Advocacy in child protection conferences
Barnardo's is running one of the very few services that routinely offer advocacy to all young people over 10 years of age, when they are the subject of a child protection conference. Wiltshire County Council works alongside Barnardo's to ensure that young people's views are a central and valued feature of child protection conferences.
The challenge is to translate this advice into practice - and that is what Barnardo's is doing. While it has become routine to encourage parents to take part, national statistics show that only a tiny minority of young people attend their own child protection conference. Those who do attend are so disempowered by the format of the meeting that they do not feel able to take part in any meaningful way. Following on from the success of providing independent advocates for children and young people at family group conferences, Barnardo's and Wiltshire County Council with support from a small local charity, have supported 210 children through their child protection conferences. Over 95 per cent of the young people offered this service accept it. Many of those young people attend the conference and give their views with the support of their advocate. Other tell their advocate their views and feelings before the meeting and the advocate attends the meeting on their behalf.
