Award of Advocacy Safety Net Service Contract to National Youth Advocacy Service

About

Department for Education awarded a contract to National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) for the Advocacy 'Safety Net' Service, valued at £542,611.64.

The service encourages local authorities to provide advocacy services in line with their statutory responsibilities, stepping in only where this proves unsuccessful.

It aims to improve insight and analysis about callers and issues raised, gather evidence on the quality and coverage of local advocacy services, and engage looked after children who might otherwise be difficult to reach.

The service signposts children to locally provided services and monitors availability, maintaining a dynamic picture of local provision updated via calls to the helpline and work with local areas and networks.

It steps in only where local advocacy support continues to be denied.

The service has three core deliverables: 1) an advice helpline run by appropriately trained staff to respond to calls from looked after children, offering telephone, email, text, and WhatsApp communication options, and supporting children where English is not their first language; 2) additional advocacy support through web-based information including self-advocacy tools and technology, with a website allowing looked after children and care leavers to be made aware of their local advocacy provider and contact information, also supporting children where English is not their first language; and 3) a database capturing the availability of local advocacy, kept accurate and up to date.