Why is it Families Matter rather than children matter? Northern Irelandalready has its own 10-year cross-government children and young people'sstrategy, launched in June 2006 and informed by the Every Child Mattersoutcomes framework. Families Matter is the supporting pillar to empowerand assist parents to be confident and responsible in helping theirchildren reach their full potential and achieve the outcomes of the10-year strategy.
Have families not always mattered? Families have always mattered. Thereare already four, local area-based family support strategies developedthrough the health and social services boards' area children's servicesplanning process. The regional strategy to join all this up has been inthe pipeline for some time. Actions flow from five priority themes:parental support; access to information; assessment of needs;information sharing; and integration and multi-agency working. Proposalsinclude: a regional information database on family support and parentingservices; a regional helpline; and the development and implementation ofchildren's information protocols to help assist in making decisionsabout sharing information. In addition, the introduction in April of acommon assessment form, called Understanding the Needs of Children inNorthern Ireland, will be a significant factor in helping to deliverfrontline services that are integrated and focused around the needs ofchildren and families.
So, can the actions deliver change for families? Overall, the actionsare fairly light on detail with no set targets or thinking on how theywill be measured to assess their contribution toward delivery ofoutcomes.
There is a commitment to the extension and further development of SureStart in Northern Ireland, to include the creation of six children'scentres, and a long-awaited commitment to family mediation, relationshipcounselling and child contact centres. This will be a positive start tobeginning to address the under investment in these services. However,there still remains some way to go to bring provision in these areas inline with investment in England and Wales.
What can the strategy offer parents and families with additionalneeds?
Northern Ireland's department of health has placed an emphasis onuniversal services, which should be accessible to all parents andfamilies. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It's alsodifficult to pinpoint targeted provision for parents of children withdisabilities, for parents who have a disability themselves, or for anyof the many families with additional support needs.
However, the department is very keen to hear from families and serviceproviders with proposals for innovative and responsive approaches toservice provision that meets the needs of these vulnerable families.
A family and parenting strategy without reference to positiveparenting?
Absolutely not. The strategy includes raising parents' awareness andpromoting alternatives to physical punishment. Unfortunately, theseactions may be undermined by the recent change to the law on physicalpunishment, which sends out the message that some forms of corporalpunishment are acceptable.
What's next, how will Families Matter be delivered? At long last therole that the voluntary and community sector has played in deliveringearly intervention and preventative family support services has beenrecognised, as the sector is proposed as the primary delivery agent ofFamilies Matter.
- Elaine McElduff, policy officer, Children in Northern Ireland
FACT BOX
- Families Matter is supported by a 1.5m package for families andparents
- The consultation on Families Matter is available from NorthernIreland's department of health at www.dhsspsni.gov.uk by clicking on theDHSSPS e-consultation link
- Responses are due by 30 March.
