Minister welcomes agreement on North/South cooperation for child protection
- Published on: 14 May 2025
- Last updated on: 14 May 2025
- New Work Programme agreed to support North/South cooperation and knowledge exchange on child welfare and protection.
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley has today welcomed the agreement of a new North/South Child Protection Work Programme to 2028.
The announcement follows from today’s North South Ministerial Council Health Sectoral (NSMC) meeting, at which Minister Foley had the opportunity to approve further cross-border collaboration with the Northern Ireland Executive’s Minister for Health Mike Nesbitt MLA and Junior Minister Aisling Reilly MLA.
This was the first NSMC Health Sectoral meeting since the formation of the new Irish Government in January.
At the meeting, Ministers agreed a new NSMC work programme for child protection. The work programme identifies areas for cooperation where policy makers and child protection practitioners can work together and share good practices. The work programme includes actions on knowledge exchange; early identification and sharing of information on emerging complex child protection issues; and ongoing cross-border cooperation in relation to child welfare and protection.
The Knowledge Exchange Forum is an important networking space which brings together child protection practitioners from both jurisdictions. Officials from the key service delivery agencies both North and South of the border, including social workers from Tusla, attend and share information in the critical area of social work practice within child protection services, with the ultimate aim of better protecting children throughout the island of Ireland.
Following the meeting, Minister Foley said:
I am very pleased to have met the Northern Ireland Executive’s Minister for Health Mike Nesbitt MLA and Junior Minister Aisling Reilly MLA. It is very encouraging to see this level of practical cooperation and engagement on child protection policy and practice being facilitated and supported through the NSMC.
This work is of great value to ensure that we can share policy lessons and operational experiences to improve child protection practice.
I particularly welcome the ambition of the new work programme to support cross-border knowledge sharing at various levels including child protection practitioners, practice managers, and between policy makers.
The next meeting of the NSMC Health Sectoral will occur in the autumn, where a progress report on the new work programme will be shared.