NCB events focus on child investment

Children’s charity NCB Northern Ireland plans to host a series of events to increase understanding about when to invest in a child’s life for maximum impact.

Speakers will include Steve Aos (Washington State Institute for Public Policy), an expert in cost-benefit methodology and its potential application in the local policy arena, and Dr Ian Manion, Executive Director for the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health. Manion is an expert in the life-stage approach to mental health strategy development.

They will be joined by Mark Friedman (Fiscal Policy Studies Institute, Santa Fe) who has developed the ‘outcomes based accountability’ approach to policy, and Vincent Felitti, an expert in cases where children face multiple adversities. Felitti is the co-principal investigator of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, a collaboaration between the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kaiser Permanente care consortium.

NCB Northern Ireland Director Celine McStravick remarked: “Finance Minister Simon Hamilton has confirmed budgets up to and beyond 2018 will be even tighter and coupled with the ever increasing expectations of an understandably demanding public, it is clear that tough times lie ahead.

“Hence it is critical that we combine all of our knowledge of the evidence, not just the costs of a programme but what difference it can actually make in a child’s life.”