en and young people themselves have stressed the importance of this, and we see it as being best practice and want to encourage such initiatives. As most looked after children live in foster care, local authorities need to consider how best to raise children’s knowledge of complaints procedures and how to facilitate regular contact with advocates. 3.8 Children placed outside of the authority, those in foster care, children and young people who use alternative and augmentative forms of communication and those whose preferred language is not English are particularly vulnerable. Local authorities must make sure that the arrangements they make for providing advocacy services are able to provide an effective service to these groups of children. 3.9 It is in no one’s interest for complaints to have to proceed to the formal stages of complaints procedures, where with sufficient attention and appropriate support at an early stage problems can be resolved effectively and speedily. Advocacy services have a very important role to play in the early identification and resolution of problems and complaints and local authorities should ensure that they make arrangements for services which are geared up to respond quickly. Guidance on Providing Effective Advocacy Services for Children and Young People Making a Complaint under the Children Act 1989 17 Case Study – Durham County Council Durham County Council piloted a rapid involvement of advocacy services when a young person wanted to make a complaint. This was a pro-active approach to advocacy where the young person was immediately contacted by the children’s complaints officer when a complaint was received. They were advised that an advocate would contact them to offer support if they wished. This removed the onus from young people to