Advocacy Focus Goes International

Advocacy Focus has been commissioned by researchers and Advocates in Japan, who wish to find out more about children and young people’s advocacy services in the UK.

Our training portfolio has gained momentum over the last year, working with the likes of Footasylum, Citizen’s Advice and more. Now we are excited to announce our new partnership with a group of professionals in Japan, who are looking to legislate child advocacy services and train Advocates in their country.

Our dedicated training and children’s advocacy teams have worked with the research group on a one to one basis to build a bespoke session on ‘Children and Young People’s Advocacy Practice in the UK.’ The training includes an overview of qualifications and training, challenges facing the sector, case studies, how we visit and support children and young people in local authority care and much more.

Justine Hodgkinson, CEO, says:

“We are really excited to be working with the team in Japan. Not only does it show how strong the UK’s advocacy sector is but having been referred to us from an esteemed source, how strong our own advocacy service and training provision is.

“I am extremely proud of Carolina who has worked hard to overhaul our training provision over the last year, which has seen us work with many forward thinking organisations. We know this is just the start of our international training portfolio and welcome any businesses to get in touch if they require advocacy training.

“I am extremely proud of our team and our training offer that has thrived over the last year, despite the challenges we have faced due to the pandemic. We have worked with many forward thinking organisations and we are hopeful that this is just the first of many international opportunities to share best practice. We have delivered advocacy related activities for over 23 years, any businesses that want to work with us to improve their offer are in a safe pair of hands.”

Masatsugu Hori, part of the team in Japan, says:

“We first heard about Advocacy Focus through a glowing recommendation from our esteemed friends Jane Darlymple and Kate Mercer. We had a look at the website and saw the great work [they are] doing to lead advocacy in the UK, and we wanted to ask them to run the workshop.

“In Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is currently considering the establishment of a system of child advocacy, and such new system is expected to be established in 2022. Some of our researchers have been involved in a Government Committee to recommend the creation of an independent and powerful advocacy system on the model of the UK.

“There are also model advocacy projects in several local authorities across the country, some of which run by commissioned children’s rights organisation. For example, we are now in our fourth year of advocacy work in Osaka, where we visit institutions. Our group is made up mainly of researchers and practitioners who have been involved in such activities.”

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