lack of understanding of learning disabilities and autism. Our partners often feel that because they have a learning disability, they are not believed or taken seriously when they disclose abuse.
Suzanne: even though the perpetrator has abused his partner, he's still viewed as a better parent because he doesn't have a learning disability.
Can you tell me more about how you take referrals? Are you guided by women coming forward and asking for the service?
Angela: it's important to say that we don't need an official diagnosis of learning disability or autism. A lot of women, a lot of people, don't get a diagnosis because they don't want the stigma of having that label attached to them – there is that fear of losing control of their life or being judged.
Suzanne: or they're on waiting lists for years. To try and get a diagnosis of autism as an adult is extremely difficult.
At the point of referral, we'll go out and do an initial visit just to gather a bit more information, explain what advocacy is and to establish if the person would like that. During the visit we can ask about the school they went to, because if they went to one where they had enhanced provision or specialist provision, that's a telltale sign that they've got a learning disability. We also ask about other services that they've engaged with. We're acutely aware that often people who have learning disabilities don't present like they do. Often they mask – they can present as really articulate because they've learned the language. Yet, they don't necessarily understand what they're saying. With our relationship-based approach we really get to know our partners and can understand their difficulties.
Could you tell us more about your experience of supporting women with learning disabilities involved in selling or exchanging sex?
Angela: for a lot of the women, they don't see it as selling or exchanging sex. They see it as a way of breaking the isolation and the loneliness that they feel. They want a relationship, and a part of that is a sexual relationship. They want that closeness, and I think they feel that if they give that part of themselves, this person will stay. That's the main motivation.
Suzanne: A lot of the women we support are very isolated and vulnerable. I have supported women who have been targeted by men and they have had sex with them because, having these men around makes them feel more protected. Women don’t often realise or recognise the dangers at the time. I have also supported some women through adult protection processes, enabling them to be taken to a safe place and engage with social work and other services. My role then was to support them to participate in and attend meetings, understand the process, their options and to make sure they felt heard and had their views considered.
What challenges have you noticed for women with learning disabilities when disclosing their involvement in selling or exchanging sex?
Suzanne: they don't realise that they are being used for sex, they don't realise what's happening until perhaps they speak to one of us or another service and we can help them understand that what they're doing is providing themselves to other people who have sex with them in exchange for something. But they don't always understand or realise what is happening.
Angela: and they can feel judgement. If a woman has experienced domestic abuse and is told “that's your poor choice because you have a learning disability”, they're not going to disclose that they're selling sex for company because, again, they will be judged. It's the intersectionality of abuse. People need to dig deeper as to why is a woman selling sex, rather than judging on surface level. What's going on in her life that she's been driven to do this? Is it because she is trying to provide for her children?
Women also don't want to have social work involvement, they don't want to lose control of their life and the decisions they're making.
Suzanne: and particularly if they have children whom they are maybe fighting to see more or trying to get home. The fear of disclosing something, the consequences that might have on them seeing their children would prevent them from speaking to anybody. Because it would be through every report, through all the papers at the Children’s Hearing, it would be there forever more.
Angela: it would also be stated as a fact. There wouldn't be context to what this woman has gone through to be in that position. It would just be stated that this is what she does. So that's very difficult for a woman to read. We have women who have panel papers that come in and the chronology goes right back, and they read things about themselves that are very triggering because it was a trauma response, and it's written down that “that's who they are”, rather than something that happened to them.
What has been your experience of women with learning disabilities who have experienced abuse and didn’t get independent advocacy sooner?
Angela: they don't have support. They can end up losing their children. If they don't have a lawyer, they're going to panels on their own. They don't speak during these panels because their anxiety is so high, they don't understand the process or the situation, so they're deemed as either not engaging or minimising concerns because they don't appear to be concerned. But they don't appear concerned because they're anxious and don't understand what this is about, so they lose their voice in that process.
Suzanne: many of our partners who had not had advocacy previously felt like procedures and decisions were happening to them, but part of our role is to inform people about their rights and to help our partners influence decisions that are being made.
I have supported some women to appeal decisions that have been made in relation to their children because they didn’t agree with them. Parents with learning disabilities feel that their learning disability is held against them and used to evidence that they are not capable parents. I have supported a mother to challenge a decision and the sheriff ruled in her favour. However, without advocacy, they would be unable to challenge these decisions on their own. Some partners have told us “It’s easier just to agree and get this over with”. How many women have been in this situation before and have just ‘gone along’ with processes even if they didn’t agree with them? That’s why advocacy is so important. Just because she's got a learning disability doesn't mean that she's not capable of caring for a child, with the right support. People need support, but they should be getting that regardless of whether or not there's a legal order in place.
Angela: a lot of people go through the system because there’s suspected neglect of their children or whatever that issue is. But actually, it's not until they're involved in that system, for example child protection, that they get support.
It strikes me that people assume that a person with learning disabilities has support. And the reality is that not everyone does.
Angela: people that would have had support in the past now do not meet the criteria to get that social work involvement and that support process, because services are constantly being reduced and cut. So it's really difficult to uphold people's human rights when the services are no longer there.
How would approach supporting a woman with a learning disability who discloses she's involved in selling or exchanging sex?
Angela: by developing that relationship with the woman. Finding out her story, her truth of what is happening and what she would like to do. If we believe somebody is a harm to herself or others, then we have a duty of care to go down the Adult Support and Protection route. We can signpost to other agencies, we can support women at these appointments. It's about being with them on that journey and making sure they feel in control. And it's finding out, what's going on in her life? What has led her to be where she is today. Unpicking that story and seeing what supports we can refer to and put in place so that she feels empowered to leave the situation without judgement and without anyone taking away that control from her life.
Suzanne: in terms of learning disability, what services aren't always good at is making reasonable adjustments. We can make requests to services to provide accessible information. If that person's linked to a more local learning disability team, we can try to get Easy Read information made for them so they can understand the information. And if appropriate, we can do some safety planning with them.
Angela: and if they have involvement from health, social work, housing, we can share that safety plan with them. I have a partner the now where every multidisciplinary team member knows her safe word. If she was to phone us and say the safe word, we know right away that we have to phone the police for her. We also help partners to risk assess, because again people don't always recognise the risks in their behaviour. Part of our work is to develop that understanding of abuse, risk and safety. A lot of people are very marginalised in society. And if they've been brought up in an environment where abuse or selling sex is the norm, it's to help them understand what a healthy relationship looks like, what good choices look like, but also we give them options. We help them to know their options, know the consequences, the pros and the cons from those options. But ultimately, it's their decision and it's their choice and we have to respect that.
Why do you think it's important that any services supporting women with learning disabilities consider referring them for independent advocacy?
Suzanne: there's a misconception about advocacy, and people can get a bit defensive thinking that we're going to go in and be challenging. And that's absolutely not the approach that we take. We are there to enhance and support people through these processes and we work together as a collaborative team. We do appreciate that things can be challenging. Services are short staffed, don't have perhaps the time or resources available to them to really invest in people the way that we can…
Angela: that's where we come in because, if it is a process that someone doesn't understand, we can speak to them, spend that time to make sure they understand and then feed back instructions from our advocacy partner.
Another important thing we do through a relationship-based advocacy is recognising when our partners are becoming heightened and stressed, and we can ask for timeout in a meeting. Our partners would storm out of a meeting if they couldn't take it anymore. We can see the signs of that, step in, say “can we just have 5 minutes, please” and support them with that. It's so important for our partners to have the time to regulate their emotions and process what's going on in the room.
Suzanne: on the other hand, if for example social work have been involved before and removed their children or made a decision that they're not happy with, that relationship’s completely broken down. There's no trust, so they're not getting a true reflection of that person’s needs and wants. Often, they’re reluctant to share what's happening in their lives with social work because of fear of the consequences. Whereas we can really help rebuild that relationship, we can support our partners to meet the social workers, rebuild the trust. And if we can add their voice to the process and make sure that they're being heard, it really helps the other services do their job more effectively.
