Every child should have the opportunity to grow up safe, happy, healthy, and hopeful. At Barnardo’s Northern Ireland, that is the vision that guides everything we do.
Each year, we work alongside 18,000 children, young people, and families through our 45 services in communities across Northern Ireland. We see children’s resilience and potential every day. We also see how the right support, provided at the right time, can change the course of a child’s life.
Our work also shows us where the system is falling short. Today, too many children face barriers that no child should have to overcome. But these challenges are not inevitable. Northern Ireland has a strong history of improving outcomes for children when government, communities, and the voluntary sector work together.
We believe the next Assembly has an opportunity to build on that tradition and deliver lasting change. Because every child deserves the chance to grow up with hope, opportunity and the freedom to realise their full potential.
The next Assembly can change childhoods
Our key asks
Children, young people, their families, and carers want to see real, lasting change. We believe everyone has a part to play so that children are safe, happy, healthy, and hopeful.
1. Create a Northern Ireland Child Payment
Impact: Lift 150,000 children out of poverty, improve family financial security and reduce the long-term impacts of growing up in hardship.
2. Transform how government works for children and families
Impact: Deliver long-term, systems-wide reform that improves the lives of children, their families, and care-experienced adults.
3. Expand Sure Start
Impact: Improve children’s development, school readiness, and family wellbeing by ensuring early support reaches every child who needs it.
“Young people in Northern Ireland don’t need politicians to speak to them - they need politicians who are willing to talk with them.”
Young Person supported by our Ubuntu Service
Barnardo's Northern Ireland Election Pledge
We are calling on every Assembly candidate and political party to pledge their support for Northern Ireland’s Children.