Smart Solutions: investing in early intervention and realising the potential of a new generation

While Action for Children is over 140 years old, in Northern Ireland we are celebrating our 10^th anniversary this year. We employ almost 200 staff and support over 5,000 of Northern Ireland’s most vulnerable children, young people and families. We do this across our 17 diverse and life-changing projects spanning different areas of Northern Ireland including:

• Downpatrick, Larne/Carrick, Waterside and Ballymena – Sure Start linked projects;
• Northern Area - Larne Parental Support Project, Locality Planning, Early Intervention and Family Support services for children and young people at risk of offending – services cover children and young people from 0-21 plus year old age group;
• Western Area - Family Support (Local Action Planning Groups), Clooney Family Centre, Chance for Change Project, Mentoring Services 5-11 year olds, Family Group Conferencing, Strengthening Families early intervention work and Floating Support services for care leavers and young homeless – services cover children and young people from 0-21 plus year old age group ;
• Belfast, East and Southern Areas - Parenting support and Regional Young Carers Provision with our delivery partners and;
• Regional Fostering Service in Northern Ireland.

Follow the links below to see some information about three of our services and stories about benefits from our early intervention and support work with children and families from different parts of Northern Ireland.

Northern Area Early Intervention Family Support Project - supports children and young people aged 8-13 years who may be experiencing difficulties at school or involved in risk-taking behaviours

Chance for Change - takes an innovative approach to promoting children’s emotional and behavioural well-being

Clooney Family Centre - provides accessible services to marginalised communities, to improve the educational, social and emotional development of children living in the L’Derry city area

Campaigning and Influencing 

Action for Children works fearlessly to campaign and lobby to ensure vulnerable children are a priority for policy makers. This work includes:

Our Growing Strong campaign – launched in 2008 to highlight the huge impact emotional wellbeing has on young people’s futures. We want to ensure that every child and young person has the self-esteem, resilience and social skills they need to succeed in life.  

Our As Long As It Takes  – New Politics for Children report which is part of a wider campaign and programme of work looking at what it means to be there for vulnerable children and young people For As Long As It Takes -  taking time to listen to their views and investigating the validity of the issues raised by them.

Our Wake Up to Child Neglect campaign launched in 2009 to highlight the huge problem of neglect. This includes a three year UK wide appeal to improve the way we tackle child neglect and the importance of intervening early to help families with emerging issues before they become long-term problems.

Backing the Future – Why Investing in Children is Good for Us All (September 2009) - commissioned from the new economics foundation (nef). This report identifies the financial savings and benefits for individuals, families and communities that investing in early intervention would bring across the UK. The research shows helping children quickly through early intervention services would save our society almost £500 million over 20 years.  The Social Return on Investment work shows that for every £1 invested in our services, Action for Children produced returns of between £4 and £10.20.

We show that investing now to promote children’s wellbeing is in the public interest, not just because it ensures more effective use of public resources but because it delivers improved social outcomes and ultimately benefits us all.  The report calls on government to invest in preventative services for children and young people and so realise the benefits from reduced crime and care costs.

Building on previous our work, the Deprivation and risk: the case for early intervention (February 2010) report starts with a series of policy analyses from outside experts, offering different policy solutions to break the cycle of deprivation. The second part of the report includes a series of 12 powerful ‘Life Stories’ based on interviews with people who have used Action for Children services - some interviews focus on the problem of intergenerational deprivation, while others demonstrate the role of resilience. The report ends with a summary of a review of best practice in tackling child deprivation.

Our campaigning and other work is aimed at encouraging governments to spend more – and more wisely – on public services that focus on early intervention and raise desperately needed money to develop targeted, effective initiatives that tackle the key causes of neglect. We believe that by being smarter in investing in early intervention, we can release the potential of a new generation.

Copies of the above reports are available at - http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/content/153/Policy-and-research