Briefing: Crib sheet - Families in Northern Ireland

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.