The Participation and Collaboration for Protection (PANDA) Project aimed to promote the participation of young children, aged 12 years and under, in decision-making through strengthening professionals’ collaboration with young children involved in child welfare/child protection services. Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, it brought together social workers, policy makers, managers from eight partners in four countries (Belgium, Spain, Norway and Northern Ireland).

2023-2024: this project was an organisational review of the implementation of Trauma Informed Approaches (TIAs) in Northern Ireland (NI) commissioned by the Safeguarding Board for NI (SBNI) through funding by the cross-Executive Programme on Paramilitarism and Organised Crime (EPPOC).

The Safeguarding Board NI has been supporting workforces and organisations to become trauma informed since 2018. This research gauged what progress has been made in embedding trauma informed practice since then. It included: an international literature review; a bespoke online survey completed by statutory and voluntary sector organisations, focus groups with cross-sector senior managers, and sector specific case studies from selected education, social care, youth justice and health services.

2018 -2021: This project was a national evaluation of the NSPCC’s Speak Out, Stay Safe programme for primary school children across the UK. Speak Out, Stay Safe is a preventive intervention that aims to improve children’s understanding of abuse and other forms of harm, recognise the signs of abuse, how to get help, and the sources of help available to them.

The evaluation was carried out by a team of researchers based at several Universities across the United Kingdom, led by the University of Central Lancashire (England) and involving Queens University Belfast (Northern Ireland), Edinburgh University (Scotland), Bangor University (Wales) and the University of Greenwich (England).

Centre Members: Professor Davy Hayes and Professor Berni Kelly.

Further Information: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/2021/evaluating-speak-out-stay-safe-programme