FAQs

We’re independent of the Government and work for you. Our only role is to listen to you, help you know and understand your rights, share what you want to say and make sure it’s heard. You are our boss.

We know that when you go into care, the State is involved in the most private, important parts of your life. You’ll have many questions. We make sure these are heard and answered.

When things happen, we’ll make sure everything is explained to you.
When decisions are made; we make sure your views, wishes and concerns are heard, responded to and taken into account.

We know that trusting people can be hard. At Jersey Cares, we want you to have as much choice and control as possible.

That is why we try to offer ways of really getting to know your advocate, at your pace. This may begin with text messages or phone calls. We can then offer activities, depending on your age and what you like. This could be cake in a café, football in the park, or doing crafts at home. You decide. This allows you the opportunity to see if you like and trust the advocate.

If you don’t ‘click’ with your advocate, that is fine with us and we would offer you the chance to meet with someone else.

If you know what you need from your advocate, and simply want to crack on with advocacy, that is fine too!

If you’re under 18, we’d want to meet you first with someone who looks after you, or another grown-up. If you don’t want them to hear what you have to say, we can talk about this. You can take your time to figure out if you like us, trust us and if we do what we say. If you feel we don’t, you’re welcome to complain. You can do that here.

 
You’ll have an advocate who works alongside you. They’ll take the time to get to know you. If you get involved in other activities with us you may meet the rest of the team. If your advocate is on holiday or unwell you can work with someone else, if you’d like to.

Your advocate will want to understand what matters to you and will take the time to listen. You are their boss so they will work on the things which you bring up.

If you have meetings to go to, your advocate can go with you. They can make sure your views are heard and responded to, that things are said in a way you can understand and that you can speak in the meeting, if you want to. Your advocate can also go on your behalf, if you don’t want to go – always, and only, saying the things you want them to say.

Your rights are important too. Your advocate can tell you what these are. This is so that you can think about what you want, knowing what’s promised to you.

There will be things you’ll ask that your advocate won’t know the answer to right away. They’ll be honest about this and will go away to find out. We have lots of friends in our network who can help us find the information you need.

No! We aren’t legal advocates, but we have friends who are! This means that when we need legal advice to help you, we can get it.

Please get in touch. This is what advocacy is for. We’ll talk to you about this and give options on what to do next. If you’d like us to, we can be alongside you as you take the next steps. Or we can just provide the information and step back. That’s entirely up to you!

We have lots of experience of this and, while we can’t promise what will happen, we will work hard alongside you to advocate for your rights, in action.

Yes, we do. Advocacy is confidential and we only share with other people the information you ask us to share. The only time we may have to share information is if you tell us something which makes us really concerned about your safety or that of someone else. If possible, we’d always ask you before we do this. You can read more about this in our safeguarding policies.

From experience, yes, we usually can! We can make sure you’re heard and you know your rights. We also make sure others are aware of your rights too. There are often ways of making something happen for you which you may not have tried, or which you may be too exhausted to try. This is where we can help!

When we have to, we raise what you want to have heard at higher levels within organisations until they act. People often say ‘no one can help’. And then we do!

We promise to get back to you within five working days. We can usually get back to you much quicker than this. Please tell us if you need advocacy urgently (for example if you have an important meeting soon) and we’ll do the best we can to provide it.

When we get in touch, we can agree on a time to meet. This usually happens quickly. Occasionally, we may have a short waiting list. We can let you know this when you get in touch.

Please get in touch. The Government of Jersey promises that independent advocacy will be offered to all children in care and ‘care leavers’ aged 5-25 years. We can also work with you if you’re older than 25. Talk this through with us so we can help.

Yes. We’re sorry that this has happened to you and we’d like to help. You can speak with one of our advocates who’ll be able to help you think about what you’d like to do or see happen. Contact us so that we can speak more and offer advocacy if you’d like.

Yes. We know that your experience of care can have an impact all through your adult life. It doesn’t matter how old you are, Jersey Cares can offer advocacy. For younger adults, this might be how to access the Care Leavers’ Offer. We also support older adults so whether you’re 25 or 75, get in touch.

Yes! We work alongside anyone who has experience of care and can spend time with you wherever you live. We can also help you find an organisation like ours in your area, if you’d like.

We’d need to talk to you about this. We’re not able to be your advocate if we provide advocacy, or might in the future, to your children. This is hard to say. We know lots of parents and foster carers need help too.

If we were your advocate, we wouldn’t be able to advocate for your child. We promise them that we’re only there to share their views and wishes.

We know there’s a need for parental advocacy. We’d appreciate it if you got in touch. This way we can let people know who may be able to make this happen.