Barnardo’s NI welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Department of Health’s consultation on developing a Children’s and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework. Our comments are informed by our long experience delivering services a wide breadth of services throughout Northern Ireland, including services that support children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing. Through our PATHS® Programme for Schools (UK Version), Barnardo’s NI has delivered social and emotional learning programmes to over 180 schools throughout Northern Ireland and the UK, focusing on not only providing children and young people with the knowledge to understand their emotional wellbeing, but to also equip teachers and educators to develop social and emotional learning throughout their curriculum. The PATHS® Programme for Schools (UK Version) also provides training and resources for principals and board of governors to implement a whole-school approach to developing children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing as an integral part of the schools’ ethos.
Barnardo’s NI welcomes development of a framework that will, in theory, bring all aspects of children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing care into a single, integrated system that ensures that every child and young person in Northern Ireland receives the right kind of care that is catered to their needs. However, we want to emphasise the need for a robust framework that is accompanied by costed actions and targets, and is supported by joined up working across statutory, non-statutory, and the community and voluntary sector with clear accountability and responsibility.