Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:22. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the date on which the new Children and Young People's Policy Framework will be published. [40706/12]
View answerWednesday, 26 September 2012
Questions (22)
Written answers
My Department is developing a new strategy for children and young people. It will build on Our Children - Their Lives, Ireland’s first children’s strategy which was published in 2000 and it will cover the 5-year period from 2013 to 2017. The new Children and Young People’s Policy Framework is being developed in a holistic way to comprehend the continuum of the lifecourse from infancy, through early and middle childhood, to adolescence through to early adulthood, in keeping with my Department’s responsibilities for children and young people. It will be the overarching Framework under which policy and services for children and young people will be developed and implemented in the State.
The views of a wide range of interests including children themselves will shape the development of the children and young people’s policy Framework over the next six months. It will be informed by a number of inputs including:
- The results of a consultation in 2011, which focussed on children and young people, in which almost 67,000 throughout the country participated, and the analysis of which will be published shortly;
- A public consultation of the general public conducted during this Summer. Over 1,000 submissions were received as part of that consultation and my Department is in the process of analysing these submissions;
- The advice of the National Children’s Advisory Council which comprises representatives of a range of organisations, both statutory and non-statutory that work with children and young people, and which will continue to provide advice to my Department on the Framework up to the end of this year; and
- The views of the National Children’s Strategy Implementation Group which includes nominees of Government departments and state agencies that develop policies and deliver services for children and young people;
My Department is also in the course of meeting with other Government Departments to discuss aspects of the Framework which will impact particularly in their areas of policy responsibility, and this process is expected to be completed by the end of next month. The Framework will be finalised in the coming months, following the analysis of the recent public consultation, and it is expected to be published early in the new year.