Why it is so important to provide children with "accessible" information

This module considers the way in which lawyers present information and advice to their child clients. Much information and advice is provided during face-to-face meetings, and so the principles and processes covered in Module 1 apply. In this second module, we focus in particular on how lawyers communicate with children between those meetings since a lot of the most important information is provided to children remotely, via letters, phone calls and through other media.  

"Without access to reliable, relevant information, children cannot meaningfully engage in any decision-making process."
Sarah Woodhouse

Despite unequivocal acknowledgement that the availability and accessibility of information is the crucial starting point in any children’s rights based approach to the justice process, child clients’ experiences of receiving such information are extremely variable. Some have told us that they received very limited information from their lawyers; many say that the information they received was difficult to understand or not really relevant or useful to them. The children in these clips talk about the quality and accessibility of the information they received when they were going through justice proceedings. 

"Giving those constant updates and reassuring the client what is happening is really key because the more you keep them updated, the more they feel comfortable with you."
Liam

 Ensuring the child receives the ‘right’ information

"The task (and challenge) for practitioners, is to provide different types of information so that children and young people have the reassurance they need to be able to insist that their rights are respected in practice." 
Helen Stalford

In summary, respecting children’s right to information involves much more than conveying procedural facts to the child; practitioners have to contextualise that information, present the child with some genuine choices, define what support is available to enable the child to exercise those choices, calibrate the child’s expectations in the light of other factors that influence decisions about him or her, and present realistic and clear projections as to what outcomes might arise from different courses of action.  Having identified what information children need in justice proceedings and why, the rest of this module focuses on how practitioners can best convey that information. 

Informing the child of the formal terms of your relationship

On taking on any case, lawyers have a professional and legal duty to inform all clients, including children, of the terms of their relationship or ‘contract’. This involves the lawyer confirming in writing the cost and nature of the legal representation they have undertaken to provide, the instructions they have received from the client, any advice the lawyer can provide, and any action that needs to be taken as the case progresses. Such information is initially contained in a client care letter. Client care letters are not renowned for being child friendly! They generally adhere to a standard format, are rather formal in tone and necessarily contain some technical legal content to comply with your professional requirements. 

At a most basic level, a children’s rights-based approach requires that you correspond directly with the child, even if this is supported by a letter to the relevant adults responsible for their care. The majority of the children we have spoken to did not receive any letters directly from their lawyers; the practitioners wrote to their parents or guardian instead. Others did not really engage with the written information they received from their lawyer because it was written in language that they could not fully understand. This compounded their sense of confusion and isolation during the legal process. It can also create some problems for the lawyers as the following reflections highlight.

"It can be a challenge to try to provide young people with all the information they are entitled to but at the same time to make that information ‘child friendly.’ It needs to have the actual law in there, but the law is not child friendly." 
Rosalind Compton

• The child’s emotional state, particularly if they are distressed

• The complexity of the problem and the relevant legal framework

• Unfamiliar legal terminology

• Lack of access to relevant information. For example, some of the information you might need to represent the child properly may be controlled by the police, the Home Office, parents, social workers or other lawyers.

• The pressure to manage client relationships 'professionally'

• Lack of training or experience on how to assess children’s understanding

Some of these factors are outside of your control and require close collaboration with other welfare professionals with specialist experience. Other factors, however, can be addressed through some relatively modest changes to your approach.  

An essential way of achieving understanding is by using child friendly language. Even terms that you as a practitioner take for granted, such as ‘guardian’, ‘plea’, ‘social worker’, ‘age assessment’, ‘courts’, ‘Home Office’, ‘hearing’, ‘appeal’ may all be unfamiliar to a child who has never experienced the legal process before. 

This is easier said than done, though. You will have to have a good knowledge of the child’s understanding and knowledge through your face-to-face interactions to ensure that you adapt your written correspondence appropriately. But in using child friendly language, you need to be cautious not to oversimplify terms to the extent that any advice or information loses all meaning and that you are failing in your professional obligations to provide the client with all of the information he or she needs. This is a difficult balance to achieve as a practitioner, because written correspondence is not just important for informing the child of what is happening; it also provides an important record of progress for other justice professionals involved in the case.

Have a look at the following examples of child friendly glossaries of terms from lawstuff.org.uk and childlawadvice.org.uk

Listen to the following video clip which shows lawyers reflecting on some of the difficulties they have had communicating with child clients.

"It is easy to forget that as a lawyer you are probably often using terms that do not make sense to adults, not to mention young people. But there is a dual danger in underestimating or overestimating the capacity of a child to understand what you are saying." 
Mital Raithatha & Solange Valdez

The practitioners in the following footage highlight some of the techniques they have developed to promote children's understanding during the legal process, both during face-to-face meetings, and in follow-up correspondence.

"It is important to develop reliable techniques to check whether your client has really understood you. Simply asking a child client “do you understand?” is usually not good enough."
Rosalind Compton, Lucy Yeatman and Solange Valdez

Maintaining good communication in between meetings

A final point relates to how lawyers can maintain effective communication in between meetings. There are three essential components in this regard:

• Regular: The communication should be regular so that the child is kept informed of any updates (including lack of progress) on their case, and to ensure that you are continuing to build on your relationship of trust with him or her;

• Accessible: The communication should be in a form/media that the child can readily access, ideally of the child’s choosing. This may be text messaging, by phone, by email or by WhatsApp. All forms satisfy the regulatory requirements. If the child is at ease with and in control of the method of communication, they are much more likely to read and understand the information you are communicating.

• Direct: if the child is your client, all communication relating to their case should be directed at them in the first instance even if the child is not directly engaged in the preparation of the case (because of its complexity, other commitments, or a sheer lack of interest). Supporting adults can be provided with supplementary or duplicate information (of course, only with the consent of your client).

These priorities are explained further by the following practitioners: 

"In terms of how to communicate, it has got to be led by them. I always ask my clients what they prefer, understanding that there may be things that restrict them. There’s no need to force them to communicate in a way that we think is the best way." 
Rosalind Compton and Mital Raithatha