9-year-olds contact legal helpline

Children as young as nine have contacted a new legal helpline run by the Children’s Rights Alliance.

The Children’s Rights Alliance Helpline and Legal Advice Clinics Annual Report 2018 will be launched today and highlights potential gaps in service provision for children and young people, and looks at trends in the contacts its legal service has received since it launched in March last year.

Under the initiative, the alliance provides legal information specifically about children’s rights and free one-to-one legal advice appointments with a solicitor for children or their parents, while its helpline operates two days a week. It also contracts community law and mediation services to provide legal advice through outreach clinics around the country.

Over the first year of operations, the helpline service received more than 300 calls, almost two-thirds of which were from parents or guardians, while there were 20 contacts directly from children.

The most common issues discussed were family law and children’s rights, although other topics, such as education and child protection, were the subject of dozens of calls.

Of the 20 calls from children, seven related to children’s rights, four to immigration, and three to family law, with others split between issues such as child protection, housing, and education.

The immigration queries included incidences of racism, requests for information about transferring from a direct provision centre, advice on the rights of unaccompanied minors and the rights of undocumented children.

The report said: “We often hear from young people who feel that their opinion has not been taken into account in family law court proceedings.”

Of the calls from parents and guardians, more than 25% related to family law, with education issues the next most common issue raised, including disputes with schools.

Foster parents queried how they can support children in their care and some parents asked how they can still support their child when they are not able to access services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Other issues raised included access to services for children with a disability.

The report said: “We have heard from parents struggling to access school places, particularly for children with autism.

“Related to this is the difficulty parents face when they do find a suitable autistic spectrum disorder unit that may be far from their home, to access school transport services for their child.”

The legal advice clinics launched last September and since then have helped 25 families across Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway, with education and family law among the top issues raised.

The report also provides some case studies, such as that involving a mother of two young children in unsuitable emergency accommodation and a parent seeking treatment for his son, who has dyspraxia and autism.

Children’s Rights Alliance chief executive Tanya Ward said young people are being pushed out of a family law system in need of reform and warned that the failure to provide proper services meant some children could fall through the cracks.

“This report is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues facing children, young people, and their parents,” she said.