Include Youth are deeply disappointed by the decision by the Minister of Health and Minister of Justice not to proceed with the establishment of a single, regional Children and Families Authority. The establishment of a regional Children and Families Authority was a key recommendation from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services and one which the young people from Include Youth were completely supportive of and believed needed to happen to improve the lives of care experienced young people across NI.
The young people feel the impact of the current fractured, inconsistent and unaccountable system on a daily basis – they are at the receiving end of the postcode lottery of care.
They deserve better. The hope of transformational change and structural reform that a single Authority would have brought was short lived.
We will continue to call for the NI Executive to take the brave steps needed to prioritise our most vulnerable children and young people – to not do so is to accept that children and families who are most in need will remain unheard and unseen.
Include Youth is a member of the Reimagine Children’s Collective, a coalition of nine children’s sector organisations, alongside: Action for Children, Barnardo’s, Bytes, The Fostering Network, VOYPIC, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) Mencap, and Save the Children.
The collective has released the following statement:
Another missed opportunity to deliver better outcomes for children, young people and families in Northern Ireland.
The Reimagine Children’s Collective is deeply disappointed by the decision of the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice not to take forward the central recommendation of Professor Ray Jones’ Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services – the creation of a single, regional Children and Families Authority.
This is not simply a missed opportunity. It is a decision that goes directly against the evidence presented to the Review, including the powerful arguments made by children, young people and families with lived experience of children’s services, who were clear that the current system does not work for them. They asked for a system that is easier to navigate, more consistent, better coordinated, and more accountable, right across the region. Meeting challenges of this scale requires ambition. This decision falls short of that ambition.
We strongly reject the view outlined in the Joint Written Statement that these challenges can be addressed without structural reform. Three years after the publication of the Review, children’s social care continues to face rising demand, increasing complexity of need and record numbers of children in care. Despite sustained reform programme activity during this period, these pressures continue to grow, demonstrating that the current approach does not match the scale or complexity of the challenge.
Transformational change is needed in how children’s social care is delivered. A Regional Children and Families Authority provides the opportunity to move beyond fragmented services and build a system that works better for children, young people and families across Northern Ireland. Without structural change at a regional level, there is little realistic chance of delivering the improvements that children and young people have repeatedly told us they need.
We believe a Regional Children and Families Authority would deliver:
We recognise the work that has taken place through the Children’s Services Reform Programme Board, and we welcome the energy that new programmes, such as Together for Families, can bring. However, these initiatives still operate within the existing system and are relatively short-term in nature. They are not a substitute for a long-term regional solution to the delivery of children’s services.
Budget pressures are often given as a reason not to reform the system. However, the current system is also expensive, inefficient and too often unable to respond early enough to the needs of children and families. A long-term approach to invest in reform beyond election cycles is essential if we are serious about improving outcomes for children and families.
The decision by the Ministers not to move forward with a Regional Children and Families Authority at this time does not end this conversation. The voices of children, young people and families gathered through the Review cannot be forgotten: the system must change. Without structural reform, that change cannot be delivered.
We believe a Regional Children and Families Authority is the best route to delivering the transformational change children, young people and families need and deserve.
We are committed to working with all political parties to ensure that the establishment of a Regional Children and Families Authority is prioritised in the next mandate.
