National Advocacy Service Report 2017

This report gives an overview of EPIC Advocacy cases in 2017.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 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.

This is the ninth annual report on EPIC Advocacy cases, the first of which was in 2009. The number of Advocacy cases has increased substantially over these eight years – from 61 in 2009 to 589 in 2017. During the year 2017, there were eight Advocacy Officers in EPIC, two in each of the main regions: Dublin North East; Dublin Mid Leinster; South; and West. Therefore, on average, each EPIC Advocacy Officer dealt with 73 cases throughout the year, which has increased from an average of 63 cases in the previous year 2016, when there was a total of 500 EPIC Advocacy cases. In 2017, there were 434 Referrals to the EPIC National Advocacy Service. Compared to the previous year 2016, when there were 370 Referrals, this has increased by 17%.