Chapter Five: What do Children and Young People want from Advocacy Support?
What kind of advocate do children and young people want?
5.1 In general the children and young people interviewed did not articulate a wish to be represented at Hearings by someone that they were not already working with. They wanted to be accompanied by people they already knew and trusted, including family members. With the exception of younger children, for example those aged 5-7, they were able to discuss what they valued in supportive adults and in some cases relate their answers to people they were already working with.
5.2 The importance of working with people who were already known was commonly emphasised. It was suggested that people who didn't know you would be less likely to listen to you or understand you. One observation was that there were already three faces you didn't know, which made it very important to be represented by someone you did know.
5.3 However, being known did not of itself guarantee a relationship of trust. Moreover, the process of becoming known might occur gradually or quickly. For example, Claire (aged 14), who valued her relationship with her counsellor, had decided she could trust her around the time of their second meeting. Adults also needed to be approachable and be able to talk to children and young people. Listening and talking to children and young people before things were done for them was seen as vital because it enabled a young person to get their point across.
5.4 Trust and respect were identified as crucial ingredients to a supportive relationship with an adult representative. Trust was commonly linked to privacy, so that children and young people were able to say things that would not be repeated to family members, or indeed panel members, unless they had previously consented to this happening.
5.5 Adults, including panel members, could demonstrate respect by listening to children and young people and 'not looking down their noses' at them. Two young women explained that they did not want to be treated like 'daft wee lassies'.
'Cos when I go to talk I feel as if they're sitting talking to each other. When I'm trying to get my point across …I feel as if they're treating me like a daft wee lassie. I'm not a wee lassie but I feel as if they're treating me as if, well she's not really here so just ignore her.' Jade, aged 15
5.6 Such experiences suggest that the perceived distance of the adult from the young person in terms of social experience may have an impact on the efficacy of engagement and encouragement to participate. It underlines the importance of adults, not only being able to see the young person's experience from their perspective, but the young person believing that they have the capacity to do so. Respect might also be perceived by young people as a mutual or two way process. For example, one young woman, Zoe, aged 14, explained that forming a relationship of respect with her social worker meant that she should be challenged by her too.
5.7 Loyalty was also said to be valuable by some children and young people. For example, one young man said that it was important to know that someone was '100%' by him and 'able to stand by his side', whilst another emphasised the need for people to 'stick up' for him.
5.8 Children and young people also stressed the importance of people explaining things to them when they were unsure of what was happening. For one young woman doing this before the Hearing was important, so that she was able to get her point across to the panel members. In some instances children and young people wanted people to be able to speak for them and explain things on their behalf, though they wanted to be able to choose when this happened. They might want a representative to speak on their behalf when they were shy or embarrassed, or when they were unable 'to find the right words'. Zoe, aged 14, explained that questions asked by panel members could be hard and she did not always know the answers:
'Because I don't know like all the questions, and the questions that they ask you are sometimes hard questions and I can't like answer them, so I've got somebody else there who knows and does the talking.' Zoe, aged 14
5.9 The accounts of children and young people suggest an important balance between 'talking for you' and gaining the confidence to speak for yourself. For example, Tom, aged 14 explained that talking for him had helped when he felt fearful:
'They've talked for me when I've been scared to talk.' Tom, aged 14
In contrast, Freddie, aged 14 explained that over time she had gained more confidence:
'(I'm) more confident after all the other ones. But if they [the decisions] don't suit me I'll speak up.' Freddie, aged 15
5.10 For some children and young people, it was important that an advocate would be able to challenge the panel members at Hearings or provide them with support in doing so.
'Right, see if the panel turned round and goes but we don't want her to go out then my social worker would challenge them, my social worker would go but (she) has been good so we're not putting her back there so that's a challenger.' Kelly, aged 14
5.11 Challenging panel members might involve the advocate standing up to them or telling panel members if the questions they asked were hard or unreasonable. Challenging the panel members was also seen as very important in relation to decisions made, though this was not necessarily expressed as a desire to appeal against the decision. In part this may be because children and young people saw little point in appealing against decisions that they felt had been made prior to Hearings or which both social workers and panel members were agreed upon. Darren explained that someone challenging the panel members on his behalf would prove that they were on his side:
'Well that is if somebody challenges the panel, I trust, they know the system, they're on my side, they're sensible, they listen. What more do you want?' Darren, aged 16
5.12 The only apparent difference relating to gender was that some young women indicated that they would prefer a female advocate.
The Hearings environment
5.13 Children and young people interviewed also offered some comments about the Hearings environment and how it could be improved. For example Kirsten commented:
'I think it should be like quite a relaxed environment sort of thing and like easy going instead of like, cos then if it was you wouldn't feel all those things and then you'd be Well first of all like three of them sitting there looking at you sort of thing because that's the way it sort of feels sometimes and it's like dead intimidating and that. I don't know, I think if it was just like, quite sort of like, I don't know, if it was like more calm and relaxed sort of thing and then like you could just like speak to them instead of like just well this is what happens sort of thing, I think it would be a lot better.' Kirsten, aged 15
Another commented that it was very hot and uncomfortable, whilst another said that the she felt that the curtains were closed out of an adult concern for privacy, and that the room could be brighter. Others felt that the layout of the room was too formal, and that the 'big table' could be dispensed with. One social worker explained that both the young woman she worked with and her mother were intimidated by the formality of Hearings and that the Hearings process itself acted as a barrier to providing advocacy support. Another social worker also commented on the formality of the Hearings environment:
'I don't think it's child friendly. I just feel it's awful formal with everyone being Mr or Mrs, but [the young person] will call me [by my first name] and social workers by their first names. There's a table between us and it's not very friendly. It's certainly the rules, but it's not the best room, it's the marriage room we use. It's a big long table with others sitting at the end and chairs quite far back. Maybe it's got to be like that, but I think it's just awfully formal.' Social worker
5.14 Other suggestions from children and young people were that it would be better if the Hearing was held in a different setting, e.g. at home, with one person rather than a panel of three, or if children and young people were given more opportunity to write their own reports.
5.15 One young woman (Freddie, aged 14) reflecting on her experience and one girl (Kate, aged 5) both mentioned the importance of toys for younger children. Freddie had found Hearings very difficult when she was younger and Kate was currently finding her circumstances very difficult. The toys in both cases seemed to be seen as a way to detach or disengage with what is going on 'around you':
'Cos I can play and I don't need to listen to all that garbage and that sounds better.' Kate, age 5
What kind of advocacy support do children and young people want?
5.16 The extent to which children and young people displayed an understanding of concepts such as advocacy, participation and representation varied, in part in relation to age and experience. Although, the term 'advocate' was not generally understood, children and young people were more familiar with terms such as children's rights, representative and support. Some older respondents who had used independent advocates, did recognise the term advocacy, though they did not use it themselves.
5.17 One former children's advocate suggested that it was difficult to make the choice of an advocate a real choice for children or young people because in practice parents rather than children or young people approached the advocacy project in which he had been based. He suggested that there was a need to educate children and young people about what was available. A social worker suggested that there might be a role for peer educators based on her experience that for some children and young people bringing friends to Hearings with them had helped. Representation was more widely understood by children and young people, with the exception of the youngest respondents, i.e. those aged 5-7.
5.18 When asked what they understood by the term representation, they either referred to other terms or to particular people who they saw as representing them or in some cases both. For example, Christopher, aged 9, said that he understood it to mean support, something which was provided by his sister and his social worker. Whilst not all respondents felt they had been represented at Hearings, for those who had, social workers, independent advocates and key workers were all described as representatives, as were parents, other relatives and carers.
5.19 It was common for children and young people to refer to more than one adult as representing or supporting them. This might include a combination of social worker and parent or other relative, or a combination of two adult professionals. Examples of the latter combination included social worker and key worker, or independent advocate and after care worker. However, some children and young people who were accompanied to Hearings by both social workers and parents whose presence they found supportive, still felt that there was no-one there to represent them.
5.20 Those providing representation also changed over time. Most commonly this related to a period of residence in a children's unit or secure unit, when the key worker would assume the lead role. For those remaining at home, a key worker at a day centre might attend Hearings and play a supportive or representative role. It might also relate to a change of circumstance, for example from parent to carer or because of a change in social worker. However, as we have already seen, the extent to which different social workers fulfilled advocacy tasks, and they extent to which they were perceived as having the skills or qualities to do so, varied.
5.21 Amongst social worker respondents there was something of a tension here. One view was that it was possible to combine an advocacy role with that of assessing the child or young person's needs. However, it was accepted that this was not necessarily the traditional social work view, and that in any case the advocacy relationship with the child or young person needed to be seen in the context of the push and pull of relationships involved in the child or young person's situation. Another view was that providing advocacy support was a different role that required someone who had the ability to be more independent such as a befriender. One social worker who did see herself as providing some advocacy support, explained that whether social workers saw themselves as providing advocacy support or not, children and young people didn't necessarily see social workers as advocates.
5.22 The representation identified within Hearings by children and young people was both indirect, i.e. various tasks and roles which enabled them to participate from a supportive presence to helping them say things, and direct i.e. speaking on their behalf. It is important to recognise that speaking on their behalf could be regarded as both helpful and unhelpful to participation, depending on whether it was done on the basis of consultation and consent. Indirect and direct forms of representation were not necessarily seen by children and young people as mutually exclusive. The need for both indirect and direct forms of representation could be interchangeable either within one Hearing or at a series of Hearings over time.
5.23 Outside the immediate setting of the Hearing, the advocacy tasks most commonly identified by children and young people were providing information and explanations about the Hearings process and Hearings outcomes, both before and after Hearings.
Summary
The qualities of an advocate identified by the children and young people interviewed for this research as important included:
- Someone who listens
- Someone who explains things
- Somebody known
- Somebody who can be trusted
- Someone who is loyal
- Someone who is flexible
- Someone who is sensitive
- Someone who is approachable
- Someone who can communicate with children and young people
- Someone who will challenge the panel members at the Hearing
Children and young people interviewed for this research described a variety of experiences and articulated a range of needs and wishes in relation to advocacy support. Broadly speaking they fell into five categories, though children and young people's accounts, particularly those of older respondents, suggested that they may have occupied more than one category over time.
First, there were those who did not understand the process sufficiently clearly to articulate their needs and wishes. This was particularly true of those in the youngest age group whose recall of Hearings was also limited and whose participation within Hearings appeared to be very limited.
Second, there were those who were disengaged from, and within, the Hearings process to the extent that they were unable or unwilling to identify whether they wanted advocacy support and who might best provide it. However, even amongst this group, children and young people were able to identify the skills and qualities which they regarded as potentially important in an advocate.
Third, there were those who were broadly content with the advocacy support they received. This was usually provided by more than one person, and it was usually the perceived qualities of those individuals which were regarded as important rather than their formal titles or roles. In some cases children and young people felt that there were already enough people involved and did not want to see somebody new introduced into the process.
Fourth, there were those who identified adults who were already providing them with support outside the Hearings System as potential advocates. These respondents were not necessarily aware that they could ask such adults to accompany them to Hearings.
Fifth, there were those who identified the need for additional advocacy support, sometimes in addition to support they already received from parents or adult professionals. In some cases the research interview enabled children and young people to understand and articulate such a need more clearly.