07 September 2022
The team at Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) continue to engage with a wide variety of parents and carers whose children have been involved in social care services.
They have had face to face meetings with parents/carers of children with disabilities, mothers whose children have been removed from their care, women whose children need support because of violence in the home, and those who have been involved with courts and custodial services. They have also met a forum for parents and carers who meet regularly for mutual support and who work in partnership with Trust staff to help improve and develop services for families.
They have had online meetings with young mothers engaged with infant mental health services, adoptive parents, and parents and carers involved in autism services.
Meetings coming up include groups of newcomer families and adoptive parents.
Next month CiNI will be facilitating the Lead Reviewer, Professor Jones and his team to meet directly with a selection of groups who have been involved in the preparatory meetings with us so far.
All parents and carers who have engaged in the process to date have been very enthusiastic about sharing their experiences and views. They have generated lots of ideas for how services can be improved. They appreciate, and are looking forward to, the opportunity of sharing their ideas with Professor Jones.
In addition to that series of meetings with Professor Jones, CiNI will be working with a group of parents of children with disability to support them to take part in a workshop on the theme of disability which will be hosted by Professor Jones in September.