NI Child Care Law - The Rough Guide (PDF 328 KB)

This document provides a practical guide to Northern Ireland child care law.

A Better Future - 50 Years of Child Care in Northern Ireland

A Better Future - 50 Years of Child Care in Northern Ireland 1950 to 2000

Child Care (Pre School Services) Regulations 1996 and Child Care (Pre School Services) (Amendment) Regulations 1997

The purpose of this Guide is to offer guidance on the Child Care (Pre- School Services) Regulations, 1996. It is written for persons charged with responsibility for implementing the legislation and for anyone affected by its provisions, in particular persons who are carrying on or proposing to carry on a pre-school service. The Regulations and the Explanatory Guide expand on the provisions of Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991 Download the Report here

Birth to five

This book provides information on caring for children up to five years old and contact details for useful organisations. It is available to new parents resident in Northern Ireland through primary care services (antenatal clinics, GPs or health visitors).

Healthy choices. Choose wisely: Advice for parents

This booklet shows how parents and carers of primary school children can choose food from the different food groups to make sure their family is getting all the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

A palliative care needs assessment for children

The development of a children’s hospice is not seen as a priority by the respondents in this study, some of whom raised concerns regarding accessibility and cost. There is a degree of ambiguity however, regarding the role of ‘hospice’ in paediatric palliative care with some respondents associating it only with end-of-life care. There is a substantial need for ongoing education, training and development of healthcare professionals caring for children with life-limiting conditions. Palliative care services currently provided to children in Ireland with life-limiting conditions are seen to be inequitable, differing significantly according to diagnosis (malignant versus nonmalignant) and according to geographic location. This poses challenges, particularly for parents of children with non-malignant diseases. Both families and professionals often deem the physical environment for adolescents in hospitals unsuitable. The difficulties encountered in the transition from children’s services to adult services have been identified as an issue for adolescents. The provision of bereavement support varies between services. Professionals have identified the need for a broader range of bereavement services.

Foster Care - A Child Centred Partnership

Many people involved in the foster care service, including professionals working in the area, voluntary agencies and foster carers, have expressed concerns over the last number of years that the infrastructure and policies around foster care need urgent review. As a result of these concerns, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with special responsibility for children established a Working Group in October 1998 to review and make recommendations on all aspects of foster care service Download the Report here Appendices

How to set and monitor goals for prevalence of child obesity: guidance for Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and local authorities

This guidance follows on from the publication of the Government's obesity strategy Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government strategy for England. The guidance provides advice to PCTs and local authorities on how to set child obesity goals as part of the Vital Signs and the National Indicator Set. This will be followed shortly with full guidance on developing local plans.

Regional Guidelines for the Search of Patients, their Belongings and the Environment of Care within Adult Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Settings

The overarching purpose of these guidelines is to ensure the safety and promote the protection of patients, staff and visitors by ensuring that dangerous items or hazardous substances are not brought into the in-patient setting, including illicit substances, prescribed / over the counter medications, dangerous items and alcohol or any other hazardous or potentially hazardous item or substance.

Child Health Care in Ireland

The Irish health care system is based on a complex and costly mix of private, statutory, and voluntary provisions. The majority of health care expenditure comes from the state, with a significant proportion of acute hospital care funded from private insurance, but there are relatively high out-of-pocket costs for most service users. There is free access to acute hospital care, but not for primary care, for all children. About 40% of the population have free access to primary care. Universal preventive public health services, including vaccination and immunization, newborn blood spot screening, and universal neonatal hearing screening are free. Major health challenges include poverty, obesity, drug and alcohol use, and mental health. The health care system has been dominated for the last 5 years by the impact of the current recession, which has led to very sharp cuts in health care expenditure. It is unclear if the necessary substantial reform of the system will happen. Government policy calls for a move toward a patient-centered, primary care-led system, but without very substantial transfers of resources and investment in Information and Communication Technology, this is unlikely to occur. The paper has been published as part of an overall report of Child Health in Europe: Diversity of Child Health Care in Europe: A Study of the European Paediatric Association/Union of National European Paediatric Societies and Associations http://www.jpeds.com/issue/S0022-3476(16)X0010-8 . (J Pediatr 2016;177S:S87-106).