What is Advocacy? Understanding Your Voice and Rights
Making sure your voice is heard when it matters most through advocacy.
Life can sometimes throw a lot at you, and when you’re a child or young person involved with services like social care, it can feel like there are many people making decisions about your life. But did you know you have a right to be heard? That’s where advocacy comes in.
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is all about helping you share your thoughts, feelings, and wishes about a situation. An advocate listens to you, helps you understand your rights, and explains your options.
Sometimes, you might feel confident enough to speak up for yourself. This is called self-advocacy. But there are also times when having someone else help you speak up can be really helpful. This could be a friend or sibling (peer advocacy), a family member or neighbour (informal advocacy), or even a professional like a teacher or support worker (formal advocacy).
There are also special advocacy services that are completely independent of other services. This is called Independent Professional Advocacy (IPA), and it’s available to some young people in specific situations. An IPA can help you understand your rights, explain your choices, and listen to what you want to say. What they can’t do is give you advice or tell you what you should do. The great thing about an IPA is that they are independent, meaning they work just for you and no one else.
Your Rights and Eligibility
There are certain situations where children and young people have a legal right to a professional advocate. You have a legal right to an IPA if you are:
- Care experienced: This means you are currently or have been looked after by the local authority
- At risk of harm: If you are involved in child protection proceedings with social services
- Undergoing care and support needs assessments: If you have care and support needs and are having assessments to figure out what help you need
Having the support of an advocate, especially an IPA with the right knowledge and skills, can be incredibly helpful during these big life events and changes. When there’s a lot of information and many people involved in decisions about your life, having your views heard and understanding what’s happening can make things much easier.
What is the “Active Offer”?
The “active offer” of advocacy is something available to children and young people in Wales if they are care experienced or under child protection. It’s an offer made directly by the advocacy service, and you have the right to accept it or not.
Even if you decide not to accept the offer straight away, it’s still available to you in the future! You can ask for advocacy at any time while you are in care or under child protection.
Your social worker should tell you about your right to this offer and give you information about it, including details of the advocacy service. If you accept the offer, your details will be shared with the service so they can get in touch to arrange a meeting.
How it works
When the advocate contacts you and makes the offer, they will arrange a meeting. This is your chance to ask any questions, understand your options, and share your views and feelings. They will also tell you about your rights, including your right to be heard and your right to complain. They’ll also explain confidentiality – how they’ll keep what you share private – but also safeguarding, which means they have a duty to report concerns for your safety.
The outcome of the meeting will be recorded, and any next steps will be agreed between you and the advocate, including any plans for future meetings. The advocate will let your social worker know if the meeting happened, but they will only share information that you’ve asked them to share, or if there are safeguarding concerns.
The offer will stay active and available to you for as long as you are eligible for the service. You can ask for more support from an advocate whenever you need it, for example, at review meetings, if your situation changes, or when you’re getting ready to move on from children’s services.
Who Can I Talk To About It?
There are several people you can talk to if you want to know more about advocacy:
- Your family or carers: They might be able to help you contact an advocate or find out who to get in touch with.
- Your social worker or Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO): If you have one, they can arrange for you to contact an advocate.
- An IPA service directly: If you have their contact details, you can get in touch with them yourself to ask questions and see if they can help. Examples of IPA services include TGP Cymru and NYAS.
You can also contact Meic on our helpline. Our trained advisors can help you find the information you need and connect you with a professional advocacy service if you are eligible. Meic can also help by advocating for you in situations where you might not be eligible for professional advocacy.
