Implementing children's policy - the whole child challenge

6th March, 2008

Elizabeth Canavan

Office of the Minister for Children

What is the whole child perspective? A way of seeing that:

Gives a child’s eye view; Recognises that children shape their own lives as they

grow, while also being shaped and supported by the world around them;

Takes account of the child (nature) and the environment within which it exists (nurture).

… and facilitates the development of policy and services that that take into account the needs, rights and interests of children

This perspective is informed and underpinned by - The work of the UN Convention on the Rights of the

Child Social Ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) – a model of

development that situates the child in a socio-cultural context, and

Ward (outcomes of children’s lives, 1998).

Whole child perspective has 3 broad domains – Children’s innate capacity – further divided

into 9 dimensions, including family relationships, physical and mental well being, identity, intellectual capacity etc.

Children’s relationships Formal and informal supports

Taking a whole child approach means: focusing on the big picture, on the child’s whole life and

circumstances and the links between individual issues and other aspects of their lives

focusing from the outset on what children need for healthy development and wellbeing

looking across the whole public service at what can be done to support children’s healthy development

considering multi-level interventions in the settings of family, friends and peers, school and the wider community

viewing children as having valuable knowledge to contribute to developing and evaluating policies and services that affect them

considering ways in which children can be involved in decision-making on issues that affect them.

Implications of WCP for Policy? Evidence-based practice with a focus on the

nine dimensions and their inter-relationships

Formal and informal supports at the right time

Good co-ordination between and within services

Consultation and participation.

The Story So Far…..? (An OMC view) Policy

National Children’s Strategy Life-cycle approach –

Towards 2016 HSE context – Agenda for

Children’s Services Irish Youth Justice Strategy Emerging integrated

services thinking – early years, models such as jigsaw, incredible years, primary care teams

Structures NCO=>OMC National Children’s

Advisory Council National Children’s

Strategy Implementation Group

Children’s Services Committees

Individual innovative projects at local level

Making innovation “mainstream” – a contradiction in terms? Is the WCP leading us to the right

processes / right models? If so, how can we gather and maintain

momentum for WCP? What needs to change to accommodate this

approach ? What are the issues? How to we mainstream the thinking? How do we mainstream the models?