Advocacy
We recognise that things do not always go right and sometimes you may need support from a person that is not your social worker or personal advisor. You can access the support of a National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) advocate if you feel you need help to get your views across or you feel like you are not being listened to.
Advocacy is about supporting you to make sure that your rights are respected and your views and wishes are heard. An advocate can provide support by:
- giving you an opportunity to speak confidentially to someone who is independent
- being with you when you have appointments or meetings
- speaking up for you, if you want them to
- giving you information about the different ways that you can raise your concerns
- helping you to think about what you would like to achieve or want to change.
You can request an advocate from your Pathway Adviser (PA) or by calling the NYAS helpline on 0808 808 1001. You can also access lots of information about advocacy support by visiting the National Youth Advocacy Service website.
Comments, compliments and complaints
Every young person receiving advice or assistance under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and the Planning Transition to Adulthood (Care Leavers England) Regulations can tell us what they think about the services they receive by:
- a comment – telling us what you think
- a compliment – saying thank you or well done
- a complaint – telling us when you think we’ve done something wrong
Comments
If you make a comment or a suggestion, we will write to you to say what we are going to do with it. We might ask a manager or the Participation Officer to talk to you about it. We might ask if you want to help us to plan changes. If we do not reply to your suggestions, you can make a complaint about this.
Compliments
Most of the time, if you want to say thank you or well done you can do this face to face. Sometimes you might want other people to know that someone has done a good job. If you contact us, we will pass on your good wishes. We will also contact you to let you know what we have done.
Complaints
We will try to sort out any problems as quickly as possible. Your PA will be able to deal with most things, but if they can’t do this, or if you want someone else to deal with it, you can contact the Compliments and Complaints Team. The complaints officer can advise you on how to make a complaint and will keep you informed of what is happening with your complaint.
Any young person who wants to make a complaint also has the right to an advocate. They can support you to speak up for yourself, or sometimes can speak for you. You can choose who you want to be your advocate. It could be someone you know and trust or you can ask for somebody independent.
To make a complaint please contact:
Complaints and Information Governance Officer
Resources
Corporate and Enabler Services
Parkhouse Building
Carlisle
Cumbria
CA6 4SJ
Telephone: 01228 479770
Citizens Advice
The Citizens Advice aims to provide free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities as a member of society.
Telephone: 0344 245 1288
LGBTQIA+
LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or sometimes questioning), intersex, asexual, and others. The “plus” represents other sexual identities, including pansexual and Two-Spirit. A person's gender identity is their internal sense of gender, whether that is woman, man, or a nonbinary gender. A person's gender identity does not necessarily correspond to their sex assigned at birth or with their gender expression. It is also important to understand that gender is not the same as sex. Sex is biological, while gender is influenced by social, cultural, and environmental factors.
If you are seeking support for issues with coming out, relationships, bullying, self-harm, and more, contact the LGBT National Hotline.
LGBThq is Cumbria's home for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other information and advice services, community centre, anti-bullying campaigning, 3rd party hate crime reporting centre.