Category Archives: News

Guidance on AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

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SBNI Online Safety Committee in partnership with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), have created an essential guide for professionals working with children and young people to understand the risks of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

This resource is specifically tailored for professionals in Northern Ireland and addresses the urgent and growing threat of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (AI-CSAM). The guide offers clear, practical advice on identifying and responding to AI-CSAM, and reinforces that this material must be treated with the same seriousness and safeguarding response as any other form of CSAM.

Image with text promoting new Child sexual abuse material generated by Artificial Intelligence: An essential guide for professionals who work with children and young people

Image with text promoting new Child sexual abuse material generated by Artificial Intelligence: An essential guide for professionals who work with children and young people

 

Download resource at: https://onlinesafetyhub.safeguardingni.org/child-sexual-abuse-material-generated-by-artificial-intelligence/ 

Help Kids Talk

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Help Kids Talk is an award winning project within Early Intervention Lisburn (EIL) which is led by the Resurgam Community Development Trust, the SEHSCT Speech and Language Therapy Team, Barnardo’s NI, and Early Intervention Lisburn partnership. Help Kids Talk is funded by the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council. The Help Kids Talk vision is that “everyone will work together to help kids talk”.

The project is a community-wide initiative and aims to ensure everyone with responsibility for babies, children or young people, prioritises their speech, language, and communication development. This project will result in a positive impact across all areas of a child’s life including educational attainment, mental health and wellbeing, social relationships, and employability later in life.

 

Help Kids Talk | NI | Lisburn | Speech and Language NI
Help Kids Talk is a community-wide partnership project that supports speech, language and communication development for children and young people aged 0-18 in Northern Ireland.
Resources - Help Kids Talk
In this section you will find advice sheets and checklists on attention & listening, adult-child interaction, supporting children with unclear speech, creating a communication rich environment and using visual supports. You will also find a resource sheet highlighting the benefits of speaking in your home language within your family setting.
Bite Size Series - Help Kids Talk
Welcome to the Help Kids Talk Bitesize Series. In these short recorded clips, we hear from the lived experience of children, young people and adults, with various difficulties relating to speech, language and communication. We also hear from their parents and from professionals, who offer tips and advice about how best to offer support.
Help Kids Talk Parents and Caregivers Training
Help Kids Talk Basic Awareness and Level 1 Training NI. All courses are delivered by highly experienced speech and language therapists.

 

We run a social media campaign based around 12  key messages of the month, which have been developed as guidance for parents, carers and practitioners to promote early attachment and SLC skills. https://www.facebook.com/helpkidstalk

FREE Financial Advice – Mid Ulster Area

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Money Minder – Free Financial Advice from STEP in the Mid Ulster area

Image with text promoting Money Minder service from STEP. Service offers free financial advice for people living within the Mid Ulster area. Image of piggy bank and coins on a blue background

New Guide on Setting Up a Peer Support Group

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Following on from Parentline NI’s recent school avoidance event held in Lisburn, it was evident that peer support groups can play an important role in supporting parents and carers.  

The Parent Participation Service at Children in NI have developed a new guide to support parents in setting up peer support groups.

Peer support can play a powerful role in building connection, resilience and shared learning within communities and we hope this guide can be used to help facilitate the development of new peer support groups across Northern Ireland.

Image depicting group of parents sitting around a table chatting, promoting a new guide – Parents Supportiong Parents: A Guide to Starting a Peer Support Group

Download Guide

 

 

Mental Health Data and Outcomes Conference – QUB

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Children’s Services Planning team members Valerie Maxwell, Children Services Planning & Information Manager and Bronwyn Campbell, Lead for the Family Support Hubs Network were delighted to attend and present at Queen’s University Belfast Mental Health Data and Outcomes Conference on Tuesday 20th May 2025 in the Great Hall, along with Strategic Planning and Performance Group colleagues, Gavin Quinn, Head of the Regional Mental Health Service and Martina McCafferty, Mental Health Lead.

 

Gavin opened the conference and provided  context and an overview of the development of the new Regional Mental Health Service and the importance of Data to the Service moving forward.  Martina along with colleagues Hannah Brown, BHSCT and Mary Donaghy, Macmillan provided an update on the Journey of Think Family in NI and the benefits of implementing the model across systems.  they also shared how they were developing data and outcomes across complex systems.

 

Valerie and Bronwyn presented on reporting trends and capturing outcomes over time – Valerie shared information about the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership and how they have implemented an OBA Outcomes planning framework across their infrastructure based on a multi-agency outcomes and indicator framework.  She also shared examples from the CYPSP Information systems including their Interactive Map Dashboards and new NI Outcome monitoring report presenting information at different geographical levels from Northern Ireland level, to Local government District, Trust level data and down to Ward level highlight how the data is used to assess need and also measure population outcomes.

Bronwyn then presented how information is used at Family Support Hub level providing an overview of what Family Support Hubs are and their purpose. She focused down to the 8 Hubs in the WHSCT area and provided information on supporting children, parents and families with their emotional wellbeing and mental health.  Bronwyn was also able to share how unmet need is identified on the ground and fed back up through locality planning groups and outcomes groups for partners to look at how best as a multi-agency partnership they can fill those gaps and meet the needs.  Bronwyn then shared an anonymised case study on one child and mother’s journey and the positive impact and outcomes achieved following support identified by the local hub.

Valerie concluded the presentation by sharing examples of CYPSP Report Cards and Family Support Hub Report Cards.