Understanding how advocacy services support care-experienced young people to participate in decision-making.

Research has shown that meaningful participation in decision-making can enhance young people’s confidence, self-efficacy, and self-worth. Despite legislative provisions and guidance promoting children and young people’s involvement in care-planning, young people still report limited opportunities to engage meaningfully in decision-making during review meetings. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has recommended greater investment in advocacy services to enhance young people’s participation in decision-making. Advocacy services has the potential to promote participation, redress power imbalances and give young people the confidence to engage in a traditionally adult-dominated process. However, the scope and impact of advocacy services for care-experienced young people remain largely under-researched.

This study examined the delivery of an in-house advocacy service within one local authority in England. It explored how advocacy was understood and experienced by young people and professionals, and worked with care-experienced young people to identify principles for good practice.

Overview

The research explored the scope, operation and implementation of the service, including the circumstances that appeared to support or constrain effective advocacy. It considered how advocates enabled young people to participate in decisions about their lives and what meaningful participation should look like from the perspectives of young people, advocates and other professionals. 

The findings informed an initial programme theory explaining how advocacy may contribute to positive outcomes in different circumstances. They were also used to develop a Good Practice Framework for advocacy services in collaboration with care-experienced young people.

Activities and Methods

The study used a qualitative, realist-informed approach to examine how, why, for whom and under what circumstances advocacy may support meaningful participation. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups and stakeholder discussions involving care-experienced young people, advocates, managers, other professionals and researchers with expertise in advocacy. Initial findings and emerging theories were subsequently explored through follow-up interviews.

The next phase involved four collaborative workshops with 25 care-experienced children and young people. These workshops provided an opportunity to test the emerging findings against young people’s experiences and priorities. Their contributions directly informed the content and presentation of the Good Practice Framework.

Following the substantive research phase, a further collaborative workshop was held with young people in the study local authority to develop a comic strip based on the project findings. Young people shaped the content, key messages and overall direction of the comic, which was then developed and fully designed by a professional comic artist and illustrator. The completed comic offers an engaging and accessible way of sharing the research with young people, practitioners and wider audiences.

Findings

The research highlighted considerable variation in how young people experienced advocacy and participated in decision-making. Effective advocacy depended on the interaction between the individual young person, the approach of the advocate and the wider organisational context.

Key findings included:

• Participation and decision-making: The extent and form of young people’s participation varied according to their circumstances, previous experiences of choice and autonomy, and the way support was offered. Meaningful participation required flexibility and a willingness to adapt formal processes around the young person.
• The advocacy role: Young people valued advocates who were approachable, transparent, reliable and able to communicate in ways that suited them. Advocates also needed to explain their role, its boundaries and the limits of confidentiality clearly from the outset.
• Trust and relationships: Trust was supported by consistent communication, honest conversations and advocates following through on agreed actions. Beginnings and endings were particularly important within advocacy relationships, which were often short-term and focused on a specific issue.
• Choice and accessibility: Young people wanted greater choice over when, where and how they engaged with advocates. Clear information about advocacy, different routes into the service and the ability to self-refer were important for ensuring that support was genuinely accessible.
• Independence: The in-house model enabled advocates to build relationships with professionals and access relevant information more readily. However, being located within the local authority could also create uncertainty among young people about whether the service was genuinely independent. Independence therefore needed to be clearly communicated and demonstrated through practice.
• Individual and wider change: Advocacy could support young people with an immediate concern while also strengthening their confidence and ability to advocate for themselves. The integration of individual advocacy with wider participation activities also allowed recurring issues to inform young people’s campaigns and contribute to changes in policy and practice.

The findings suggest that successful advocacy involves more than securing a young person’s preferred outcome. Feeling listened to, receiving an honest explanation and being supported to explore alternative options were also important experiences of meaningful advocacy.

The report recommends greater investment in raising awareness of advocacy, more flexible and accessible approaches to service delivery, meaningful involvement of young people in service governance, and continued workforce development focused on communication and relationship-building.

Additional resources generated