I'm an Appropriate Adult for young people 10-17 years old - AMA

[AppAdult21]

Hi, I am a volunteer Appropriate Adult for young people aged 10-17. I attend my local police station when kids who are brought in have no one else to accompany them. Please ask me anything you'd like to know about how it all works and I'll do my best to explain it all .

Can you explain how it all works!

So do you volunteer with the police or another organisation?

How did you get to do it? What training did you have?

Do you advise them or literally just sit there amd make sure they understand what is going on. It what circumstances would you attend instead of a parent or guardian?

this is really interesting. How did you get involved

How come you are only for kids? When I was doing AA I mostly worked with adults and rarely got a call out for kids.

Do you get called out repeatedly for the same child?

Do you advise on the need for a solicitor or will there already be one present?

Do you advise on the need for a solicitor or will there already be one present?

In the initial phone call I tell them to ring me when the brief gets there. If they haven't called one it's usually because the person has said they don't want one in which case I tell them to get one anyway and ring me when they are there.

The brief then usually says the same thing regarding me which is a pain in the arse.

I probably shouldn't answer somebody elses AMA but can't help myself.

Hi all, thanks for your questions!

• I volunteer via my local Children's Services. The AA volunteers are part of the Youth Offending Team. We're not associated with the police at all.
• I became interested in doing it after I had completed my degree in Criminology and Psychology. I have always worked with children, and I was keen to get involved in Youth Justice. I found it easy to apply - my local government website has a page for volunteers, and they will point you in the direction of whichever department you're interested in.
• Initial training was two full days in the office, plus two interviews with a volunteer co-ordinator. I also had to get an enhanced DBS, (they organised this), and provide two references, (which they checked). You're then supposed to shadow an experienced volunteer, but I ended up doing my first call on my own, as there was no-one else on the rota! It was a real baptism of fire, but being thrown in at the deep end was actually good for me, I just had to get on with it.
• we don't advise them legally; we're not allowed to discuss the case at all. We look after their welfare, make sure they understand all the procedures and accompany them while evidence is being collected.
• we are usually called if a parent or other adult either can't, or won't attend. Sometimes that is because they may be a witness, or sometimes sadly, because they are the alleged victim. I've also been an AA for kids who are already in care.
• I only do kids - Children's Services prefer to use AAs who are specifically trained to deal with young people. Sometimes if there is no AA available, the police will ask someone from TAAS to do it instead, (The Appropriate Adult Service, who deal with vulnerable adults).
• I haven't seen the same child more than once yet, but most of the kids I see have, sadly, been in custody before.
• Our office will always ask for a solicitor to be present when the young person is interviewed; we are not supposed to go ahead with the interview without one. I have done one interview without a brief, but it was a voluntary interview, so the young person wasn't actually under arrest.

I’m so glad you posted op - I volunteered for our YOT but didn’t have the time commit to AA so just did court volunteering.

When my children are older and I have more time I’d love to go back and do AA.

How do you sort out being ‘on call’ - is it 24 hours? Do you have to do ‘nights’? How many shifts do you have to take to be on the rota?

Do you feel that your ‘job’ is worthwhile? As in, do you feel that if you weren’t there the young person might be unable to understand or might be manipulated or treated poorly?

Hi Wellthen

• we have a rota that goes out a month in advance which we fill in with the dates we're available. I usually do one full day, (9-5), and one evening, (5-11), per week. I also work 4 days a week. They're pretty flexible though, I've had to come off the rota a couple of times at short notice due to illness or just things cropping up and they don't mind. You often get days though where there are 3+ volunteers on the rota, then other days when there are none at all! If you get called, they either ask you to arrive at the police station at a specific time, or just to come ASAP. I live about 15 minutes away from mine. I've gone weeks without any calls at all before, but also had 3 in one night! It really varies.

Whoops just seen the rest of your question!
We're not 24 hours, no. The police won't usually interview a young person after 11pm unless they absolutely have to. I did hear rumours a while ago that they were thinking of going 24 hours, but nothing seems to have come of it.
I do think it's worthwhile, as if there were no AAs for young people, they would have to rely on the adult service, who aren't necessarily geared up to deal with youngsters as we are.
As far as I'm aware, we are meant to commit to a minimum of 2 shifts a month, but as I said, they're pretty flexible.

Funnily enough I quite fancy having a go at court volunteering, or going on the Referral Order Panel, but no time at the moment! Is court volunteering interesting?

It was interesting in a people watching sort of way and for finding out how the system works. But there’s a lot of sitting around.

It’s an admin type role really but I think over time you would get to know the YOT workers, solicitors and, unfortunately, families so you would feel more able to be an actual support role.

My role was to assist the young people and families in filling out forms. Many found them very wordy or had difficulty reading so we would read the questions to them and talk through what they meant. We’d make sure they understood what the next step was (ie when it says you MUST report for reparation in such days then you MUST. If you don’t...) and just generally try to be a calm, non judgemental member of the YOT team as some wouldn’t have really worked with YOT yet.

Also thank you for answering my questions, that was very helpful

Thank you too - it does sound interesting. There's actually a lot of sitting around as an AA too - wait for everyone to be ready for interview, wait for someone to collect evidence, then, after the interview, wait for the CPS to make a decision, (this can take a while!). I usually chat to the AA's from TAAS or just read while I'm waiting. It's quite interesting being able to just observe how the custody suite works too.

@AppAdult21

That's interesting, I am a social worker who did it as part of my role. I was one of the last people who volunteered for the rota (not least because our training was only 2 hours, there were 3 of us on it in the end) and when I pulled out they commissioned an outside agency, presumably like yourselves.