Consultation on Children and Young People’s Strategy initial 3-year Delivery Plan 2021 - 2024

Summary

The Children’s Services Co-operation Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 requires the Executive to adopt a Children and Young People’s Strategy (CYPS). The strategy must set out the outcomes the Executive intends to achieve, what actions will be taken by departments (among others) to achieve the outcome and how it will be determined whether, and to what extent, the outcomes have been achieved.

The Northern Ireland Executive approved the CYPS on 10 December 2020 and was published in January 2021. The Strategy sets out how we propose to improve the well-being of children and young people via the following eight outcomes;

- Physical and mental health
- Enjoyment of play and leisure
- Learning and achievement
- Living in safety and with stability
- Economic and environmental well-being
- Making a positive contribution to society
- Living in a society which respects their rights
- Living in a society in which equality of opportunity and good relations are promoted

The Executive also committed that these outcomes would be underpinned by, ‘Delivery Plans’, containing the actions being taken to deliver the outcomes. The initial 3-year Delivery Plan 2021 – 2024 (the ‘Delivery Plan) has been created in partnership with all NICS departments. It is not intended to contain every policy/strategy, programme, intervention or service which is already being delivered by departments and statutory agencies in relation to children and young people.  It covers instead, the ‘areas of greatest focus’ (i.e. the priorities) which were identified as part of the CYPS co-design process by stakeholders, parents, children, young people and statutory partners as the areas where progress is most urgently needed.

A full copy of the consultation document and other related documents including an online response form are provided below: