Dear Parent,
The
Ombudsman for Children’s office has written to the NPC to invite parents and
children/young people to participate in a project that is looking at
child-friendly administration, which it has commissioned the University College
Cork to undertake.
In explaining
the study and the request, the OCO office has written:
“As you
know, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office has been in existence for more than
ten years. In that time, the Office has dealt with over ten thousand complaints
regarding the actions of public bodies and service providers. The
Offices’complaints-handling and investigatory work has given it an insight into
the barriers that children and their families can face when attempting to
access those services or when they are engaging with decision-makers in public
bodies.
However, the
Ombudsman for Children’s Office believes that, following a decade of work in
this area, it is appropriate to examine in greater depth the experience
children and families have of accessing public services, the difficulties they
encounter and what practices characterise a rights based, child-friendly
approach to public administration.
To that end,
the Ombudsman for Children’s Office has commissioned Professor Ursula Kilkelly
and her research team at University College Cork’s School of Law to undertake
research on child-friendly public administration relevant to education, health
and social services. An important part of this study is to hear directly from
children and parent/carers about their experiences of public services and
bodies in the areas of health, education, housing and material wellbeing and
alternative care. Using focus groups, participants will be asked first, to
describe their experiences of accessing public service for, with or on behalf
of their children and second, to identify any barriers or positive experiences
they have had in this area. The main objective is to develop ideas for making
such services more accessible, rights respecting and child-friendly.
The project
will involve holding six focus groups-four for adults and two for
children-which will be held on the 14thand 15th November
in Dublin. Our intention is for each focus group to have a maximum of six
participants; they will last between 60-90 minutes in the case of adults and
between 30-60mins for the children and young people. The participants will all
be individuals who have direct experience of engagement with public bodies in
the areas under examination.”
If you feel
you have something to contribute to the study and would like to participate in
one of the focus groups to share your experiences of engagement with your
child’s school, the Department of Education or other public bodies please
contact Naomi Kennan at:
Naomi Kennan
Research Assistant
University College Cork
Email: naomi.kennan@ucc.ie
Tel: 0 87 126 2342