Advocacy is about supporting a person and their family to express their needs and wants regarding different situations, and to be aware of their options and entitlements, in order to make informed decisions on matters that affect their lives.
With regards to neurodivergent children, advocacy may be sought in order to ensure your child’s support needs are understood and met both at home or at school. For adults, advocates might help with understanding formal documents, can assist with identifying benefits, policy or laws that might be helpful to neurodivergent people and their families, and can listen to your views and wishes and then articulate them to people in meetings where you find it hard to speak up for yourself.
Advocacy in Fife is a great easy-read booklet that helps detail exactly what advocacy is and how it can be utilised to assist and also details services within Fife itself.
It can be difficult to know where to go and who to get in contact with to provide the right type of advocacy for you as a family. The Fife Advocacy Forum is a great source of signposting to various advocacy organisations and can help guide you to the one that is right for your needs.
Other Suggested Services:
Circles Network Fife delivers a free, independent service by providing information and advocacy via telephone, email, online, or face to face at their offices in Kirkcaldy, home visits, or in suitable community and public spaces. They can provide assistance with work capability assessments, meeting solicitors, GPs and other professionals, ESA & PIP assessments and more. The service is available to anyone over 16 years, who live in Fife and have one of a range of different conditions, such as mental health struggles, Autism, Intellectual Disability, brain injury, or long-term illness.
Dunfermline Advocacy provides support for Citizens Advocacy Partnerships across West Fife. They match local volunteers with vulnerable adults in the community to provide support and friendship.
Enquire is the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning. They provide easy to understand advice and information about additional support for learning legislation and guidance for families and professionals. They also have an advice line for parents that is designed to help them identify local advocacy services
Kindred Fife are a small team who provide support to families of children with complex needs, including support with applications for grants for specialist equipment, applying for benefits, advocacy, and parents support groups.
There are some aspects to education and training some neurodivergent people find tricky. For example; the busy, crowded school environments can be overwhelming and not conducive to learning; they might put a lot of pressure on themselves to get 100% every time and never be wrong; the environment may be over stimulating, or too underwhelming; And, particularly for children with Intellectual Disabilities, it might be that the subjects being taught are beyond their capacity, so they’re falling behind their expected targets and goals.
All of this can mean that some neurodivergent people may need help to access education and training. See below a list of services that provide support and guidance for these issues:
Suggested Services:
Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) is the framework which all public sector bodies use when supporting children and young people. It sets out the principles and values of how we work, how we consider child wellbeing, and how organisations like health and education work together. You can read more about how this is used in Fife here.
Autism Toolbox is a free online resource developed to support the inclusion of autistic learners in Scottish Early Learning and Childcare settings, Primary and Secondary schools. There is information to help understanding of autism, support for learners and their families, social & emotional wellbeing, and transitions. Information is relevant to young people, parents and carers of children with autism, and professionals.
Fife College Inclusion Team provide support for students to make college accessible and inclusive. Student advisors can help identify strategies and support to assist learning and development. There are Learning Centres at each campus where students can drop-in for advice, study skills and attend regular 1:1 or shared support.
Fife Council Educational Psychology Service is part of Fife council Education and Children’s Services Directorate. Every school in Fife has a link Educational Psychologist, who can provide support to children, parents and schools where there are concerns about a child’s learning development, or behaviour.
Supporting Learners Service give additional support we give in a wide and varied way, depending on the individual child. The Supporting Learners’ Service can help schools to meet the needs of learners who have additional support needs
Accessing employment and further education is something all neurodivergent people should be able to do, but may require extra help and support with. For example, filling in the application form, understanding how to answer questions in an application and interview, knowing how to perform at interview, knowing their rights within the workplace, or requiring support to attend.
All of these things can be difficult for some neurodivergent individuals, and below are services that can provide further guidance on this:
Fife Council Supported Employment Service (SES) can help people with a disability or health condition who are interested in finding a job. They provide a mix of support to help identify your work goals and the type of work you’d like, develop your employability skills, and get the help and support you need to succeed in the job. They also offer employers support such as disability awareness training, and information on current diversity and equality legislation.
Fife Employment Access Trust directly support people with mental health problems to find and sustain work. The run a range of courses and services aimed at helping people get the confidence and experience to find the right employment, and with the right support.
Fair Start Scotland recognise that everyone's life is different and that people with autism face different challenges that might mean they are further away from the job market than others. Fair Start tailor their approach so that the service provided is designed for the individual needs of each person
Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) have produced a guide to reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent employees.
The Scottish Transitions Forum have produced framework to inform, structure and encourage the continual improvement of support for young people with additional needs making the transition to adult life.
The Scottish ADHD Coalition have produced an employer’s guide to ADHD.
The Image Project have produced evidence-based resources for autistic employees, as well as employers. These were co-created with autistic people, and adopt a strengths-based approach.
Autism & Uni has number of free guides for managers, lecturers, and support staff on how to support autistic university students, and make teaching more accessible.
The National Autistic Society have produced a webpage with advice for college and university staff on supporting autistic learners transitioning to college or university.
Housing and financial advice is about supporting you or your children to find independence as they grow older, begin to move out of home, or start earning their own money. This section also covers support for parents, and how to seek advice and guidance regarding issues such as: Disability Living Allowance, Job Seekers Allowance, and Universal credit.
Some neurodivergent children and young people will go on to live independently, work full time, and have a family. However, others may need varying levels of support throughout their lifetime, with things such as; personal care, finding a home, managing money, and getting out into the community.
Below are services you can access to gain advice and guidance on how to navigate housing and financial support:
Fife Council Housing Website has lots of information, including advice on applying for a house and what to do once you’re on the list, council tax, housing benefit, and homelessness. We recommend looking at their pages for advice on housing in the first instance.
Fife Council Benefits and Money Advice Website has lots of information, including foodbanks and community cafes, advice on managing your benefits, crisis and community care grants, and advice on heating and rising costs. We recommend looking at their pages for advice on benefits and money in the first instance.
Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice and Rights Fife (CARF) have lots of independent information and advice on benefits, employment, money, and housing.
Mental Health & Money Advice provides online advice and support for people experiencing issues with mental health and money. For anyone struggling with money and who has mental health issues there is a useful ‘How can we help?’ tool to guide people to useful supports and information
Scottish Autism provide supported living services across Scotland. This includes adult supported living, outreach services, and day and vocational services.