Children's Advocate

[StiffyByng]

For legal people out there... Our very long-running saga of hostile trustees unwilling to invest in housing or to pay maintenance has now seized the interest of social services. (DSD has a social worker in the Children with Disabilities team.) She has been referred to a Children's Advocate working within social services. Can anyone tell me how these advocates work, and how they might work with the family to determine our needs?

They are to represent her needs and be her voice. Not sure about them being from CS. I've worked with NYAS reps before who were good.

Advocate will take instruction from child. Will relay their wishes and feelings to professionals. Will not work with the family as such or be part of any needs assessment. Can support child to make a complaint or representation under chdren act. See department of health advocacy standards 2002 for more information.

Thanks. The child in question is unaware of the conflict and her wishes are already known to the trustees, who are ignoring them. Given that this is private law and not relating to any court proceedings, I can't really see what the professionals will do, or which professionals they will be. But I will look at the guidelines.

I don't think the fact they are called an advocate means they'll help out in legal cases: In fact I'm sure it doesn't. They are just there to ensure she has a voice. If you want to challenge the trust through the courts she will need proper legal representation. Apologies if I've misread the thrust of your post.

Advocacy in this context is not a legal thing, as has been said it is about helping the client to have their point of view put forward, especially if the person is struggling to do this, or is intimidated by the setting.
They might do this by meeting with the child to get to know them, and establish what their wishes are, and by attending meetings to put forward the childs view. If the child was able to attend meetings then the advocate would attend with them and support them in saying as much as they were able, and if that wasnt everything the advocate could continue to put forward the views that the client hadn't been able to in the meeting.

Hi. Sorry, I was confused myself about what social services were proposing to do, particularly as we've spent lots of time and money establishing that there is bugger all we can do through the courts! But I've read the guidance and, also usefully, quizzed our social worker rather than bothering confused people on the Internet. The advocate in this case is proposed to work on the trustees paying attention to the children's needs rather than concentrating on their dislike of us by being the person they can discuss the children with. The social worker is very concerned at the tone of their correspondence with us and feels, as we do, that the hostility is interfering with their duties to the kids. So a positive step. There is no suggestion of legal action at this point. Our only possible legal remedy is a court direction for use of funds anyway, and I suppose if it came to that, the advocate could support DSD in expressing her wishes.