Children's hearings redesign
The offer of advocacy to the child
It is important that, in advance of a hearing, children and young people of all ages are involved in the consideration of how they can appropriately give their views. Where necessary, this should involve the support of a children’s advocacy worker, and the Hearings for Children report also recommends “there should be an immediate offer of advocacy at the point of referral to the Reporter for all children” and “the offer of advocacy should be repeated to children and to their families at different stages of the process.”
The current section 122 of the 2011 Act states that the chairing member of a hearing must inform the child of the availability of children’s advocacy services. In practice, the offer of advocacy does happen before the children’s hearing.