What is to be done about children's advocacy?

Advocacy services are a vital part of the children’s rights movement. Advocacy seeks to ensure children and young people are genuinely heard and have influence whenever decisions are made affecting them. Advocacy puts children and young people in charge; they are in control of what advocates say and do on their behalf. Unlike other professionals in a child’s life, advocates do not make best interests judgements or pursue their own views and ideas.

Local authorities began appointing children’s rights officers and advocates in the late 1980s, following serious and sustained abuse in care settings. As the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse painfully reminds us, children and young people were often silenced, discredited and disbelieved. The worldviews and interests of those running and working within organisations and institutions prevailed because their voices were louder and stronger and they had more power.