Mr. Terry Dignan:

I will start with the point made about the guardian ad litemversus the advocate. I want to make our position clear. We believe that the experience and qualifications of the advocate can be an additional resource for the guardian ad litem, especially when it is time specific. Guardians ad litemare appointed at the beginning of care proceedings. The advocate may have a long relationship with the child and family and may be able to give insight into the background of the child or issues relating to or affecting the child. This can allow the guardian ad litemto move out of the blocks more quickly in terms of representing the child as a guardian ad litem.

The Chairman raised a point about the legal representative. There are cases - it is always case specific - where the advocate may be more than adequate.

There have been situations where a guardian ad litemis representing in one case and an advocate in another so there is the potential to do that. Ms Charles will speak to the fact that as it stands, all children are required to be made aware of EPIC as an advocacy service for them. We welcome that and want it to continue.

In respect of training, we agree with the Ombudsman for Children and the other speakers here that it should be broadened to look at a range of opportunities to bring people in from education, social care and so forth. We feel that once those people come into the service there should be training that is specific to the requirements of that particular role. We would recommend that an advocacy module be part of that, which would overcome that.

In respect of the perception of conflict of interest, we feel the voice of the child and what is in the best interests of the child are often not the same thing. Where the best interests of the child lie in taking the child out of the home, the child may want to be with his or her parents for whatever reason. That needs to be addressed to see how that could work. Again, a guardian ad litemadvocate could work on that, as can the legal profession in terms of determining the outcomes of that.