Barnardos – the leading lifeline charity for children – is facing its own staffing crisis in Northern Ireland in the mouth of Christmas.

A carer who rescued an 84-year-old woman from a burning house won the National Courage Award.

A 15-year-old boy has been remanded in custody after a court heard he threatened staff at a high support care unit.

The withdrawal of statutory services from young people who reach the age of 18 in Dublin can result in homelessness.

A new unit, dedicated to co-ordinating the implemention of a national strategy to tackle human trafficking, has been set up.

The ongoing classroom assistants’ strike may cause “serious disruption to the education of children who attend special schools”, charity Disability Action has claimed.

Social services on both sides of the Border are to review their care of children in danger from depressive or psychotic parents, after the fire deaths of the family in Omagh last week brought the number of children killed in domestic “homicide-suicides” in Ireland this year to 10.

One of the UK’s children’s commissioners has declared there is a pressing need for an all-Ireland sex offenders register.

Two-child families in Ireland are paying as much as €28,000 a year for childcare — but prices nationwide are not enough to cover the real costs of quality care.

A zero tolerance policy is required to tackle drug-related suicide in Belfast, the Lord Mayor said yesterday.