Children's Services Must Be Better Informed - Academic

Children's services need to be "more rigorously evaluated", according to a Queen's academic.

Children's services in Northern Ireland need to be better informed by evidence and more rigorously evaluated so that public money is not wasted, according to Dr Liam O'Hare.

Dr O'Hare was speaking ahead of the international Improving Children’s Lives conference at Queen's today.

He said that, although Northern Ireland was among the global leaders in assessing the quality of services for children and young people, value for money was "far from being guaranteed".

Last year statutory bodies in Northern Ireland spent £2.5bn on education and £3.8bn on health services.

"A huge amount of public money is spent on services that are intended to improve the lives of children and their families, but not all services improve children’s lives," said Dr O’Hare.

"A school may spend £10,000 buying tablet computers for pupils, but who’s to say that money wouldn’t be better spent on computer programming lessons for the pupils? The answer to the problem lies in the use of rigorous evidence to compare alternative approaches."

He added: "It’s about promoting successful interventions and refining or even stopping projects that don’t deliver improved results for children and young people."

The theme of today's conference is that social, health and educational services for young people are most effective when they are gathering evidence of effective change in children’s lives, while recognising their right to "quality services".

Professor Paul Connolly, Head of School of Education and Chair of the Improving Children’s Lives Initiative at Queen’s said: "There needs to be more of a joined-up approach to addressing the needs of young people. Factors that affect children’s lives are complex and inter-linked.

"For example, some issues may require the input of the police in conjunction with health-workers, teachers and NGOs, supported by the research evidence.

"That work has begun in Northern Ireland with the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership. The Improving Children’s Lives conference will hear from a wide range of practitioners and researchers, both locally and internationally, regarding the challenges associated with working across sectors to promote better outcomes for children and young people."

(IT/MH)