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FAQs1 | Who are reconstruct? 1 | Who are reconstruct?Reconstruct is a company dedicated to improving services for children and young people through:
We currently provide advocacy, independent visiting and/or mentoring to:
2 | How could reconstruct services help?There are lots of reasons why people sometimes need independent help. Children and young people often tell us that meeting with someone who has nothing to do with social services, makes it easier for them to talk about issues that are important to them. Because the children and young people we work with are told that we are independent, they understand that we do not have any power to make decisions that affect their lives. They also know that we generally don't do anything or tell anyone about the details of what they have said, unless they want us to* It might be too embarrassing to discuss something with a foster carer or you might be worried about hurting people's feelings. Sometimes a listening ear from someone not involved in your direct care can be all that is needed. On the other hand you may be desperate to tell someone that you are being harmed or badly treated. * Except where a child could be at risk of serious harm. A young person would then be told that we had to pass this information on, telling who would be told, when and what might happen. 3 | What age do you have to be to have an advocate, mentor, visitor or participation worker ?There is not a specific minimum age that you have to be to receive a service from reconstruct. However most of our work tends to be with children and young people aged 10+. There is not a fixed upper age limit either. Independent visitors and mentors usually visit until young people are either 18 or 21. Advocates sometimes assist young people up to the age of 25. We also provide advocates to children when social services are involved in their lives, but who remain living at home in their families. Advocates in these cases work with children up until they are 18 years old, when they legally become adults. If you are unsure but think you would like a service from reconstruct, we suggest you contact us to see if we could help.4 | So what is advocacy?We provide advocates for children and young people, when social services are involved in their lives. You could be in foster care, living at home with family or in a residential school setting. We provide a service in some areas to support young people to participate in child protection services. Advocacy is about supporting children and young people to make sure that their rights are respected and their views and wishes are heard at all times. The aim of our advocacy service is to make sure young people are protected and well cared for by providing an opportunity for views to be listened to and properly considered (see Saira's and Darren's stories)5 | I know what advocacy means, but what do advocates actually do?
6 | What is an independent visitor?An independent visitor is someone who regularly (usually once every three to four weeks) visit's a child or young person who is in care either living with foster carers, in a children's home or at a residential school. Depending on what the visitor and young person agree, they may stay in, go out together (e.g. cycling, bowling, shopping) either in the evenings after school/college or at the weekends. Visitors and young people often keep in touch in between visits by mobile telephone and text messages, sometimes to plan what they want to do when they next meet. We also have visitors who attend residential schools to provide students with regular access to an independent person. In this situation the visitor helps provide the children with an additional safeguard to well-being. Over time the children and young people become familiar with their school person and know that they can discuss any issue with them. Children and young people can invite their visitors to attend important social services or education meetings to support them, e.g. looked after review or statement review.7 | What does mentoring mean?Mentors visit, befriend and advise young people, usually care leavers, aged 18-21. 8 | Who are mentors?They are people, who through their actions and work, help others to achieve their potential. Basically, someone who helps another 'younger' person on a one to one basis, through an important transition e.g. leaving care and being independent. 9 | How can I get an advocate, visitor or mentor?We will accept a referral (a request for a service) directly from a child or anyone closely involved with them. This can be done by telephone, fax, e-mail or post! Although we are keen to help you get the type of service you want it can be difficult in some areas to achieve this, but we will always try and help you. 10 | Do I have a say in who I get?We ask questions around what type of advocate you would like, whether male, female, ethnicity, etc and we then try to find the right sort of person for you. Sometimes we need to go back to a young person and give them a choice of either waiting for longer while we continue to look, or starting with a visitor with some of their preferred characteristics. With advocacy and child protection advocacy referrals, we are able to respond within 48 hours, or sooner depending on the seriousness of the situation. There is also a young persons' freephone number 0800 389 1571, which is answered during office hours but also has a 24 hour answerphone. 11 | Who knows what I'm talking about?Other than in exceptional circumstances information about what you have said to a worker remains confidential between you and reconstruct, unless we thought that a child might be at risk and in this rare situation we would tell you what we needed to do. 12 | Where do advocates, mentors, visitors and participation workers come from?They come from all over the areas we work and surrounding areas. They are a mixture in terms of age, sex, race and interests. Although we would be pleased to welcome more applications from men aged between 25 and 35 years of age. 13 | How do I know if you are any good?We advertise for staff, those interested fill out application forms, but we only take on people who are committed to children and young people. Next we ask for written references and we talk to the applicants' referees. We interview people for about an hour, and we pay young people to help us interview and ask questions. We also check with the criminal records bureau (CRB police check) that applicants do not have any convictions which would stop them from working with children and young people. Successful candidates then receive initial training for three to four days, depending on their desired working role. Some typical topics covered on our initial training courses are:
Following successful training workers could then be matched to a child or young person, for independent visiting or mentoring work, or used from a pool of advocates. Visitors and mentors are given an agreement which helps to organise their role with the young person who they visit. We accompany visitors and mentors on their first meeting with a child or young person, and we check with the child or young person at various times during their relationship how they are finding our service. We always visit the child/young person before introducing their visitor or mentor, just to make sure that it is a service that a child/young person actually wants, and we all understand what it is they think they might like. Finally, our work is partly organised by government legislation and guidance e.g. we adhere to the National Advocacy Standards. Reconstruct managers are also members of an organisation called CROA, which stands for 'Children's Rights Officers and Advocates'. This organisation both campaigns and makes suggestions to the government on how to improve services for children and young people. 14 | Who do we want to participate?At Reconstruct we specifically focus upon the participation of children and young people who are either 'in care' or 'care leavers'. We have significant experience and expertise over a number of years of working with children and young people who are care experienced. 15 | Why is it important that children participate?Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) state that "Children have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them and to have their opinions taken into account." So the participation of children and young people either 'in care' or 'care leavers' is a legal requirement for all local authorities. Local authorities are becoming increasingly required to evidence that they are listening, responding and involving children and young people in a variety of ways. Current government thinking and new legislation about young people who are 'in care' is built around four central principles, one of which is the importance of 'the voice of the child'. At Reconstruct we know from experience that this style of working is the most effective and meaningful way to work with children and young people. It requires a lot of hard work, but is often very rewarding and there can also be a lot of fun along the way! 16 | What is participation?Simply put we call getting involved 'participation'. Reconstruct work with local authorities to organise and support children and young people participate in a range of different type of activities. By getting involved children and young people are offered opportunities to work with us as a: reporter; photographer; interviewer; poet; performer; writer; representative; consultant; artist; project worker; trainer; member of children's council. In participating they build confidence, improve their CV's, share experiences, make friends, have fun, try new things, learn new skills and make a difference! Basically participation at Reconstruct means that it is our aim to make it possible for lots of children and young people to be heard, whilst having fun and at the same time making positive contributions. 17 | What does reconstruct provide?At Reconstruct, we are committed to working with children and young people in a way that value's their thoughts and ideas on a range of subjects important to them. We also work in partnership with local authorities, Children and Young People Services departments to help them provide evidence to central government on how they are listening to 'voice of the child' and be able to demonstrate what they are doing about what they have heard! |
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