Volunteer Appropriate Adult

The AA role is usually undertaken by parents or carers who often have little, if any, understanding, knowledge or experience of police investigative procedures and who may be too overwhelmed by the experience and emotionally involved to make their presence meaningful and effective.  However, there are numerous times when, and many reasons why parents or carers cannot or will not act as the suspect’s AA.

We need volunteers who are able to commit to being ‘on-call’ for a minimum of four hours per week for a period of at least twelve months following the preparatory training.  

No formal qualifications are required as full training is given and ‘out of pocket’ expenses are reimbursed.

The role of the appropriate adult as stated in Code C 1.7A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice is to safeguard the rights, entitlements and welfare of juveniles and vulnerable persons [and] for this reason the appropriate adult is expected, amongst other things, to:

• Support, advise and assist them when . . . they are given or asked to provide information or participate in any procedure;

• Observe whether the police are acting properly and fairly to respect their rights and entitlements, and inform an officer of the rank of inspector or above if they consider that they are not;

• Assist them to communicate with the police whilst respecting their right to say nothing unless they want to as set out in the terms of the caution . . .
• Help them to understand their rights and ensure that those rights are protected and respected.

Please note this role requires volunteers to: 

Have a full driving licence and access to their own motor vehicle

Be willing and able to attend any of the 3 custody suites in South Yorkshire

Live no more than 25 miles from any of the 3 custody suites - Shepcote Lane, Sheffield S9 1TP, College Rd, Doncaster DN1 3HX and Chuchfields, Barnsley S70 2DL.