You can contact us by
Our opening hours are:
9am-5pm Monday to Friday, except bank holidays.
Post: Children’s Commissioner for Wales
Llewellyn House
Harbourside Business Park
Harbourside Road
Port Talbot
SA13 1SB
All telephone calls to and from the Advice and Assistance service are recorded for training and monitoring processes and for complaint resolution.
All children in Wales have rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
This includes the right to education, the right to the best possible health care, and the right to be safe.
We can help children and young people up to the age of 18 (or up to 25 in certain circumstances – *see section: Who can we help*) who may need advice or assistance to access any of their children’s human rights. We can also provide advice and assistance to adults who work with or care for children in Wales.
We make sure we keep the information you share with us private, unless we think a child or young person is unsafe – we then share the information with other organisations that can help protect the child.
Our Advice and Assistance service is free and confidential.
Areas we can help with
We always aim to give you advice or support directly, or to point you in the right direction. While we try to help with any issue affecting children and young people, our particular areas of expertise are:
- Educational entitlements
- Social services
- Health access
- Complaints
Our friendly Advice Team will listen to you to understand your situation before offering you advice or assistance. If we can’t help you, we will try to find someone who can. However if you contact us, we aim get back to you within 3 working days of your initial contact.
BSL
If your preferred language is BSL and you would like to get in touch. Please email us and we will arrange an interpreter so that we can talk to you about your issue.
Who can we help
The laws which set up our office means we can provide advice to a child or young person:
- up to the age of 18, or 21 if they have been in care, or up to 25 if they have been in care and are still in education
- usually living in Wales, or who is placed in England by a Welsh local authority
- who has a complaint or wants to make representation to a service provider (such as a registered child minder) or certain organisations (including any county council or health authority in Wales).
These laws also mean there are things we cannot do. We cannot:
- become involved with any legal proceedings, including court cases and decisions made by CAFCASS Cymru
- offer an emergency service
- offer a counselling service ourselves
We make sure we keep the information you share with us private, unless we think a child or young person is unsafe – we then share the information with other organisations that can help protect the child.
If we need to share the information with other people that could help then we will tell you what we are doing and why we have decided to do it.
Our Investigation and Advice Officers follow the advice given in the Wales Safeguarding Procedures.
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing is the term used when a worker passes on information concerning wrongdoing. The wrongdoing will typically (although not necessarily) be something they have witnessed at work.
To be covered by whistleblowing law, the disclosure must be a ‘qualifying disclosure’. This is any disclosure of information which, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, is made in the public interest.
If you are concerned about suspected wrongdoing, danger or risk in your workplace (or your previous workplace) which affect the rights and interest of the children in Wales, you can make a disclosure to us. You do not have to tell your employer before contacting us.
The Prescribed Persons Order 2014 sets out a list of over 60 organisations and individuals that a worker may approach outside their workplace to report suspected or known wrongdoing. The Children’s Commissioner for Wales is one of those organisations listed.
Advice and Assistance Leaflet
If you work with children, parents, or adults who support children, please let them know about our service by sharing this web page or our advice and assistance leaflet. A HTML version of our leaflet is available on this page.
Advice and Assistance Leaflet (Opens as a PDF in a new window)
Advice and Assistance Leaflet – HTML Version (Opens in a different window)
Other information
Visit our ‘How we handle your personal information’ page
Read a step-by-step guide to how our service works
Rydym yn croesawu derbyn gohebiaeth a galwadau yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ateb gohebiaeth a galwadau a dderbynnir yn Gymraeg yn Gymraeg ac ni fydd cysylltu yn Gymraeg yn arwain at oedi .
We welcome receiving correspondence and calls in Welsh. We will respond to correspondence and calls in Welsh, and contacting us in Welsh will not lead to delay.