Step Up Step Down aims to prevent children who are on the periphery of the care system from being taken into care, enabling them to stay with their families at home instead. The programme is currently delivered to families in Northern Ireland and provides them with support by highly trained and experienced foster carers who offer bespoke, preventative support care for 12 - 15 months.

The scheme offers parents the support of a foster carer who can ‘step up’ if the family needs help, and ‘step down’ when parents are in a better place to support their children. If the family experiences a crisis situation, the child /children can stay with the foster carer who is working with their family, as they have built a relationship with them. In addition to parent mentoring sessions and short breaks provided by the foster carer, the family can also avail of family activities, family residential trips, relevant training and a wide variety of community supports.

Jade Irwin, Step Up Step Down programme officer: ‘It is a pleasure and a privilege to be doing this innovative partnership work. The foster carers are skilled and committed, and seeing such positive outcomes in the lives of so many families makes it all worthwhile."

The nomination came directly from a parent who is on the Step up Step Down scheme: 'Whether it's a phone call when I am having a bad day, a trip out, a coffee, a printed worksheet or an overnight respite... They are there to support and actually care. With our carer's support and determination to be heard and listened to, we have achieved so much more than I would have alone.'