What Young People Say

“My advocate was helpful and easy to talk to”

“My advocate was easy to contact”

“I knew what was happening every step of the way”

“The service is brilliant nothing needs to change.  My advocate was great and helped brilliantly”

Nicola’s Story

Hi I’m 15 years old and had not been in school for over a year.  My social worker could not find a school for me because I was living away from Medway, so I was getting really behind with my GCSE coursework.  I was put in touch with an advocate who was really helpful and was prepared to help me complain about the fact I had no school.  I was supported to make a complaint, not once – but twice, because the I was not happy with the reply to my first complaint.  This resulted in me being given the chance to meet with the Assistant Director of Children’s Services and being involved in reviewing the policy relating to young people, like me, who were out of school. 

I ended up with a school and some extra help so I could catch up.

Sam’s Story

I am 13 years old, I was really worried about a meeting that my social worker had organised because I needed to say some things in the meeting that I knew would upset my parents.  An advocate came to see me about a week before to help me write down the things I wanted to say.  He said that I did not need to say them at the meeting now because I had written them down.  I was so scared I did not go to the meeting, but my advocate went instead and he read out what we had written down.  So what I wanted to say was still said, but I didn’t have to be there to say it, because if I did I would not of been able to say what I wanted to.