CiNI: integrating children’s and young people’s services

By Pauline Leeson, Chief Executive of Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI), the umbrella group which has been representing the children’s sector in Northern Ireland for the last 25 years.

Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) is seeking greater commitment from the Executive to children and young people in the current Programme for Government, and has been reassured that momentum is building to get the Executive’s over-arching Ten Year Strategy for Children and Young People back on track.

This will help to ensure a cohesive response to children’s needs across all aspects of their lives. The Executive’s commitment to honouring its international children’s rights obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child can provide the Ten Year Strategy with a clear route map for success.

Involving children and young people in decisions which affect them is a key commitment within the UNCRC. CiNI’s Participation Network, supported by OFMDFM, continues to work closely with decision makers, providing them with the expertise they need to effectively engage children and young people in policy and service development.

The Executive and Assembly’s deliberations continue to be informed by the All Party Group on Children and Young People. This cross-party group of MLAs discusses children’s issues within the Assembly and through CiNI it benefits from the contribution of a vibrant children’s sector.

So how can developments at Stormont improve children and young people’s lives?

CiNI is now part of a new initiative called the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership, which brings together senior leaders from health and social care, education, justice and policing, housing and local government, with representatives from the voluntary and community sector. The partnership aims to maximise the energy, effort and investment of all agencies which work with children and their families, in order to plan and deliver the support and services they need.

This partnership provides a mechanism to link up central, regional and local government delivery for children and young people. Ultimately though, it is the Executive who must take the lead and champion this partnership working through its Ministerial Sub-Committee on Children and Young People. Exactly how the Executive will give real effect to genuine collaborative working remains to be seen.

CiNI has a specific interest in securing better outcomes for small populations of children and young people with multiple needs, who are largely invisible when government is strategising for the future.

Children and young people with disabilities are one such group, who must have a greater say when decisions are being made about public services which they rely on. The lack of clarity on the amount of money which government spends on services for disabled children makes it more difficult to determine the impact and benefit of the spend. There is real concern that critical services relied upon by disabled children are simply disappearing as budgets tighten.

CiNI is also directing its efforts towards supporting children in their early years, with the aim of encouraging the Executive to bring together all of the main policy agendas that impact on young children and their families in a single coherent model of Early Childhood Education and Care.

Our different departments of government have policy responsibility for different aspects of a young child’s life. As a result, a child’s early education experience is separate from the how their care needs are addressed when, in the real world, services in local communities intertwine quality early learning and care experiences to give each child the best possible start in life.

For further information on Children in Northern Ireland log on to www.ci-ni.org.uk or contact 028 9040 1290.