Aberdeen Young Person's Rights Service Vision:
A Service which #KeepsThePromise to support our children, young people, and young adults to enjoy and have their rights listened to and fulfilled.
Why do we have a Young Person’s Rights Service?
“Children must be listened to and meaningfully and appropriately involved in decision-making about their care, with all those involved properly listening and responding to what children want and need. There must be a compassionate, caring, decision-making culture focused on children and those they trust” (The Promise)
The Promise presumes that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) will be fully incorporated into domestic law, and “should be the bedrock upon which all legislation is based to ensure that children’s rights are upheld as a matter of course”.
Ensuring the rights, participation and voice of those children, young people, and young adults we support and care for is the responsibility of the whole workforce.
However, specific services such as the Aberdeen Young Person’s Rights Service can bring an additional focus onto these fundamental aspects of care and protection.
Service Ethos
The Service Ethos is grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which lays out a vision of childhood and consequent young adulthood underpinned by basic rights such as dignity, equality, fairness, participation, and safety.
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states “Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously.”
A primary role of the Service is to ensure the children, young people, and young adults its supports are heard and listened to.
The Service remit is framed around the:
3 ‘Ps’ of Children’s Rights:
- Participation – to have your say
- Protection – to be safe
- Provision – to be well looked after
The Service understands that the children, young people, and young adults it is there to support have had traumatic experiences and may find it hard to feel safe and develop trusting relationships. We therefore try to provide support which promotes safety and trust and minimises re-traumatisation.
This understanding includes a commitment to supporting trauma recovery through an ethos where children, young people and young adults are listened to, empowered, and treated with empathy and respect, through trusting connections and relationships.
The Service is aligned to the key principles underlying Trauma Informed Practice.
Our remit
Our remit is to provide advocacy, guidance and support to Aberdeen children, young people and young adults, aged 0-26 years old, who are care experienced or are or have been involved in child protection processes, wherever they live.
Although we are part of children’s social work, we are independent of other professionals who have responsibilities for care and support.
The visual below was co-designed with some of our care experienced young people, and depicts that the Service is for:
- children and young people who are or have been involved in child protection processes
- children and young people looked after at home
- children and young people looked after with extended family or friends – kinship.
- children and young people looked after in foster care in and outside of the city; with Aberdeen City carers or with carers registered with independent providers
- children and young people looked after in residential care or school in and outside of the city; in Aberdeen City homes, those commissioned by Aberdeen City or in external provision
- children and young people looked after in secure care
- young adults being supported on a continuing or aftercare basis
To learn more about our service, please see our Aberdeen Young Person's Rights Service Leaflet which was designed with our young people. We also have a plain text version of the Aberdeen Young Person's Rights Service Leaflet and have created a video version.
Independent Advocacy Services for Children and Young People involved in Children's Hearings in Aberdeen:
Aberdeen Young Person's Rights Service is also one of the providers for advocacy in Children's Hearings in Aberdeen.
The short video below, from WhoCares?Scotland, gives more information about Advocacy in Aberdeen - Advocacy in Children's Hearings.
The Advocacy Service Aberdeen website has more information including leaflets for younger children, teens and referrers.
Find out more about advocacy for children and young people here - www.hearings-advocacy.com
Referring to the Rights Service
Children and young people, our partners, parents and carers can all make a referral to the Rights Service.
Are you a child, young person or young adult that we have supported?
You are important and Aberdeen Young Person's Rights Service want to hear from you.
Why not fill in our survey? Click the link - We want to hear from you or scan the QR code.
If you would rather give us feedback in other ways, then that would be great too, just get in touch.
Service Feedback
We have an open survey, aimed at the workforce, our partners, parents and carers, which asks for your feedback to inform how we extend and improve the Service.
This survey will remain ‘open’, allowing for your feedback on an ongoing and ‘real-time’ basis. This will support us to make changes and improvements in ‘real time’ too.
This survey can be accessed through this Survey Link or the QR Code.
If your preference is to provide feedback in other ways, e.g., verbally, or through other written means such as email/teams, that too would be welcomed.
For more information about what we've been up to. please see our Information, News and Events page, the Aberdeen ACE Facebook & Youth Team Aberdeen Facebook pages.
To get in touch
Email: YoungPersonsRights@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Telephone or Text:
- Donna - 07876 780 877
- Carmen – 07484 004966