Children Policy Statement

Some significant steps have been taken by the devolved administration to promote children’s interests at structural, administrative and policy levels. These include the establishment of the Children and Young People’s Unit, the Children’s Commissioner and the implementation of the Children’s Strategy. The Programme for Government 2002-2003 included a positive commitment to prioritising the challenge of “protecting children’s rights, meeting children’s needs and including children’s voices”. This should be followed through in practical terms by greater direct consultation with children as has happened in other countries.

Alongside this optimism, however, the reality of many children’s lives within their schools, families and communities is a harsh one. Department for Social Development statistics show that 32% of children live in households claiming a key benefit and at March 2003 over 24% of children were living in households claiming Working Families Tax Credit. Furthermore, the Children in Northern Ireland (2000) research findings into violence within the home suggest that “a minimum of 11,000 children are living in a domestic violence situation in Northern Ireland”. The cyclical relationship between children’s poverty or risk of poverty, failed educational outcomes and poor health and diet is well known. In many communities, particularly in Belfast, children have been the principal victims, and even the targets, of conflict and violence. Over 55% of Travellers are children; the challenge of that minority’s social inclusion is primarily a children’s issue.

Government needs to implement the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. It needs to develop an action plan for implementation which is targeted, time framed and resourced. The ‘best interests of the child’ principle, enshrined in Article 4 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should underpin all legislative provisions and policy decisions in relation to children and young people.

Political parties have a critical role to play in ensuring that children are kept high on the government agenda. The Children’s Strategy should provide a common vision with real commitment to improving children’s lives. Once finalised, it should be fully implemented and adequately resourced.

• Specific measures to tackle child poverty must be at the heart of the Children’s Strategy and access to improved educational outcomes, including literacy skills, must be prioritised for all children, in recognition that this is a key route out of poverty.
• There should be a major increase in resources for parenting and family support provision in line with that available in the rest of the UK including, for example, early intervention programmes and community-based initiatives such as Sure Start and Children’s Centres as well as other initiatives promoting better health, education, play and child development.
• Political parties should ensure that the Office of the Commissioner for Children has strong and adequate powers and resources to protect and promote children’s welfare and their rights. Government should co-operate fully with the Commissioner in the execution of his duties.
• Public authorities should be held to account for their Section 75 obligations to ensure that children are afforded equality of opportunity in policy and practice, and that they are properly consulted.
• Government should press ahead with legal reform to ensure that children enjoy the same protection from physical punishment under law as adults, in line with recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• Co-operation with Britain and on the island of Ireland should be enhanced in the identification and monitoring of risk in relation to child protection.
• Every child should have the right to have contact with both parents unless there are extenuating circumstances, in accordance with Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In support of this there should be provision of free and confidential family mediation services and social workers with specialist training in family breakdown.