Barnardos Knowledge Bank
Not a member yet
1232 research outputs found
Sort by
Summer Waiting List Report
Get PDFReportIn 2017 Barnardos published two reports examining the issue of children waiting for health and developmental treatment. Our reports uncovered widespread delays and inconsistencies in the delivery of children’s health services. Significant delays in accessing treatment can have profound, long lasting impact on a child’s health, development and well-being. Lack of treatment can result in a childhood lost. Yet when a child is physically lost, the world takes notice. Search parties are formed. Front-page stories are printed. We are captivated by the terror and we will all work hard to find that child because we know it’s important. The same impetus must also apply when their childhood is being lost, yet unfortunately thousands of children continue to languish on waiting lists. All children deserve equitable access to healthcare, timely assessment of their need and treatment without delay. Barnardos is revisiting our examination of waiting lists to determine if there has been any improvement in the areas of speech and language therapy, mental health treatment and the assessment of need
School Costs Survey 2018: Briefing Paper
Get PDFPaperSummer holidays from school are a free, exciting, fun filled time for children; but for their parents the summer months can be filled with stress and debt as they struggle to afford the cost of sending their child back to school. Parents understand the importance of their child’s education and no parent wants to see their child go without so they find a way; but often this comes at the expense of other household expenditure or means they go into debt in order to pay for school. A core theme of this year’s survey responses is that parents know they are shouldering the burden for a Government which is falling short of fulfilling its obligation to provide free education, and they are not prepared to take it anymore. Parents believe children in Ireland should have access to the same educational supports as children in other EU countries- such as free school books and no expectation of voluntary contributions. They are sick and tired of having to supplement the under investment in schools through cash payments and fundraising
ChildLinks Issue 3: Children and the Digital World
No full textBarnardos journal ChildLinksThis issue of ChildLinks considers the digital environment and the impact it has on childhood and on family life. Digital technology is increasingly present in our daily experiences from communication to sharing photos, managing finances, booking holidays, and accessing entertainment and education. From birth, babies are now ‘digital natives’, continually exposed to media-rich, digital environments and actively engaged in the use of technology as part of everyday life. This prevalence of technology brings with it both extensive opportunity and areas of potential concern as the impact of digital technology on the cognitive, social and emotional development of children is still largely unknown. In the first article in this issue, Edel Quinn from the Children’s Rights Alliance explores a child rights framework as a mechanism to enhance safety and privacy online through policies and supports, and the importance of involving children in this process. Parents too are impacted by the increased use of technology in family life and need constructive ways they can support their children, whatever their age. Cliona Curley, Programme Director of CyberSafe Ireland, highlights the risks children face online such as cyberbullying, loss of privacy, potential abuse of personal data, exposure to harmful content and grooming, and what parents can do to keep their children safe. Julia Buchanan of Barnardo’s Northern Ireland then gives information about a recent research project which aimed to gain an understanding of parents’ and infants’ use of digital technology in everyday home life and how this may impact on parent-infant interactions, identifying the areas in which parents of infants could benefit from additional support. Finally, Mira Dobutowitsch of Maynooth University outlines a study that examined the types of screen time children are engaging with, parental attitudes and concerns, perceived challenges, and the strategies that parents adopt to navigate decision-making around screen time. Elsewhere in this issue, Child & Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Colman Noctor explores the relationship between technology, expectation, desire and vulnerability. He proposes a need to develop a media and emotional literacy to enable us to hold onto our own value systems and not have those dictated to by companies who want to sell us things and keep us distracted. Also in this issue, Sandra O’Neill from the Institute of Education, Dublin City University explores the potential use of technology in early learning and care, outlining the challenges including the appropriate and intentional selection, use, integration and evaluation of any technology. She also considers how, when it is used intentionally, technology can enhance children’s interests and enable discovery, discussion and motivation to learn. In another article, Chloe Beatty and Suzanne Egan from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick consider the impact of screen engagement on children’s vocabulary development and highlight the importance of considering the impact of different aspects of screen use on a child’s development. Currently in Ireland, work is underway on a new Online Safety Act to improve online safety, setting a clear expectation for service providers to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the users of their service. This should go some way to ensure that children can be better protected online
Our Children First: a Parent's Guide to the National Child Protection Guidance
Get PDFBookletThis guide aims to provide parents with information on child protection and welfare. The information given is based on Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children produced by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2017
ChildLinks Issue 1: Trauma
No full textBarnardos journal ChildLinksThis issue of ChildLinks look at how trauma can impact on children’s daily life and their ability to function and interact with others. Children who are exposed to traumatic events may experience a wide range of consequences that can include intense and ongoing emotional distress and behavioural problems, difficulties with attention, academic failure, problems with sleep or illness. Interventions where young children and their families learn about the impact of trauma and what they can do about it can support children to develop the skills they need to be resilient no matter what adversity comes their way. These skills can truly change the trajectory of the life of the child and the family. The first article in this issue looks at the work of the leading federal initiative focused on child trauma in the US, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). The NCTSN aims to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatised children, their families and communities by raising public awareness of the scope and serious impact of child traumatic stress on the safety and healthy development of children; advancing a range trauma-informed, developmentally and culturally appropriate programmes that improve the standard of care; working with established systems of care to ensure that there is a comprehensive trauma-informed continuum of accessible care; and fostering a community dedicated to collaboration within and beyond the NCTSN to ensure that widely shared knowledge and skills become a sustainable national resource. The articles that follow look at how traumatic events like bereavement, domestic abuse and refugee status can have long term impacts for children. The first of these outlines the evaluation of the TLC Kidz Programme, a multi-agency, group programme for children and mothers recovering from domestic abuse. Next, Brid Carroll from the Irish Childhood Bereavement Network outlines how bereavement in childhood can have long-term consequences for children and considers how the needs of bereaved Irish children can be identified and addressed as early as possible to prevent long term trauma. The two articles that follow focus on refugee and asylum-seeking children, who are ten times more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder compared to their non refugee peers. Robin Balbernie, Child Psychotherapist and Clinical Director of PIP UK, then considers intergenerational trauma and the cycle of negative caregiving. Sometimes the traumatic experiences of the one generation live on to affect the generation that follows but relationship based interventions can help to break this cycle. The final article in this issue outlines the Trauma Smart® (TS) model in the US, which is designed to support very young children, and the adults who care for them, with hands on, practical tools and effective strategies to help children to learn to express their emotions in a healthy way that prepares them for social and academic success
Infographic on Waiting Lists
No full textInfographicStatistics relevant to waiting lists for Speech and Language, Mental Health Services, and Disability Assessment with regional breakdowns
Hidden Homelessness: What's the problem?
Get PDFPaperThe housing crisis engulfing the country has been steadily expanding over a number of years. As time has gone on, Government initiatives aimed at tackling the crisis have failed to stem the tide of children into homelessness, curb rent increases or build enough social housing. Living in emergency accommodation is a situation no child should ever find themselves in. Barnardos campaigns nationally to ensure no child is lost to homelessness and works locally with families living in emergency accommodation. There has rightly been much media coverage of the worsening crisis and public outcry at the ever increasing child homelessness figures (3,646 at time of writing1); yet there are thousands more children who are homeless but go largely unnoticed. These children are the hidden homeless. They have no home of their own but are not counted by Government and don’t qualify for many support services. The hidden homeless are temporarily accommodated (usually with friends or family) but their living situation is precarious and unsustainable.2 Hidden homelessness is most frequently characterised by overcrowded accommodation which is unsuitable for children. Overcrowding has increased in recent years. Census 2016 showed a 28% rise in the number of households with more people than rooms as well as an increase in the number of persons per household, particularly in urban areas.3 Overcrowding is defined in legislation as when two people over ten years old who are opposite sex but not in a relationship must share a bedroom due to lack of space or less than four hundred cubic feet of air space per person per bedroom.4 However, the reality for children is that sharing a room with multiple siblings, parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents can hinder their emotional, social, mental and physical development
Barnardos Glór na nÓg Key Findings - Children’s Version
Get PDFEvaluation reportGlór na nÓg Report Car
Winter Waiting List Report
Get PDFReportIn 2017 Barnardos published two reports examining the issue of children waiting for health and developmental treatment. Our reports uncovered widespread delays and inconsistencies in the delivery of children’s health services. Significant delays in accessing treatment can have profound, long lasting impact on a child’s health, development and well-being. Lack of treatment can result in a childhood lost. Yet when a child is physically lost, the world takes notice. Search parties are formed. Front-page stories are printed. We are captivated by the terror and we will all work hard to find that child because we know it’s important. The same impetus must also apply when their childhood is being lost, yet unfortunately thousands of children continue to languish on waiting lists. All children deserve equitable access to healthcare, timely assessment of their need and treatment without delay. Barnardos is revisiting our examination of waiting lists to determine if there has been any improvement in the areas of speech and language therapy, mental health treatment and the assessment of need
Supporting Parents and Improving Child Outcomes
Get PDFPaperIn February 2018 Barnardos launched its LOST Childhood campaign. The campaign shines a light on the fact that for one in seven children in Ireland their childhood is lost. These children have their dreams and chance at a bright future lost to poverty, homelessness, neglect and injustice. Children make up over a quarter of the population of Ireland, yet they are infrequently at the centre of national policy.1 Children cannot vote and have little say in the political choices which affect them. Poor policy decisions leave children behind. Barnardos works with over 14,000 children and families each year. We see the positive impact of small interventions carried out early enough to give families and children the support they need to thrive. Barnardos is seeking investment in two key initiatives which would support parents, improve child health and development outcomes and reduce child protection incidences