Tros Gynnal

Inquiry into Advocacy Services for Children and Young People in Wales

Response to Children and Young Persons Committee

Tros Gynnal fully agrees that all advocacy services should be independent - offering an impartial, confidential, quality service to vulnerable children and young people across Wales.

However, the nature of that independence does not necessarily rule out or work against the ability of the advocacy service provider to develop positive working relationships with local commissioners and other local service providers to ensure that resolution (as early as possible) of issues for the benefit of children and young people is achieved.

Equally those working relationships should not (and does not) divert advocacy providers from assisting children and young people when making formal complaints or pursuing legal remedies when necessary.

Tros Gynnal maintains such relationships with several local commissioners across Wales and maintains its independent status in line with Standard 6 of the National Standards for the Provision of Children’s Advocacy Services.

Tros Gynnal believes that to return to the days when relationships between local authorities and advocacy providers were strained and sometimes confrontational would be a retrograde step. Effective advocacy services need to work alongside Social Workers, Carers and other professionals in order that they facilitate young people to access the services rather than being suspicious of the service and acting as gatekeepers.

Developing arrangements, which ensure that local commissioners in Health, Social Care and Education and the proposed Advocacy Unit jointly participate in a commissioning process that is consistent across Wales, would seem to offer a solution to inconsistencies in service provision

The Advocacy Unit, the Children’s Commissioners Office and the Children and Young Persons Scrutiny Committee could also develop protocols to resolve conflict situations between commissioners and providers that are seen to threaten the independent status of Advocacy Services

Q2 i) Yes

Q ii) Yes

Q3 i)

Tros Gynnal fully supports the development of a comprehensive advocacy service covering a range of vulnerable groups of children.

However, we believe that Stages 1 and 2 as proposed in the model should be merged, as the distinction between the eligible young people in the two stages seems somewhat artificial and confusing. Tros Gynnal also believes that there is a danger of overlooking a significant group of vulnerable children and young people - those who are accommodated in private sector residential units in Wales. These children and young people are often placed a long way from home and need the protection that a visiting advocacy service provides. A comprehensive advocacy service for Wales cannot ignore these children and young people even if responsibility for individual children often lies with local authorities in England.

We are aware of the discussions that have developed since the WAG consultation was launched and have contributed to a number of consultation days organised by WAG in Cardiff and Wrexham and by Children in Wales.

We have also noted the evidence that has so far been presented to the Children and Young Peoples Committee. Tros Gynnal believes that the real issues lie around commissioning of services rather than the service delivery model itself.

When Tros Gynnal was set up to take over the work of the Children’s Society in 2002, relationships with local authorities were difficult and there was a perception that contracts could perhaps be terminated if the advocacy service proved too challenging.

Since then relationships with commissioners have matured and advocacy services that we provide have become accepted more as a 'critical friend’ rather than a 'thorn in the side’ - supporting children and young people to get issues resolved whilst also feeding back comments and views from young people to the individual commissioners about the services they receive.

Tros Gynnal would like to stress the importance of this feedback for systemic advocacy through regular quarterly meetings between providers and commissioners.

Therefore we argue that a good level of local engagement is vital to get issues resolved and ensure referral from professionals, such as social workers and carers, who are working closely with children and young people.

In some instances commissioners are already acting on a regional basis sometimes led by Framework Partnerships. We can see that this model could be further developed but are not totally convinced that it will lead to any change in the status of advocacy providers’ independence or to improved consistency in services across Wales which would be reassuring to children and young people. As mentioned previously, the development of the advocacy unit aligned to the Children’s Commissioners Office and the Children and Young Persons Scrutiny Committee would seem to offer an important dimension here.

Q3ii)

Tros Gynnal believes that the establishment of an all Wales Advocacy Unit will be important to the development of a strong consistent advocacy service across Wales.

The Unit should have a coordinating/development function, ensuring that all services are working to the National Advocacy Standards for the benefit of children and young people and that training and other functions of advocacy providers are consistent across the country.

Some will argue that in order to provide sufficient independence from local authorities the advocacy unit should also commission services - this may/or may not be possible given the legal responsibilities of local authorities in respect of Looked After Children and Advocacy Services.

In any event, we would suggest that establishing the relationship between local commissioners in Health, Social Care and Education, the Advocacy Unit and the Advocacy Providers is key to moving forward and breaking down boundaries.

The aim should be to ensure impartial intelligent commissioning of advocacy services across Wales using robust and effective commissioning tools.