The Review will engage parents and carers throughout. Engagement will be facilitated by CiNI (Children in Northern Ireland) on behalf of the Review Team.
29 April 2022
Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) is delighted to support the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services in hearing the views, experiences and ideas of parents and carers. CiNI are convinced that listening to the lived experience of parents and carers will greatly enhance the work of Professor Jones and his team.
CiNI are keen to engage with parents and carers with a wide range of experience. So far, they have been in touch with groups including parents whose children are in residential care, long-term care, or have been returned home from care. CiNI will be talking to kinship carers, adoptive parents and separated Dads who are involved in court proceedings.
CiNI are arranging to meet parents and carers of children with a range of disabilities, from all parts of Northern Ireland. They will also be engaging newcomer families and those impacted by prison and violence in the home.
CiNI are really pleased with the variety of groups and individuals who have been in touch to find out how they can be involved in sharing their experiences and opinions.
They plan to run focus groups across the region and have designed sessions that will support parents/carers to reflect on both positive and negative aspects of their experience, and then to draw these together to identify practical things that can be done to improve things. CiNI will be analysing the emerging themes to share with Professor Jones, who plans to attend some of the group sessions to hear directly from parents/carers.
CiNI piloted their focus group design at the end of March and are looking forward to beginning direct engagement with groups.