{"id":890991,"date":"2026-04-13T10:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/890991\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:36:27","slug":"ni-secretary-hilary-benn-champions-early-intervention-in-derry-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/890991\/","title":{"rendered":"NI Secretary Hilary Benn champions early intervention in Derry visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland recently met local children and families during a recent whistlestop visit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.derrynow.com\/section\/975\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, visited Action for Children, which operates a range of services from its Ebrington Square base &#8211; including Waterside Sure Start, early intervention and family support programmes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.derrynow.com\/news\/home\/2059143\/foyle-hospice-helped-me-to-be-a-daughter-again-says-limavady-woman.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cFoyle Hospice helped me to be a daughter again\u201d says Limavady woman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The NI secretary said\u00a0he was \u2018delighted to meet the staff, parents and children at Action for Children, and to hear about the invaluable services they provide to the community in Derry-Londonderry\u2019. He\u00a0spent time speaking with a number of parents and their babies and toddlers as they enjoyed sensory playtime and a visit from the Easter bunny! He also met with staff and members of the charity\u2019s local Parents\u2019 Forum.<\/p>\n<p>Lorna Ballard, National Director at Action for Children in Northern Ireland, said: \u201cWe were delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SOSActionforChildren31032645_FOR_PRESS-1775941283294.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" caption=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Secretary of State Hilary Ben meeting local families during his visit to Ebrington<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith four services under one roof, Action for Children in Ebrington provides wraparound support for thousands of local babies, children, young people and their families every year. This visit from the Secretary of State for NI was a wonderful opportunity for our staff to showcase their valuable work, particularly focusing on the importance of Early Years and Early Intervention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamilies spoke about how early years services, such as Waterside Sure Start, have helped their children develop social and emotional skills and highlighted some of the challenges facing families across Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SOSActionforChildren31032625_FOR_PRESS-1775941302586.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" caption=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Secretary of State Hilary Ben meeting local families during his visit to Ebrington<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland recently met local children and families during a recent whistlestop visit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[124510,16767,1144,16,15],"class_list":["post-890991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-county-derry","tag-derry","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116396961980849169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}