Children and young people get together to discuss possible ‘Children’s Advocacy House’ for the North West of England

A live artist captured the outputs of the event

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Professor Andrew Rowland, paediatric emergency medicine consultant from The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, was joined by young people, aged 11-14 years, and some key individuals yesterday to discuss the possibility of setting up a new Children’s Advocacy House for the North West of England.

The idea was first put forward by Professor Rowland in his Churchill Fellowship report (Living on a Railway Line – a major report to improve the safeguarding of vulnerable children in the UK and beyond, and thanks to support from a network of individuals and events, a group of over 50 children and young people, together with key individuals, were brought together yesterday at MediaCityUK to discuss whether an Advocacy House is something children and young people in Greater Manchester might want.

The event was attended by over 50 children and young people, the Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, the office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, Public Health England, Tony Lloyd (Interim Mayor of Manchester), Ann Coffey MP, Councillor Karen Garrido (Ceremonial Mayor of Salford), key individuals from the NHS and other invited guests. The entire focus of the day was on the young people with the adults attending to learn from the young people present.

The day included remarks from Professor Rowland, the Ceremonial Mayor of Salford, Councillor Karen Garrido, Ann Coffey MP and Tony Lloyd as well as the young people telling the adults present about the idea of an Advocacy House, what might happen there and how they might use it.

The question and answer session with the Interim Mayor of Manchester, Tony Lloyd, provided the opportunity for a two-way conversation for the children and young people to imagine and explain their thoughts about a potential advocacy centre.

Neve, a young person attending the event, summarised the aim of the Children’s Advocacy House as, “you speak, we listen, everyone cares".

Professor Andrew Rowland, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Honorary Professor at Salford University said: “The unique work that the children and young people have produced will be the starting point for professionals in the region to consider ways in which they can improve engagement with young people facing adversity and difficulties.

"The principles of co-design and co-production of services with children and young people should be an over-arching concept within the North West region where we now have a unique opportunity to put these design principles at the very heart of the strategic values of organisations working with children, young people and families.

"I am excited to see how organisations within the North West, and beyond, respond to the fantastic ideas that the children and young people have come up with during this Children’s Advocacy Centre event, and how those organisations will now work with children and young people to hopefully lead to the creation of a brand new Advocacy House for them in our region.”

Dr Joan Livesley, Senior Lecturer in Multi Professional Postgraduate Studies at the University of Salford, said: “This was a fantastic day with children and young people, identifying unmet need and getting some great ideas from them about how to resolve these problems.”

Dr Mary Ryan, Consultant and Director of Medicine at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, said: “The need for a Child Advocacy Centre in the North West has been something we have thought about for a while now. This need was confirmed and highlighted by the children we spoke to during this event. We owe it to them to listen, and work harder to make this dream a reality.”

The outputs of the event will be written into a report to be released in early March 2017.

The event was funded by NHS England (North Region) and organised by Dr Joan Livesley, Senior Lecturer in Multi Professional Postgraduate Studies at the University of Salford, in conjunction with Professor Rowland and Dr Sue Smith, Assistant Director of Nursing (Safeguarding) at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.