What we do
Wakefield CAPS provides an Advocacy and an Independent Visitor service to children and young people where Wakefield are the responsible local authority.
If young people are in care, have a child protection or Education Health and Care Plan or being supported by the Youth Offending Team we should be able to support them.
Advocacy is an independent service to support young people understand and speak up about their rights. Advocacy ensures young people’s wishes, feelings and rights are taken into account when decisions are being made about their future. We can help young people challenge and make formal complaints if they need to.
Independent Visitors are training volunteers that are matched with young people who are in care. They spend regular time with the young person (usually once every 2 weeks) to do things you both enjoy.
Depending on your situation our age range covers 0-25 years.
We can help with
- Advocating for children is at the heart of everything we do. We work to make sure children and young people with disabilities are included in community activities and decisions about themselves.
- Find out more about Disability advocacy/participation
- Search for Disability advocacy/participation services
- Children and young people have a right to be heard and involved in decisions about them, so we enable and support them to participate in decision making processes.
- Search for Rights and participation services
- An Independent Visitor is a volunteer who befriends, advises and assists a child or young person who is being looked-after by their local authority. They become be a consistent presence over a long period and can become a valuable source of support. We recruit and train the volunteers before matching them with a child or young person in their local area who shares similar interests. We then provide ongoing support to help the relationship grow.
- Search for Independent visitors services
- We provide one-to-one support for children and young people looked-after by their local authority. We also help other young people in need of support, such as those on a child protection plan. Our mental health advocacy services work with children and young people receiving or wanting mental health support. Children and young people have a right to be heard and involved in decisions about them, so we support them by explaining their wishes and arguing their case. We also provide activities and training for families and professionals.
- Find out more about Advocacy and participation (children in care)
- Search for Advocacy and participation (children in care) services