Understanding Advocacy for Children and Young People
| Date | 02 December 2010 |
| Pages | 55-56 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/jcs.2010.0743 |
| Published date | 02 December 2010 |
| Author | Carmel Corrigan |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
Journal of Children’s Ser vices • V olume 5 Issue 4 • Dece mber 2010 © P ier Professional Ltd 55
10.5042/jcs.2010.0743
and teachers. While advocacy is part of their role,
it is generally accepted that this is curtailed by a
number of factors, including their organisational
loyalties and limitations and their foremost
requirement to ensure that the best interest of the
child is served. The second type of advocates, and
those with whom the authors are most concerned,
is independent advocates, and the development
of this service is detailed in Chapter 1. These
advocates work solely to report on and present
the views and feelings of children and young
people in administrative and legislative processes.
Many are provided through the children’s rights
and advocacy services of local authorities in
England and Wales as well as through voluntary
organisations.
Common characteristics of advocacy services
are identified in the book. These include the
independence of the advocate from others
involved in the child’s life, confidentiality and the
duties of the advocate to report on the child
or young person’s views, even if they do not
agree with them, to challenge existing power
relationships and to raise the status of children and
young people. Systemic advocacy should promote
equality, social justice and inclusion. These are not
unproblematic demands and have led to a conflict
between the requirement to meet legislative,
regulatory and market conditions and the duty
to serve the child. For example, commissioning
agents may place constraints on the degree of
confidentiality that may be maintained between
the young person and the advocate, requiring
that certain information be released to them in
order to pursue the best interest of the child.
Additionally, in the UK confidentiality is treated as
a procedural matter and is therefore relative rather
than absolute.
Since the almost universal ratification of the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in
the early 1990s, many academics, researchers,
campaigners and others concerned with children’s
services have taken up the cause of ‘hearing the
voice of the child’ and strengthening children’s
participation in all judicial and administrative
matters that affect them. Despite this, the nature
of children’s participation and how and when it can
be achieved remain disputed territory. This is due
to the complexity of the discourses that surround
the issue. In Understanding Advocacy for Children and
Young People, Boylan and Dalrymple explore the
development of advocacy services and policy for
children and young people in the UK in the context
of these discourses.
Definitions and discussions of what advocacy ‘is’
are not considered until Chapter 4, and readers
coming fresh to the idea might be well advised
to begin there. The authors do not provide a
definitive answer to the question ‘what is advocacy?’
Indeed, elsewhere in the book they argue indirectly
that such a definitive answer may not be useful.
This is because research indicates that the nature
of advocacy for children and young people is
shaped by the context in which it occurs, which
in turn is affected by factors such as legislative and
administrative mandates, the specific issues being
addressed, the needs and capacity of the children
and young people involved and the opportunities
for participation afforded to them.
The authors distinguish between a number of
forms of advocacy but focus on two. The first
concerns professionals whose primary role is
other than advocacy but who have a moral and
professional obligation to advocate for clients,
including children. These include health workers,
social workers, other social care professionals
Book reviews
Understanding Advocacy for Children and Young People
Reviewed by: Carmel Corrigan
Independent Research Consultant and PhD student, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Email: cmcorrigan@eircom.net
Book details:
Jane Boylan & Jane Dalrymple
Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2009
ix + 178 pages, £23.99 (pb)
ISBN: 978 0 33 522373
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