NYAS - National Youth Advocacy Service

NYAS is a UK charity providing social-legal services. We offer information, advice, advocacy, Independant visitor/mentoring, and legal representation to children, young people and vulnerable adults through a network of dedicated paid workers and volunteers throughout England and Wales.

NYAS provides specialist legal advice and assistance. NYAS is a Legal Services Commission provider.

Through these services NYAS provides a safety net for children, young people and vulnerable adults, who have nowhere else to turn. We work within communities across the UK, with children, with young people, with adults, and with carers, local authorities and professionals such as social workers and lawyers.

NYAS provides advocacy and legal representation to children and vulnerable aduls when important decisions are being made about them. The children and young people NYAS work with might be in care, have a disability or special needs, be subject to child protection plans, have mental health difficulties or their parents might be separating.

We are independent and confidential as long as you are safe.

We can help if you are:

• not being listened to
• in need of some advice
• in need of help to talk to social services
• aren’t being treated fairly
• being told you have to move
• having difficulties about school
• not having the contact with your family that you want
• homeless
• a vulnerable adult who is disabled
• a carer
• experiencing the separation or divorce of your parents
• not feeling safe

If you are a child or young person, or you’re acting on behalf of a child, young person or vulnerable adult and need help, information or advice, please contact our helpline on FREEPHONE* 0808 808 1001 or send an email to help@nyas.net

NYAS provides:

Advocacy services

• Family Contact services contact.centre@nyas.net  
• Working Together for Children (CYMRU)
• separated parents information programme
• Specialist family legal services
• Independent visitors
• Independent persons
• Investigating officers
• Provision of IMHAs
• Advocacy for adult carers
• Regulation 33 visitors
• Participation and consultation
• Training
• Helpline
• Signposting
• Kinship care information

* Which mobile networks make calls to 0808 80 numbers free for their users?
3, Everything Everywhere, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone make calls to NYAS Helpline 0808 808 1001 free. We cannot guarantee that they are free from other mobile networks.