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You might have heard the word advocacy but aren't sure what it actually means - advocacy means to speak up for someone usually in a court setting. In Barnardos, we define advocacy as speaking up for children and their families and we make the case for the promotion of children's rights, protection of their welfare and entitlements.

At Barnardos, we speak up for children and make the case for their rights, welfare and entitlements:

• On a local level for individual children using our Children's Services
• In courtrooms through our Guardian Ad Litem Service
• Nationally through our Advocacy team who make sure that the important messages about children's lives are heard

We decided to create an Advocacy team as a result of our work with children and families. The children we work with can face multiple challenges from poverty to schooling. We noticed that these challenges affected a large number of children across Barnardos services in different parts of the country. For these children's lives to change for the better, they needed those with the political power to back policies, solutions and resources that would make the difference.

This national approach to advocacy is sometimes called "systemic" or social justice advocacy when you seek to change the decisions and the sometimes the way decisions are made at national level.

Our approach to advocacy

Our aim is to share the knowledge, experience and insights Barnardos has gained through working with children and families with those who craft public policy so they can make more fully informed decisions around children's lives and deliver real change.

We put forward policy positions that are based on evidence. We do not just criticise, we are solutions focused and we developed our policy positions in such a way as to be accessible and relatively jargon-free.

Social problems can be complex and appear daunting. Our approach is to frame the problem and name it so that it can best be understood, with understanding the first step to seeking a solution.

How we work will be determined by the message we are trying to get across. We campaign when we focus on specific goals around key issues and taken specific actions to reach these goals. Sometimes it will need public involvement in order to demonstrate to political decision-makers that there is a real support for what we're putting forward. Other times it is better to make the case to policy-makers directly or it can mean examining a key piece of legislation/ policy and showing just what impact this will have on children or a particular group of children. Sometimes it can involve all of the above depending on who needs to be persuaded of what and when.

To find out more about what Barnardos thinks on key issues click here.

To find out more about how we campaign for change click here.

Contacting us

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• Publications