Collaboratively Working towards a Child-Friendly Justice System (2025 – current)

UL and the Accompaniment Support Services for Children (ASSC) are collaboratively exploring stakeholder and family experiences of supporting children navigating the justice system in order to develop and define the concept of child-centred court processes. Key stakeholders, including families, volunteers, legal professionals and intermediaries, are brought together in a process of collaborative learning and knowledge exchange. These world café style events allow for sharing of diverse views across a range of groups including academia, justice, civic society and family. Through this collaborative exchange, the concept of child-centred court processes was reviewed and defined.

The Irish criminal justice system is an adversarial system, set up for adults, where the prosecution and defence compete against each other. There is a reliance on oral testimony. Children and young people typically require additional consideration so their voices can be heard. Intermediaries are one type of special measure that can support child participation in the justice system.  

In addition, the adversarial justice system is especially problematic for young people with speech, language, and communication needs. This interdisciplinary project aims to collaboratively develop new knowledge and evidence with respect to a key social issue in Ireland, namely the experiences of children and their families navigating the justice system. The findings of this research will enhance civil society and community, awareness of the need for child-friendly justice and inform future practice and policy.

Accompaniment Support Services for Children (ASSC) 

We completed a World Café event on October 8^th 2025 in Dublin with a range of legal stakeholders and relevant actors in the justice system. This data was analysed and combined with additional follow-up interviews with other system stakeholders including parents, to provide a clearer view of the totality of the experience of navigating the justice system. The findings will be disseminated through a range of media and are intended to provide insights into a shared vision to collaboratively achieve a child-friendly justice system in Ireland.