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A key objective of the government's Quality Protects programme is to promote the participation of children and their families in the planning and delivery of services and in decisions that affect their day-to-day lives. Steps have already been taken to promote advocacy for children and young people and the government has also acknowledged that advice and advocacy is an important and legitimate resource for parents whose children are the subject of child protection inquiries.

There is an expectation in Working Together (1999) that parents should routinely be given information about how they can access advice and advocacy services from the outset of child protection inquiries. Many such parents will need an independent advocate to participate in an informed way in the process because, if a social worker and a child's parents disagree about the risk to the child, the social worker's duty to protect the child takes precedence over their role as advocate for the family as a whole. The consequence is that the parents are often left unsupported. Many such parents will need an independent advocate to participate in an informed way in the process.

Unfortunately such advice and advocacy is not as yet a coherent, nationally run service. The few specialist schemes that exist are innovative. Their advocates, along with solicitor advocates, have had to develop many of their skills on the hoof.

The research explored the process of advocacy, paying particular attention to the function of advocacy, the professional dilemmas inherent in the advocate's role, and what makes advocacy successful or unsuccessful.¹ Parents, advocates and social workers views about the current service were canvassed, and suggestions for improvements were sought.

Several key findings emerged from the study. Advice and advocacy had many functions. It included supporting and advising the parents about the process; the child protection concerns and how they may be overcome; what the likely consequences of particular courses of action might be; empowering parents to express their views; and trying to ensure that parents' views were heard when the child protection plan was drawn up.

Advocacy for parents in child protection was generally provided by two groups: informal advocates or supporters, who tend to be lay advocates, relatives and friends, and who generally do not have such specialist knowledge prior to their involvement in the case; and formal advocates who tend to be professionals with specialist knowledge of child protection issues. Advocacy was provided by a few organisations working specifically with parents whose children were subject to section 47 inquiries and by solicitors, most of whom were child care specialists and on the Law Society's children panel. There was a strong consensus among those surveyed that parents should be referred to local and national advice and advocacy as soon as inquiries are initiated as part of the child protection procedures. Funding for specialist advice and advocacy was considered inadequate and insecure, leading to unequal service provision for parents.

However, there was some evidence of resistance among professionals to the advocate's involvement in the case, especially when they were not familiar with the advocate's work and when the advocate was confrontational.

Overall, the research found a strong consensus that advocacy is helpful or very helpful provided the advocate has specialist knowledge and experience of the child protection process and issues, acts in a professional, non-adversarial manner and becomes involved early on in the process. But as this was not always the case it was felt that there was a need for an advocacy protocol to be drawn up, giving guidance about professional, ethical and practice issues, such as the advocate's independence.

The Department of Health commissioned the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge to develop a protocol on advice and advocacy for parents.² It outlines the ethical and practice issues that need to be addressed by both advocates, social workers and other child care professionals (see The Protocol Outlines, opposite). It focuses on the work of advocates drawn primarily from a professional background, but it also looks at supporters, making important distinctions about how they should be regarded and involved in child protection cases, compared with advocates.

The overall aim of the protocol is to promote best practice, so that advocacy for parents enhances parental participation rather than undermines it.³ It draws upon the research and has also been developed in consultation with child care and advocacy organisations, and also the Department of Health, the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Law Society and members of the judiciary. It is the first time such a protocol has been developed at a national level.


We believe we have outlined a framework for best practice but, given the fact that this protocol is breaking new ground, we would welcome feedback from readers about how it works in practice in child protection cases.

The Study    

The research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and carried out by researchers from the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge. Phase 1 involved interviewing parents, advocates and social workers were interviewed in phase 1 about the work of professional advocates in 36 child protection cases. The interviews revealed a wide variation in what advocates did to support, advise and advocate for parents, and also what councils allowed advocates to do. Phase 2 explored these issues by interviewing advocates, and local authority staff who had direct experience of working with advocates.

The protocol outlines

• Why parents might want an advocate, and whether or not they have a right to one.  
• Who might act as an advocate for parents, and how  they might be referred to advocates.  
• How such advocacy may be funded.  
• The skills and training advocates need to work effectively.   
• The extent of their role.    

Most importantly, the protocol also looks at ethical considerations for advocates working in this context, in which the avoidance of collusion with both the parent and the local authority is crucial, including for example: 

• Whether the advocate needs to be independent of the local authority. 
• Whether the advocate should maintain the parents' confidentiality absolutely. 
• When and how the advocate should report information they receive about a child suffering or likely to suffer significant harm to the local authority. 
• Whether they should ever withhold information from parents. 
• How the advocate can balance parents' rights and children's safety. 
• How directive advocates should be, if at all, when working with parents. 
• How should the advocate conduct him/herself in a child protection forum.   

Bridget Lindley is senior research associate at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge.

For further information about the briefing pack for non-specialist supporters e-mail bridgetlindley@hotmail.com  

References  

¹ B Lindley, M Richards and P Freeman, "Advice and advocacy for parents in child protection cases - what's happening in current practice?" in Child and Family Law Quarterly 13:2 2001 

² Protocol on Advice and Advocacy for Parents (Child protection) at www.doh.gov.uk/childrensadvocacy/ 

³ It has been used as the framework for a new advocacy project being developed by Family Rights Group, which started in April 2003. Further information from office@frg.org.uk.