To ask the Minister of Health to detail the definition each Health and Social Care Trust has for children deemed on the edge of care.

In June 2022 my Department and the Department of Education updated ‘A Life Deserved: ‘Caring for Children & Young People in Northern Ireland’. This strategy for Looked After Children outlines that by ‘edge of care’ we mean one of a number of things:

Living in Families with intense needs and requiring intensive supports [on the edge of coming into care];

Returning home from a period of care [on the edge of a [short] period in care];

Leaving care to make the journey into adult life [on the edge of ageing out of care].

It also applies to children and young people who have left care and are still in need of some support; including those who have been adopted; those who are living in a family under a Private Law Order; and those who are supported in independent living in early adulthood.

Each Health and Social Care Trust have advised that they utilise this definition.