Child Care Policy

Welcome to the Child Care Policy site. This site hosts information relating to Child Protection, Looked After Children and Adoption.

The Child Care Policy Directorate has Departmental responsibility for the development and review of policy and legislation relating to specific aspects of the health and social care of children in Northern Ireland.

The task of the Directorate is to ensure that a broad policy and operational perspective is brought to the development of child care services in Northern Ireland, which includes child protection, fostering, domestic and intercountry adoption, residential care, secure accommodation, and leaving & aftercare.

The context in which this is to be taken forward includes the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety Regional Strategy and Business Plan, the Programme for Government and Priorities for Action and relevant legislation, eg. The Children (NI) Order 1995, the Adoption Act 1976, The Adoption (NI) Order 1987, Children (Leaving Care) Act 2002 and the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults Order 2003.

The Department is often the first place that people contact when they have concerns or allegations about children being abused. However, the Department does not investigate individual cases. These investigations are carried out by the relevant Health and Social Services Trust. If you have any concerns about children being abused, or harmed in any way, you should, report these immediately to the relevant HSS Trust for further investigation.

Alternatively you can contact the NSPCC's free and confidential 24 hour helpline service at 0808 800 5000 or via . Or you can contact the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 028 9065 0222.

The NSPCC has launched this year's Milestone Campaign called Don't Hide It. It is targeted primarily at children and young people aged 11-16, encouraging them to speak out about their experiences of sexual abuse. For further information on the campaign visit

The Online Research Bank is sponsored by the Children and Young People's Unit in the office of the First and Deputy First Minister, and provides a central source in Northern Ireland for research on all aspects of children's lives. The datebase can be accessed at www.ark.ac.uk/orb/child.html

The Institute of Child Care Research (QUB) has been commissioned to carry out a Practitioner Review of the Children Order Advisory Committee (COAC) Best Practice Guide.  For further information please click on Information Poster (PDF 59 KB)

The survey can be accessed at http://www.qub.ac.uk/home/Surveys/rbpg/

If you wish to give your views on this website or if you have any suggestions to make about it you can do this by sending an email to: webmaster@dhsspsni.gov.uk.