National Advocacy Service Report 2013

This report gives an overview of the EPIC Advocacy cases in 2013. It presents a profile of the young people who sought advocacy support, identifies the main presenting issues and key actions taken by EPIC to address their concerns. The aim of EPIC’s advocacy work is to empower children in care and young people with care experience to have a say in issues that significantly affect their lives. The nature of EPIC’s role can vary from providing basic information, for example, in relation to social welfare entitlements, to providing practical support, such as assisting a young person to find an education course or appropriate accommodation. At the highest level of engagement, one of the EPIC Advocacy team may be asked by a young person to represent their views on their behalf, for example, by attending a care or aftercare review meeting.

This is the sixth annual report on EPIC Advocacy cases, the first of which was in 2009. The number of Advocacy cases has increased substantially over these six years – from 61 in 2009 to 371 in 2014. In October 2012, EPIC employed six additional staff members including a National Advocacy Service Manager and four Advocacy Officers (two for the Dublin Mid-Leinster region and two for the Southern region). This increased the number of EPIC Advocacy Officers from three to seven. In 2014, there was a total of 184 new Referrals to EPIC. The data presented in this report will help to inform the future development of EPIC’s Advocacy work. In addition, the issues raised will contribute to EPIC’s research and policy work, in particular to track emerging trends in presenting issues.