‘Still Waiting’ is the culmination of a Rights Based Review of Mental Health Services and Support for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland.
The report provides a comprehensive overview of children and young people’s experiences and pathways to accessing mental health services or support. It looks at a broad range of services that young people may have accessed and considers these against a range of rights based standards. The report also examines service activity and budgeting data relating to mental health services in Northern Ireland and sets out a range of recommendations for improving services that are grounded in the evidence collected.
Recommendations
There are 50 recommendations included in the report, which covers a range of aspects of mental health services and support.
The overarching finding from the Review is the need for a system wide response to the challenges outlined.
All agencies and sectors must work together, taking collective responsibility for taking the recommendations forward. For this reason in most cases, the report has not specified any one agency or department against individual recommendations. The recommendations cover a range of areas that include a focus on building mental health awareness and understanding, making it easier for young people to get the right help when and where they need it, supporting adults working with children and young people, and supporting young people with additional needs.
Reports
You can view NICCY's Still Waiting reports below:
- Main Report - you can view it here
- Summary Report - you can view it here
- Young Person's Report - you can view it here
- Easy Read Report - you can view it here
Implementation and Monitoring
NICCY is committed to monitoring the implementation of the recommendations in the ‘Still Waiting’ review and to engage with all relevant agencies to ensure improved outcomes for children and young people.
Still Waiting Implementation Structures
The Department for Health on behalf of the Inter-Departmental Group (consisting of representatives for the Department for Education, Justice and Communities along with the Voluntary and Community Sector) published an action plan for delivering on the Still Waiting Report recommendations in October 2019 (the Still Waiting Action Plan).
NICCY Monitoring Process
NICCY committed to publishing 4 monitoring reports between 2020 and 2023. These will be published in February of each year to coincide with Child Mental Health Week.
The monitoring reports will be an assessment of the progress made to implement recommendations made in the Still Waiting Review. This assessment will include a review of the Inter-Departmental Group annual progress update report on implementation of the Still Waiting Action Plan, along with an analysis of service activity data and views from key stakeholders.
Latest Monitoring Report
NICCY concluded its third round of monitoring (9 February 2022). This included:
- An overview Summary Progress Report
- A detailed assessment of the Inter-Departmental Group Action Plan
- A Children and Young Person version of NICCY Monitoring Report
- A Mental Health Data report which provides a compilation of key service activity data for the period 2013/14-2020/2021, and key information from it has been used to inform NICCYs assessment of progress
You can find previous progress update reports from the link below:
- 2021 - summary progress update report and response to inter-departmental group action plan, and the children and young person version of NICCY Monitoring report
- 2020 - summary progress update report and response to inter-departmental group action plan
Report Launch
The report was launched on 27th September 2018 at St Mary's University College, Belfast.
Background Information
There are a number of reports that NICCY has produced that provide more background information on the Review, they are listed below.
- NICCY Mental Health Factsheet (pdf) and also in MS Word format
- NICCY Mental Health Review - Scoping Paper
- NICCY Mental Health Review - Terms of Reference
- You can read the press release from the launch here
Infographics
NICCY produced an infographic as part of its main report - you can view it by clicking here.
Main Report Infographic
You can view our Mental Health Infographic below and you can also view our interactive version here.
Speak Your Mind Campaign
- Children and young people’s experiences of mental health services and support formed a central part of the Review.
- The Speak Your Mind recruitment campaign was developed to hear their views - you can find out more here
If you have any questions you can contact the Lead Researcher- Christine Irvine at Christine@niccy.org or on 028 9031 6384.
