North-South Ministerial Council

Child Protection was one of the key issues of concern for the North-South Ministerial Council. An infrastructure was agreed between the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland and the Department of Health And Children, Republic of Ireland.

A Jointly-chaired cross-border group of officials meets twice yearly to consider areas for co-operation on child protection and to receive progress updates from each of five sub-groups.

The Internet Safety sub-group - Officials continue to keep each other appraised of ongoing developments within respective jurisdictions.  

The Movement of Children sub-group continues to meet.  A small group of social work practitioners North and South are working to develop a draft of a joint protocol to deal with children who are looked after, who are on the child protection register, or in respect of whom there is a level of concern and who move between jurisdictions.

The Media Awareness sub-group developed a joint Communication Strategy and Communique which were launched prior to the North South Ministerial Council meeting on 10 November 2010. The group are also working to finalize a leaflet which provides advice and guidance for parent/carers and anyone who has concerns about a child.

The Child Protection Research and Knowledge Transfer sub-group has worked with Childlink Ltd to develop a new innovative North-South Child Protection Hub which was launched at the North South Ministerial Council meeting on 10 November 2010.

The Hub is a dedicated child protection resource for professionals, practitioners and researchers and draws together policy, guidance and research material. It is believed that the Hub provides the first dedicated child protection resource of its kind in Ireland, the UK and possibly, internationally.

The work of the Vetting and Barring sub-group has been put on hold.  This is to allow change, including legislative change, to be made to the Vetting and Barring Scheme in Northern Ireland and the shape of new vetting legislation in the Republic of Ireland to be further considered.

A Joint Communique and Communication Strategy have been developed by the Media Awareness Sub-Group of the North-South Ministerial Council’s Child Protection Officials’ Group.  The content is high level and sets out broad key messages and challenges in taking forward child protection issues within the respective jurisdictions.  Its aim is to promote public awareness of the issues around child welfare and protection and to assist adults in performing their duty to safeguard children.

The Communication Strategy outlines the approaches that will be pursued to promote public awareness of the issues around child welfare and protection and will assist adults in performing their duty to safeguard children.

The Communique contains a number of jointly agreed commitments to uphold and promote the principles under the Convention relating to protection of children throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Both documents highlight how officials are working together to better protect children, exchange information and share good practice.

A Working Group has also developed an Inter-Jurisdictional Protocol for the Transfer of Child Care cases between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

This protocol gives guidance on how information should be shared between statutory authorities in both jurisdictions and will help the authorities on both sides of the border serve the best interests of children concerned and maintain a better standard of care and protection.

The protocol will help to ensure that children and families moving between the two jurisdictions receive the care and protection they need in a timely and appropriate manner.

The protocol will assist statutory authorities to focus more closely on those children in the greatest danger and share information, assessment and analysis to most effectively address each specific child’s needs and circumstances.

Further information in relation to membership fees for individuals, statutory and voluntary organisations is available from http://www.nscph.com/