AQW 25542/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 02/04/2025
Answered On Date: 06/05/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the definition each Health and Social Care Trust has for children deemed on the edge of care.

Answer:

In June 2022 my Department and the Department of Education updated ‘A Life Deserved: ‘Caring for Children & Young People in Northern Ireland’. This strategy for Looked After Children outlines that by ‘edge of care’ we mean one of a number of things:

Living in Families with intense needs and requiring intensive supports [on the edge of coming into care];

Returning home from a period of care [on the edge of a [short] period in care];

Leaving care to make the journey into adult life [on the edge of ageing out of care].

It also applies to children and young people who have left care and are still in need of some support; including those who have been adopted; those who are living in a family under a Private Law Order; and those who are supported in independent living in early adulthood.

Each Health and Social Care Trust have advised that they utilise this definition.