FAQs that adults ask
1. Is there a charge for your service?No. The service is free to young people.
2. What can young people expect from your advocacy service?Young people, their families and other professionals can expect our advocates to work to the National Standards for the Provision of Children’s Advocacy Services. In Wales these are published by the Welsh Assembly Government and in England by the Department of Health. The ten standards set out the core principles that children and young people can expect from professionals providing advocacy services.
3. Will you finish work with a young person as soon as they turn 20?If we are working on an issue when a young person turns 20 we would finish that piece of work with them before closing the case.
4. How much will you discuss with parents or carers of very young children?That depends on what the child is happy for us to feedback. Our duty of confidentiality is to the child rather than the parents so we would not discuss things with other people without the child’s permission unless we were concerned about someone’s safety (and then we would follow our Child Protection Policy). However, often children will be quite happy for us to talk to their parents or carers and will ask us to do so. Sometimes younger children want their parents or carers there when we meet them so they would be aware of the work we are doing with their children. Our confidentiality policy is explained to all young people when we start work with them and is available to parents and carers as well.
5. Do you use toys and communication aids when you are working with very young children?Yes, though how we do this will very much depend on the child’s preferred method of communication.
6. How often will you meet a young person?This will depend on how often a young person would like to meet us. Some young people like to meet quite often perhaps once or twice a week, others want to meet less frequently and prefer to communicate by phone, text or e-mail instead.
7. Where do you meet young people?Again this depends on their preference and we can be very flexible about this. Sometimes we use our premises and our Young Advisors Groups have helped us make the project as welcoming and relaxed as possible. Sometimes young people like to meet us in their own home or ask to meet us in cafes, youth clubs or at their school. The choice is theirs so long as the venue is appropriate and safe.
8. Can you see siblings together?Again this is up to the young people. If everyone is happy with this arrangement then yes we can see them together though we will agree how to do this so each young person has an opportunity to explore their particular issues or point of view and we would make sure everyone is agreed about what they would like to remain confidential.
This page is often updated with new FAQs. However, if you have a question please click here to contact us. We will then reply to you and add your question to our list here.
We help young people age 6-19 in Somerset to get their views heard on issues affecting their emotional or mental wellbeing. Our service is free, independent and confidential.