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7/29/2019 advocacy.pdf
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Children have a right to what is just and good in our society. These rights include:
the right to be safe the right to protection from harm the right to be heard and believed and the right to protection from discrimination
In childrens services, knowledge or information about childrens rights can be found in our
national and state legislation, in the national quality assurance systems, in the Early
Childhood Australia (ECA) Code of Ethics and United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
Advocating for childrenBall (2001) uses the Concise Macquarie Dictionary definition for advocacy. She states the
meaning as:
Pleading in favour of; supporting or urging by argument; recommending publicly;
representing of interests.
Ball then defines an advocate from the same source as one who defends, vindicates or
espouses a cause by argument; an upholder; a defender(p.15).
You will be taking a leadership role in your service. It is therefore expected that you will
share your vision for children with others and, when appropriate, take action to ensure that
childrens rights are upheld.
Hughes & MacNaughton (1999, pp. 275-276) state that: Commercial advertisers use very
specific techniques of persuasion. They suggest that you:
Locate your target audience. Present a window on the issues of childrens rights, and to look through so that
the audience see themselves as already implicitly committed to the issue.
Shape your message to the audience taking account of their different interests andexperiences.
Possessing the commitment, confidence, strength and determination to stand up for your
beliefs is an important aspect of your developing professionalism. Vander Ven (1988)
considers that care and education professionals begin to develop their potential for advocacy
in the informed stage of the professionalism continuum. However, she believes that those
in the complex stage have the greatest potential for standing up and speaking out on behalf
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of what is best for children, their families and the profession. What do you think? Are you
ready to make a stance?
Children require strong adults who will speak out for them, and families require support in
ensuring that their children receive the highest quality care possible. To advocate effectivelyon their behalf, early childhood professionals need to unite as a powerful force in support of
excellence in early childhood programs and a shared respect for and valuing of young
children.
Advocacy is about speaking out, acting, and writing to promote and defend the rights, needs
and interests of people who are in some way disadvantaged.
Gibbs, 2003, p.6.
You may be thinking that this all seems a little hard, that you dont possess the skills to speakpublicly on behalf of children and their families, or that your contribution would be too small
to matter. Remember - ripples can become waves!
Being an advocate in childrens services requires strength and determination. But, even the
smallest of contributions is better than none at all
An advertorial document known as the Code of Ethics is a set of guidelines for professional
behaviour that protects the interests of young children, parents, early childhood workers,
employers and the community.
The shared values that underpin the ECA Code of Ethics include:
the uniqueness of each individual child, family member and colleague; respect for positions and viewpoints that differ from your own; and basing practice on the best current knowledge.
(Stonehouse, 1991 cited in Sebastian-Nickell, 1997, p. 51)
Although the Code of Ethics will not provide easy answers or prescriptive solutions, it doesprovide guidelines foradvocacy, professional behaviour and some assistance with the
resolution of dilemmas. Advocacy refers to supporting the cause of another and, as a care
and education professional; you have an ethical responsibility to represent the best interests
of children, families, colleagues, and the profession.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasises
independence and self-actualisation as the goals of childhood; a move from a protection and
nurturance focus to one of self-determination, personhood and the right of a child to dignity
and respect.(Sebastian-Nickell & Milne, 1997, p. 264).
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And
sets standards of care for all children. If we apply the Convention to our workplace, we
need to acknowledge it in the philosophy and policies we adopt for children in order to
achieve the best interests of the child. In practice, we need to demonstrate respect for
children as individuals and respond to all children according to their economic, social andcultural needs.
(Greenwood, 1993, p. 12)
Parents and colleagues also have rights and, as a care and education professional, it is your
responsibility to ensure that your relationship with them is one of respect, open
communication, collaboration and shared decision-making.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child underpins all legislation in the
signatory countries. Since children are dependent upon adults to ensure their safety and wellbeing, it is vital that rules and regulations are established to protect them from harm.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
The child shall enjoy special protection and shall be given opportunities by law and other
means to enable him to develop physically, mentally, manually, spiritually, and socially in a
healthy and normal manner.
(cited in Faragher & MacNaughton, 1998, p.205)
Advocating parents and the communityOne of your roles as a professional is that of an advocate for children, to parents and the
community in the dissemination of information on a range of issues. Knowing how to obtain
this information and present it in a manner accessible to a diverse audience will reflect your
professionalism and promote positive relationships between your service and its community.
Children and their families are part of the local communities in which they live, and care and
education professionals are increasingly expected to recognise this by:
working in partnership with parents to build relevant and responsive programsfor the children in their care
creating links with their centres local communities so that their programs reflectthe strengths, values and issues within them, and
linking with parents and their wider community to advocate on behalf of children.(Hughes & McNaughton, 1999, p.220)
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This expectation is reflected in the ECA Code of Ethics (Stonehouse, 1998, p.8) which guides
the care and education professional to:
provide programs which are responsive to community needs,
support the development and implementation of laws and policies that promotethe well- being of children and families and that are responsive to community
needs
promote cooperation among all agencies and professions working in the bestinterests of young children and families, and
promote childrens interests through community education and advocacy.Arthur et al (1996, p. 23) suggest a number of strategies that can be used to ensure that your
communications with families are two-way:
daily communications, newsletters, information booklets, noticeboards, etc providing resource books, articles and magazines of relevance to
parent/community interest
providing information about political and financial trends which influencechildrens services, and on avenues of advocacy and opportunities to lobby for
change
establishing a meeting room or a space for family members to talk and shareinformation
providing a noticeboard that can be used by families to share information,recognising that families are valuable sources of information for each other
organising evening workshops or presentations on issues of relevance.Once you have established open, honest and trusting communications with families, you have
opened the door to a valuable opportunity to be able to educate and empower them about the
needs and rights of children and young people, in your role as an advocate for children and
young people.
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Advocating for children about specific rights or needs
In many situations children are powerless to greatly affect their circumstances. They are
vulnerable to the many people and situations that they encounter, mainly through their familymembers, carers and teachers. Because children are unlikely to be able to represent
themselves in any public forum, it is the advocates duty to do this on their behalf.
An early childhood professional is required to know and understand the needs of children to
recognise when these needs are not being met during the normal course of their lives. Some
children have needs which, if not met, can result in developmental delay, social dysfunction
or illness.
Collecting and presenting informationOnce you have identified an issue that does not uphold a childs/childrens rights or is not in
their best interests, the next step is to collect comprehensive background information and
evidence and to document it appropriately. The documentation must be stored safely and
securely so that it does not fall into inappropriate hands.
Information about a specific issue can be gathered from observations and/or discussions with
one or more of the following. Of course, the issue will determine the sources used.
Service documents e.g. profiles of children Families Siblings Other children Carers Observation Previous service that the child may have attended Support agencies who may work with the child
The first type of information that you need to collect will be about best practice i.e. how
things should be done. Information about best practice needs to be based on up-to-date and
accurate knowledge of the topic. Reading the latest professional journals, accessing the
internet and seeking information from recognised authorities are some of the ways that you
can achieve this.
The second type is about what is actually happening? i.e. current practices in the service. For
example, if you were concerned about the number of obese children attending your OSHC
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service, then you would need information about appropriate health and nutritional standards
and policies at your service.
Collecting information about what is actually happening requires very careful consideration.
Above all, you need to remember that the staff and/or parents involved have access to thesefiles under Freedom of Information Act Therefore, you should be very careful to record only
that information that is relevant to the issue. You also need to be aware that you may be
required to collect specific information to meet legislative and quality assurance
requirements.
You may choose to document in any number of ways the information that you collected.
Reports, photographs, and forms specifically designed for your service could form part of
your documentation. Regardless of the method of documentation, the information that it
contains must be relevant and accurate. Each contribution must be dated and the full namesof those involved included. Documentation must be completed during, or as soon as possible
after, the event. Documentation must be stored in a way that ensures it can only be accessed
by specified staff.
The way information is presented will, of course, vary according to the audience, purpose and
issue. When advocating for childrens rights, you might need to be aware that government
departments often have standardised forms to ensure that they receive information that meets
their requirements for consistency, accountability and legality.
The way in which you present information so that it is accessible to a diverse audience is part
of being an advocate. To assist you with this, Hughes & McNaughton, (1999, p.13) suggest
that care and education professionals adopt the PEG approach in attempting to meet the
information needs of others:
Professional
Equitable
Goal-oriented
Professional communication ensures that you gain respect for your professionalism,
particularly if the information that you present is based on the best available current
knowledge. It is important, however, that you do not confuse professional communication
with jargon. Using jargon to meet the information needs of others can quickly create
barriers and should be avoided completely.
Equitable communication will ensure that you meet the information needs of others through
relationships which are fair, respectful, appropriate and relevant to the full range of cultural
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and social groups. For instance, in meeting the information needs of others, are you inclusive
of all people regardless of race, culture, gender, ability, age, religion or language?
By becoming goal-oriented in your efforts to meet the information needs of others you will
avoid the possibility of misinterpretation. You should ask yourself: Who is my intendedaudience? What exactly is the information need or issue I am trying to address? How will I
present the information? What should be included in the information? What is the purpose
of the information - is it to entertain, inform, educate or recruit my intended audience?
Approaches to advocacyHughes and MacNaughton (1999, pp. 276-278) define advocacy strategies as either explicit
advocacy, or implicit advocacy and then recommend an impersonal or a personal approach to
convey the intended message.
Sometimes raising an issue is not enough. An assertive advocate must be persistent and must
pursue their cause until a positive result (not always the result that they initially were hoping
for) is gained for the benefit of the child or children in general.
Assertiveness involves being direct and honest in a polite and considerate way.
An assertive person in a work team presents their own point of view and the view of others
with fairness and reasonableness. They are usually good communicators. They look people
in the eye, are relaxed and open in their body language, and have a high degree of
confidence.
(Elder, 1994, p.65).
Assertiveness is not to be confused with aggressiveness. There is no place for aggressiveness
in childrens services. Sometimes non-assertive people are so frustrated by never being taken
notice of that they become aggressive or some people have developed the practice of bullying
to get their own way. Neither are effective means of advocacy. A childs welfare is a high
stake so it is important to learn the communication techniques required to allow your message
to be understood and to motivate action.
Application
To develop a campaign that will advocate for the rights and needs of child/children within
your organisation/local community.Gibbs (2003, pp. 27-28) provides the following steps in
planning an advocacy campaign.
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Identify the issue
Find out about the issue
Set goals
Plan your action and choose strategies
Implement
Review
Children are sometimes powerless to change their circumstances. Children require strong
adults who will speak out for them, and families require support in ensuring that their
children receive the highest care possible. Assertiveness and persistence are often required to
ensure that your advocacy message is heard and to motivate others into action.