A guide to using our Advice and Advocacy Service

• Family Rights Group’s data protection and privacy policy
• Advice and Advocacy Service standards
• Advice and Advocacy Service privacy policy
• Advice forums privacy policy
• Confidentiality and protection of children and vulnerable adults policy
• Advice and Advocacy conflicts of interest policy
• Complaints, comments and compliments policy
• Accessibility

• We do not record calls to our advice line.
• Our experienced advisers will ask questions and take notes while talking to you.
• The adviser will create a secure, confidential record of the conversation on our database.
• You do not have to tell us your name when talking to us.
• If during our conversation you tell us something that makes us really worried about a child, about your or someone else’s safety, we may have to inform the police or children’s services.
• Our advice line can be very busy, and you may not get through to an adviser when you call. If you get a message saying that all our advisers are busy, please try again.

• Try to call us when you are unlikely to be interrupted and are free to talk.
• Try to call us from a quiet, private space – without background noise and where you can talk without being overheard.
• If you are calling from a mobile phone, please check that your phone is charged and has good reception to make the call.
• Try to think about what you want to say to the adviser and what questions you have. It might be helpful to write your thoughts down before you call.

During the call

• Try not to feel rushed.
• Explain your situation and why you have called.
• If you think the adviser has not understood what you have said, let them know and explain again.
• Listen to the adviser and if you do not understand what the adviser has said, please tell them so that they can repeat what they have said.
• If you do not understand certain words or phrases the adviser uses, please tell the adviser and ask them to explain them to you.
• If possible, take some notes of what the adviser says, as you can look at them after the call has ended.
• If your call is disconnected, unfortunately, we are not usually able to call you back. If you are cut off and still need advice, please call the advice line number again and when you get through explain that you were cut off during a call.
• From time to time, if we know that our phone service is being disrupted, we may ask if we can take your number at the beginning of the call to try and state that we will try to call you back in the event of being cut off.

Before ending the call

• Try to check that you have covered everything you wanted to.
• Check that you understand what the adviser has said, if not ask them to repeat certain points.
• Check that you know what should happen next and when – it could be useful to write this down.
• Ask who to contact if you have any more problems or questions.
• Ask about other sources of support or where to go to for reliable information.

After the call

• If the call was long, it might be helpful to take a few minutes to make a few notes about the information the adviser has given you, including any actions you may want to take.
• If the adviser said that they would send you further information by email, remember to check your email inbox for the email which will be sent from an address ending in @frg.org.uk. If you have not received this within a few days of your call to us, please also check your junk or spam mail folder.

In the form we ask for some basic information which will help us answer your question. We ask:

• For your name – this is so we can address the email to you, but if you prefer to remain anonymous you can use a made-up name here if you wish.
• For your email address and then for you to confirm your email address. It is essential that you give us the correct email address that you want your answer to be sent to – as without this we will not be able to respond to you.
• You to provide some information about the child or children your question is about – this helps us to advise you.
• If you have contacted Family Rights Group for advice in the past – if you say yes, we will have a look to see if we have sent you any advice by email previously. This may help us advise you this time.
• How you heard about Family Rights Group – answering this question helps us to understand how people come to know about our services and improve our publicity and promotion.
• A range of monitoring questions. Your answers to these questions help us assess our service and its impact. Please use the ‘prefer not to say’ option for any questions you do not want to answer.
• If you are willing to be contacted about research and feedback about our service. If you say yes to this, you will receive a feedback survey by email a few weeks later.

All questions in the form are compulsory so please answer each question and select ‘Prefer not to say’ for any questions that you do not want to answer.

Next steps:

• Please read our data protection, privacy and confidentiality policies and check the box to give your consent to Family Rights Groups collecting your data.
• Complete the ‘reCAPTCHA I’m not a robot’ box – this helps us ensure that the enquiries we receive through the form are from real people and prevents spam emails.
• Press submit once you have completed the form.

• Within a few minutes of submitting your enquiry you will receive an automatic confirmation email to let you know that we have received your advice enquiry form.
• If you do not receive this confirmation email, please check your junk mail box.
• If you still cannot find our confirmation email you may have given us an incorrect email address when you submitted your enquiry. To ensure that we can send you an answer to your enquiry, you can submit your enquiry again using our advice enquiry form, making sure you provide the correct email address.
• After you receive our automatic response, you should then be sent a further email answering your question within five working days.
• If you do not receive an email answering your question after five working days you can use the advice enquiry form to check we received your original enquiry. Please ensure you state the same email address when completing the form so we can look up your original enquiry.

• You can use the webchat from a smartphone, laptop or ipad – any device that has access to the internet and you can type on.
• You will be chatting live with one of our experienced advisers.
• If our advisers are busy chatting to other people when you join the webchat queue you may have to wait for a few minutes before they can start chatting with you.
• You will be told what number you are in the queue.
• At the end of your chat, you will be asked to provide your email address if you would like to receive a transcript of your chat by email.
• Our experienced advisers will ask questions to understand your situation and the advice that you are seeking.
• The adviser will create a secure, confidential record of the chat on our database.
• You are not required to tell us your name when chatting to us.
• If during the chat you tell us something that makes us really worried about a child, about your or someone else’s safety we may have to inform the police or children’s services.

Before you use the webchat service:

• Try to ensure that you are unlikely to be interrupted and are free to chat.
• Start the chat from a quiet, private space – without background noise and where you can type without your screen being overlooked.
• Try to ensure that your device is charged and has good internet connection.
• Try to ensure that you do not let your device go to sleep or on to the lock screen while in the webchat queue or during a chat, as you will be disconnected from the webchat service
• Try to think about what you want to chat to the adviser about and what questions you have. You can always write your thoughts down before you start the chat.

During the chat:

• Take your time to explain your situation and the questions you have. The adviser can see when you are typing and will wait for you to finish and send your message before responding.
• If you think the adviser has not understood what you have typed, do let them know and explain again.
• If you do not understand what the adviser says, please tell them and ask them to repeat what they have said.
• If you do not understand certain words or phrases the adviser uses, please ask them to explain them to you.

Before ending the chat:

• Try to check that you have covered everything you wanted to.
• Check that you understand what the adviser has written, if not ask them to repeat certain points.
• Check that you know what should happen next and when.
• Ask who to contact if you have any more problems or questions.
• Ask about other sources of support or where to go to for reliable information.

After the chat:

• When prompted enter your email address if you would like to receive a transcript of the chat. Please ensure that you type your email address correctly to ensure that you receive the transcript.