To coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September), the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) has confirmed that a new periodic review of children and young people’s mental health services is underway and will be published in Autumn 2025.
This review seeks to examine the status of operation of children and young people’s mental health
services. It follows on from the findings of NICCY’s landmark “Still Waiting” investigative report from 2018, which exposed serious gaps in mental health provision for children and young people in Northern Ireland.
The updated review aims to understand the extent of implementation of NICCY’s original recommendations from Still Waiting in the context of the delivery of the Mental Health Strategy. It seeks to assess how far the recommendations from the original investigation and the commitments in the Department of Health’s Mental Health Strategy have been implemented.
Commissioner Chris Quinn said: “We are undergoing this latest review because children and young people are still telling us that mental health support is too hard to access, too slow, or simply not there when they need it. These issues cannot be ignored—they are shaping the mental wellbeing of a generation.”
NICCY’s review will examine:
NICCY has engaged with the Department of Health, the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) and the Health and Social Care Trusts on this work.
