Tag Archives: southeastern-og

Ards & North Down and Down Fortnightly News – Edition 86, June 2025

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Welcome to the Summer edition of the Fortnightly News; for Children and Young People’s services and Families across the Down and Ards & North Down Locality Planning Groups. Check out all the new services and free training courses.

Image with text promoting Ards & North Down and Down CYPSP Locality Planning Group Newsletter June 2025

Image with text promoting Ards & North Down and Down CYPSP Locality Planning Group Newsletter June 2025

Download Issue 86 

(Note: Newsletter will download directly to your device.  Look out for the pop-up box and click on open file when it appears)

If you wish to advertise any upcoming programmes or activities or good news stories, please see the guidance on the back page.

Don’t forget to share with your contacts

Noelle.Hollywood@setrust.hscni.net
Mobile number
07872422101

Focusing on Families Survey

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The Focusing on Families survey is your chance to share your views on how family support services in Northern Ireland can best meet the needs of children, young people and families.

If you are a child, young person, parent/carer or practitioner who cares about family support services in Northern Ireland, we want to hear your views!

This short survey is being conducted by Stats & Stories for the Children’s Social Care Reform Programme and covers five key themes:

  1. The purpose of family support services
  2. The values that should guide them
  3. The types of support that matter most
  4. Ideas for a future family support model
  5. How support services can make a difference to families

The Focusing on Families survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. We encourage you to provide honest feedback. Your feedback will help shape the Family Support Strategy for Northern Ireland, ensuring that services focus on the needs of families.

Please click on the link for the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FocusingonFamilies25

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Dr. Donna Kernaghan at donna@statsandstories.co.uk.

MYBnk FREE Live Webinar Lesson

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MyBnk is hosting a FREE live webinar lesson to give teens the tools to stay safe in today’s digital world. Join us for The Big Money Ready Lesson on Thursday 26th June!

This 45-minute interactive session will cover:

Online scams

Phishing

In-game scams

Shopping scams

By the end of the lesson, learners will know some of the different types of online scams, be able to recognise key features of online scams, and know actions that can be taken if they have been scammed or are worried they have been scammed.

Event Details:
What: The Big Money Ready Lesson – Financial Scams & Digital Safety
When: Thursday, 26th June 2025
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Where: Online (Microsoft Teams)
Who it’s for: Secondary schools, youth organisations, and young people aged 11–18
Cost: Completely FREE

Our goal is simple: help the next generation become money smart and scam safe. Whether you’re a teacher, youth worker, parent, or someone who supports young people — this is an opportunity to equip them with knowledge that truly protects.

Signup and more info here: https://www.mybnk.org/big-money-lesson/

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.

Safety Nets: Social Security for Families in a Devolved UK

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Image showing 2 people and row of houses.Text - Is there something you'd like to share about your experience with benefits?

Image showing 2 people and row of houses. Text – Is there something you’d like to share about your experience with benefits?

The research team which includes six universities from across the UK would really appreciate your help in spreading the word. It explores how benefits vary across all 4 countries of the UK and how this impacts families with dependent children. 

As a central part of the project, we’re holding a series of 14 online discussion workshops with parents and carers in receipt of benefits to hear about their experiences and what needs to change. The workshops are open to parents/carers across the UK who receive at least one UK benefit, such as Universal Credit, PIP, or Tax Credits, or who are receiving asylum support. 

The discussions will take place in small, friendly online groups where participants can share their personal experiences and ideas for policy change. To thank them for their time, we are offering £50 in Love2Shop vouchers for each 2.5 hour workshop they attend, with the opportunity to take part in up to two workshops on different topics relating to social security (e.g. employment support, free school meals, welfare mitigations).

Uisce from the research team would be delighted to arrange a Zoom call if you’d like to discuss this further and can be reached on 07552 285828 or safety-nets-project@york.ac.uk

 

Image with text and QR code

Image with text and QR code