Introduction:

This report presents information on the young people who engaged with the EPIC

Advocacy service in 2010. There are two main aspects to EPIC’s advocacy work

with young people: firstly Children’s Rights and Participation which works with

young people up to the age of 17½ approximately; and secondly, the Aftercare

Support Network which involves young people from 17½ and over. EPIC has two

Children’s Rights and Participation Officers and one Aftercare Support Network

Co-ordinator.

Advocacy means providing a skilled and independent person to give a voice to and

represent the rights of children and young people in care and young adults with

care experience. The EPIC Advocacy service provides them with confidential

advice and support. Advocacy ensures that their views are listened to and where

possible acted on, that decisions made are fully explained and understood.

Advocacy is a means of empowering children and young people/adults to make

informed choices and assert their views. Where possible they should be supported

to speak for themselves. Advocacy represents young people’s interests and helps

them secure the services and resources they need.

The data in this report focuses on the characteristics of young people who have

received advocacy support from EPIC. The main aim of this report is to give a

profile of this group of young people and to gain some insight into their presenting

issues. This is valuable information and can be used to help inform the future

development of advocacy work carried out by EPIC. In addition, it can also

highlight certain issues that need to be addressed by the research and policy work

of the organisation, especially when particular issues are becoming more

prevalent. As this is the second annual report on the EPIC Advocacy service,

trends in the findings can be compared with those for the previous year, 2009.

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