Appropriate Adult

A responsible person aged 18 or over who supports children and vulnerable adults detained at the police station or being interviewed by the police.  The Appropriate Adult’s (“AA”) role is to safeguard the welfare, rights, and effective participation of the detained children and vulnerable adults they support. 

All children should have an AA to support them if they are arrested and at a police station or are being interviewed by police. An AA can be a parent, guardian, social worker or Youth Justice Service practitioner, friend, relative or any responsible person over 18 who is not a police officer or employed by the police.  In some areas there are volunteer AAs who have received special training. A parent should not be an appropriate adult if they are the victim, a witness, involved in the investigation of the offence, or they are estranged from the child, and the child specifically objects to the parent’s presence. 

An appropriate adult should be present when a child is:

• strip searched (a search involving the removal of more than outer clothing) or intimate searches
• fingerprinted
• photographed
• providing a DNA sample
• having any sample taken or having a footwear impression taken
• taking part in any form of identification procedure
• being tested for class A drugs, undergoing X-rays or ultrasound scans

You can read the National Appropriate Adult Network’s independent guide to being an appropriate adult. 

Note that an adult supporting a child at court should be a parent or guardian rather than an appropriate adult. See Attendance of Parents and Guardians for further details.