Adopting a human rights approach within child and adult safeguarding through advocacy

Social workers are tasked with identifying, assessing, and managing the risks posed to vulnerable children or adults. This process is known as safeguarding. Whilst working with risk is an important part of social work practice, this needs to be balanced with a concern for the human rights of service users. In this chapter, we focus on how social workers can promote human rights when safeguarding children and adults, with a specific focus on advocacy. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are presented with an explanation of how they relate to different types of advocacy. Examples from research and practice are used to show how social workers can engage in internal advocacy, in which they speak up for the rights of the people within safeguarding service. We also identify the benefits of using external advocacy services, in which peers or professionals who are external to safeguarding services are used to ensure the rights of service users are protected.