The Deputy Minister has provided a positive reaction to the report and has highlighted the effort put in by the Children’s Commissioner and his team in creating their report. The response identifies the fact that “The Welsh Government and the Children’s Commissioner have the same aim, which is to ensure that children and young people have the best possible support to overcome the challenges and barriers they experience in their lives.”

To read the full response which appears on the Welsh Government website go to: http://wales.gov.uk/about/cabinet/cabinetstatements/2012/advocacy/?lang=en

By clicking on this link you can also see the Deputy Minister mention the Meic helpline, saying it “has provided invaluable support for children and young people.”

Here at Meic our aim is to offer all children and young people in Wales advocacy if they need it. Meic has worked closely with other face to face advocacy providers to set up a detailed and comprehensive database which allows Meic advisers to provide up to date and correct information to children and young people with regards to advocacy. Let’s make the word advocacy known and make sure all children and young people know what it means. As Adviser Advocates we would like all children and young people to feel they have a voice and with the help of Meic and other providers such as NYAS and Tros Gynnal we can help them make it stronger.

We need your help! Tell people what advocacy is, if someone asks you, you could try explaining it like this’ Advocacy is providing an individual with a voice to ensure that her/his needs and wishes are made known, views respected, and rights protected’ let people know that there is a service that can help them. Meic! lets give all children and young people in Wales a stronger voice.

Whilst acknowledging that many do receive an excellent service from independent professional advocates, others are missing out. The report highlights the fact that the majority of young people are unaware of what advocacy means unless it directly affects them. It also highlights the fact that young people are often unaware that advocacy provisions are available to them through their local authority if they meet the right criteria.

The Commissioner concludes that these young people who want the support and advice of an independent professional advocate to enable them to have their voices heard, are being badly let down.

The review highlights the shortcomings of the current provision and makes a number of recommendations aimed at improving the situation

The children’s commissioner Keith Towler commented:

“It saddens me to say that some of Wales’ most vulnerable children and young people don’t know they’re entitled to have an independent professional advocate to represent their views. The purpose of my review is not to point the finger of blame at anyone but instead to reinvigorate national and local partners to get Wales back on track so that no child is denied access to a professional advocate.

“Among my 29 recommendations are suggestions of fundamental changes to national structures but of equal importance are the recommendations around ensuring children and young people are made aware of and understand their entitlement to a voice.”

As well as highlighting room for improvement the review also highlights the success of The Meic Helpline in providing a 24 hour, free telephone, text and webchat advocacy service. The review claims “The establishment and development of Meic has undoubtedly been a significant and pioneering achievement for the Advocacy Unit.”

For more information and to view the review please go to: -

Missing Voices – English

Lleisiau Coll – Welsh

‘Lately, I’ve had a few problems that I’ve felt I haven’t been able to handle. I felt like I would end up living with the problem forever and things would get worse. One day I was on the clic website and I saw an article about MEIC. I clicked on it as it seemed interesting and it explained about MEIC being a confidential helpline. I automatically thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to finally get the stress off my chest and possibly find some help. I visited the MEIC website  and read a bit more into the service before deciding  to talk to someone via instant message chat they had. I was able to speak to an adviser quicker than I expected. The Adviser Advocate was friendly and asked how they could help me and we discussed my problem.

Once I had spoken to the Adviser Advocate I decided I would like to speak to a speacialist. I wasn’t sure about contacting them myself, MEIC were happy to contact them on my behalf. I found this support really helpful. I could tell they cared about my welfare which really nice to know. They had suggestions for all my troubles and even gave me a code to continue the conversation if I contacted them again.’

MEIC’s online service enables us to reach children and young people in a variety of mediums, useful for those who prefer not to call.

MEIC needs to reach all children and young people in Wales, to make this happen we need YOU! Pop up a poster in your place of work and help us be there for children and young people looking for information, advice and support. Children and young people will recieve advocacy, information and support when it is most needed.

MEIC Poster (English)

MEIC Poster (Welsh)

Also we have seen an increase in the number of people wanting advice and help about benefits and work, in the current climate where the economy is difficult some young people have contacted MEIC for advice and someone to talk to. We have provided details of CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) and helped to provide details of services to get specialised help locally.

At MEIC we have a website deditcated to professionals, parents and carers, where local advocacy services and places to find information are updated regularly. Sometimes we can be contacted from Professionals, Parents as well as children and young people who are looking for help. If it is something that we do not specialise in or know of an organisation near to them that can-we can either pass on details with permission or pass on details of an organisation that can provide that help that is needed.

This is has been a great week for fact finding and research!

The young people are tasked to work with the Welsh Government and other organisations, researching and consulting on the main issues young people in care and care leavers are faced with. the National Reference Group aims to be a key consultation platform on issues relations to being in care and leaving care. The group steered by young people who have experienced the care system, will have their views and experiences heard which may then be used to feed into reports, policies, guidelines and legislation.

The National Reference Group allows young people to have a say in national decision making processes which enables them to participate and influnence good practice. MEIC attended the launch of the National Reference Group on 27th January at the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay.

For further information visit www.vfcc.org.uk

Research by the Prince’s Trust found that more than half of young people here feel stressed most, if not all of the time. An ITV reporter Stuart Bonathan has been speaking to one person who says the stress got so bad he considered taking his own life and Project Manager at MEIC, Sian Pitman on the issues faced by children and young people who are or have considered such action, www.itv.com.

As MEIC continues to support children and young people with the issues they face the rise in the number of children and young people dealing with mental health issues continues to grow.

While at the marketplace we got to meet many people including representatives from the Child Rights Centre in Belgrade and the Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme who showed a real interest in our helpline and thought it was a brilliant source of support for children and young people. We also had the opportunity to listen to some fantastic presentations about various projects who work very hard to support children, young people and their families.

The event was a success and something we thoroughly enjoyed attending.

Over the past week a number of AAs have been involved in a number of consultations with children and young people who have used our service. Under Article 12 of the United Nation’s Convention on Rights of the Child children and young people have a right to have opportunities to have their voice heard about decision making at a local level. This is central to MEIC’s development and service provision, which children and young people are at the heart of.

It is also crucial that Adviser Advocates are aware of the various issues and difficulties that children and young people face. This week AAs have attended training events delivered by the Welsh Government on topics such as Youth Mental Health First Aid. AAs have also attended training events in London delivered by the Telephone Helplines Association (THA). This ensures that the service model is of the highest quality and that every AA strives to constantly work to improve the service, as accreditation criteria is revised in response to developments in the field.

Other activities included the production of course work for the Agored Introduction to Advocacy Course, which Tros Gynnal have delivered for every AA involved with the MEIC. Every AA is currently working to develop their skills as an advocate and this course has been important in the development of the team’s formal advocacy skills.

Like many organisations, MEIC has regular team meetings, where information is shared and every AA has the opportunity to meet to discuss organisational issues and to disseminate knowledge throughout the team. The team meeting this week reflected an opportunity to catch up and have direct contact with every member of the team as many AAs work from home; this represented an opportunity to get together for a catch up!

Our data suggests that a significant number of children and young people aged 0-25 are engaging and achieving positive outcomes as a result of contacting MEIC. It is important that as many children and young people in Wales know about MEIC and this week we have worked hard to contact a number of professionals, agencies and organisations to spread the word about MEIC.

Whatever time we start, our shifts start the same way. Using Skype, we chat with the AA that’s been working on the previous shift to say hello and to see whether there is anything that needs handing over. We also log in to the Virtual Call Centre which manages the calls, texts and instant messages we receive from children and young people. As you can see, technology is key to the efficient running of the helpline.

The number of contacts we receive during a shift can vary widely, as can the content of the contacts we get. A query as straightforward as finding a young person’s nearest sexual health clinic can be followed by something more complex like a contact from a young person who is being bullied, or who is in care and doesn’t feel that their views are being listened to.

Whatever the contact is about, our aim is to make sure that the young person has the information they need so that they are empowered to make their own decisions and have their voices heard. This means that we explore their situation with them, help them to work out what they would like to see happen and how to get there. This can involve looking at useful websites with them, signposting them to relevant organisations or making phone calls on their behalf. Where suitable, we can refer the person for face-to-face advocacy, using our extensive database of local services.

Between contacts from young people, there is a lot for us to be getting on with. We could be responding to emails that have come into our ‘help’ inbox from young people or we could be getting in touch with other organisations to let them know about our service. We also spend a lot of time researching so we are up-to-date on the latest information, and finding out what organisations and websites are out there that could be of use to the young people who get in touch with us.