1.4.2 Representation, Advocacy and Children's Rights

1. The Purpose of Advocacy

Advocacy is about representing the views, wishes and needs of children and young people to professionals making decisions about their lives, and helping them to navigate the system, especially in times of transition. Advocacy services provide independent and confidential information, advice, representation, support and, advocacy for eligible children and young people.

High quality advocacy is an important preventative measure to ensure practical problems do not escalate, that children and young people are protected from harm or risk of harm to their wellbeing and to ensure that potential system level failures are identified and tackled at the earliest opportunity.

1.1 Eligibility for an advocate

Certain groups of children in England have a statutory entitlement to independent advocacy. This includes:

• Any child classified as a child in need (which includes child protection and children in care), care leavers;
• Children with special educational needs and disabilities;
• 16- and 17-year-olds who have presented to the local authority as homeless;
• Young carers;
• 16- and 17-year-olds who lack mental capacity and children who are subject to the Mental Health Act.

The Children Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to make arrangements for the provision of advocacy assistance to children and young people.

In Lincolnshire, Advocacy is provided through a contract with VoiceAbility.

There are three main strands to the advocacy offer:

1. Advocacy for children and young people entitled to statutory advocacy (as listed above);
2. Advocacy provided directly to all Lincolnshire Children’s Services residential homes including the Secure Unit;
3. Advocacy to parents is provided for those whose children are involved in the child protection process and in addition in circumstances where a parent has a disability under the terms of the Equality Act 2010.

2. National Standards for the Provision of Children's Advocacy Services (2002)

1. This section details the standards issued under Section 7(1) of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, which requires local authorities with Children's Social Care Services functions to act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State for Health. The standards set out the core principles that children and young people can expect from professionals providing advocacy services;
2. There are ten standards, including the role of children and young people in advocacy, the policy context, equal opportunities, confidentiality, publicity, accessibility, independence, complaints procedures and the management and governance of services;
3. Standard 1: Advocacy is led by the views and wishes of children and young people;
4. Standard 2: Advocacy champions the rights and needs of children and young people;
5. Standard 3: All advocacy services have clear policies to promote equalities issues and monitor services to ensure that no young person is discriminated against due to age, gender race, culture, religion language disability or sexual orientation;
6. Standard 4: Advocacy is well-publicised, accessible and easy to use;
7. Standard 5: Advocacy gives help and advice quickly when they are requested;
8. Standard 6: Advocacy works exclusively for children and young people;
9. Standard 7: The advocacy service operates to a high level of confidentiality and ensures that children, young people and other agencies are aware of its confidentiality policies;
10. Standard 8: Advocacy listens to the views and ideas of children and young people in order to improve the service provided;
11. Standard 9: The advocacy service has an effective and easy to use complaints procedure;
12. Standard 10: Advocacy is well managed and gives value for money.

3. Accessibility

In Lincolnshire, Advocacy services are provided by VoiceAbility. A referral can be made for an advocate at any time.  To make a referral you can use the Advocacy Referral Form, which is then emailed to VoiceAbility or complete an online referral form. Please ensure all the details are fully completed as time is lost if VoiceAbility have to come back for further information.

There is no lower age limit for children and young people accessing an advocate, although they have to be of sufficient age and understanding to instruct an advocate, unless they have significant disabilities when good practice would be to involve an advocate when decisions need to be made.

There is an upper age limit of 18 or 25 if they have disabilities or are a care leaver. Referrals need to be timely, so if a meeting is planned within a short timeframe, please make the referral as soon as possible to allow VoiceAbility the opportunity to allocate an advocate and for that advocate to meet with the young person in advance of any meeting. Children who are in care or care leavers who are placed outside of Lincolnshire, should also be offered access to an advocate.

Children and young people living in a Lincolnshire County Council residential home.

Advocates routinely visit Lincolnshire County Council’s residential children’s homes and the Lincolnshire Secure Unit and engage/make themselves known to the young people living there. These young people can speak to the advocate at any time and request support through these visits. The advocates contact details are displayed in the homes so young people can directly access an advocate at any time.

Advocacy to parents and cares

Lincolnshire Children’s Services are currently a DFE Pathfinder authority and have been working to redesign and implement recommendations from the care review. This has led to a new offer of advocacy to all parents and carers who find their child/ren subject to a child protection investigation. If referring for parental support through pathfinder, please search under pathfinder on their website: VoiceAbility - The Families First Pathfinder in Lincolnshire

Social workers should provide parents with the contact details for VoiceAbility on their initial visit as part of the investigation. Referrals for an advocate for parents going through child protection should be made as detailed on the following Your Voice Matters Leaflet.

A referral can also be completed on the following Parental Child Protection - Pathfinder advocacy referral form and emailed to VoiceAbility.

Advocacy support will initially be by telephone with trained advocates in VoiceAbility. This will be available for the duration of the investigation. An advocate can be provided at the initial child protection conference should the parent or social worker request it. Parents can also self-refer for advocacy.

For child protection reviews, advocates are only provided for parents who have a disability which would require reasonable adjustments to be made under the equality Act 2010.

4. Guidance about Young People Making a Complaint

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 amended the Children Act 1989 to place a duty on local authorities to make arrangements for the provision of advocacy for children or young people who want to make a complaint under the Children Act procedures. This new provision applies to children in care and care leavers. If a child or young person in care or leaving care want to make a complaint, they should be offered an advocate and a referral made to VoiceAbility.

• Individuals should be advised about the role of the advocate. The authority should consider providing information about the national standards;
• Publicity should be age appropriate;
• Information about advocacy should be provided to all children by their social worker. For children in care, the Independent Reviewing Officer has a duty to ensure a child or young person is aware of their right to an advocate.
• Complaints materials should include information about advocacy and children's rights;
• The complaints officer should provide information and advice to children and young people about advocacy services and support in accessing these services;
• The complaints officer should work with the child or young person and advocates concerning the issues of the complaint and provide information about options for resolution both within the complaint’s procedure or alternative routes of remedy and redress.
• Local authorities need to consider how best to raise children's knowledge of complaints procedures and how to facilitate regular contact with advocates;
• The Independent Reviewing Officer has a role in resolving problems by negotiation with the local authority and has as a last resort the power to refer children's cases to the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service to take the case to Court;
• There should be close working with Independent Reviewing Officers and complaints officers. Channels of communication should be agreed in trying to resolve an issue or complaint.

5. Support

The child or young person can expect independent and confidential access to advice, support, information and representation through the advocacy service.

They can expect:

• That their rights are respected, and their views and wishes are heard at all times;
• A written report of their concerns that the advocate will help them to negotiate;
• Information about their rights and the complaints process and the advocacy service and its standards;
• To receive information about how to complain about the advocacy service.

They can expect the advocate to:

• Meet with them confidentially and explore the options that are available to them;
• Represent them professionally at meetings;
• Keep to appointments that have been arranged or give advanced notice of any changes;
• Assist with emailing, letter writing and form filling where appropriate and required;
• Keep in regular professional contact with (where appropriate and required to reach a resolution); complaints officers, independent persons, investigating officer, Independent Reviewing Officer, Social Worker, Parents, Carers and any significant people or specialists involved in the child's complaint.

6. Choice

Where possible and appropriate the child will be matched with the advocate of their choice.

The young person is asked if it is important for them to have an advocate of the same gender, race, disability or sexual orientation and the Local Authority will take these matters into consideration and whenever possible meet the preference of the young person.

The child or young person are informed of their rights and the procedures and processes involved in making a complaint and receiving advocacy so that they can be supported to make informed choices.

7. Service

• The child or young person can refer themselves to the service;
• Social Workers should make referrals for children and young people where appropriate;
• Consent will always be required from children and young people before an advocate is allocated;
• Referrals considered high risk will be given priority;
• The child will be offered the opportunity to choose an advocate and to meet this advocate before appointment is confirmed;
• The child can expect to be involved in any decision that the advocacy service intend to make on their behalf;
• The young person can expect support from the advocate until the complaint or issue is resolved or if circumstances result in it being deemed insoluble;
• The advocate will work on an issue basis a new referral will need to be made for unrelated issues;
• Feedback from the child about the service will be sought.

8. Recording

• A case note should be added to Mosaic, using the drop-down option “advocacy”;
• If advocacy is offered and not taken up, this should also be recorded;
• Young people can have access to these records;
• Records will be kept and shared in accordance with the Data Protection and Policy and Records and Information Management Policies.

9. Accountability

The service will provide information about how to complain about the service to individuals accessing it. They can access the Children's Services complaints procedure and be assisted in this.