NSPCC’s Belfast Service Centre Manager reflects on one year since lockdown

Bronagh Muldoon (NSPCC Northern Ireland’s newly appointed Head of Local Services)

As the UK marks a year since the start of the first lockdown restrictions, NSPCC Northern Ireland’s newly appointed Head of Local Services Bronagh Muldoon reflects on the shared challenges the service has faced and overcome in the last year, with staff rallying together to be there for children and young people.

Bronagh Muldoon, who previously worked as Service Centre Manager at the north Belfast based Service Centre for 11 years, says the children and families they work with largely adapted to the restrictions but face-to-face contact was ‘missed’.

Bronagh explained:

“When we initially entered lockdown in March 2020, we could not have foreseen the many challenges and difficulties the Belfast Service Centre would face and how long restrictions would stay in place for. We had to move quickly to adapt so that we could continue our work and this meant most of our communications were online instead of face to face. Children and families largely adapted well to online contact but as time went on, others struggled to engage through video-calling platforms such as Zoom and really missed face-to-face contact.

“In September, when we reopened the Service Centre for face-to-face sessions, we overhauled our offices with strict COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines in place and our children and young people eagerly returned. The staff were also keen to go back to our somewhat normal way of working and thrived seeing children as we normally would have done pre-lockdown.”

However, Bronagh says some of their service users preferred a virtual approach.

“While some of our users were glad to return to face-to-face services, some actually preferred virtual approaches which we have continued. This was not something we delivered pre-COVID and it has certainly been interesting to see how well it has worked which has been one positive from going into lockdown. It has also allowed many young people to engage remotely with our staff and explore issues they may potentially would have struggled with in a face-to-face session in the past.

“Our staff have also adapted to the blended approach, both in terms of virtual and face-to-face sessions, alongside changes to their working conditions such as working from home, attending virtual meetings, reduced staff numbers working and navigating through two-metres rules and sanitization stations while working in the office.”

Bronagh also praises the hard work and resilience Service Centre staff have shown over the last year.

“The resilience among our staff and service users has been incredible, considering the many challenges we have faced as a Service Centre. We have all had our good and bad days along the way and I am extremely proud of how well our staff adapted and focused on their roles, while still working despite the impact the pandemic has had on their personal lives too.

“As we move into the second year of the pandemic and restrictions remaining across many areas of our lives, the move towards fully opening and operating as we were pre-pandemic still feels very far away. However, key for us, as a team, was that we are still able to provide support and recovery work to our families. This support is now more flexible than ever to help ensure we can engage and help more children and young people throughout 2021 and beyond.

The base features carefully decorated and resourced therapy rooms where the NSPCC’s Letting the Future In service is delivered. This focuses on helping children and young people recover from the traumatic impact of sexual abuse and to rebuild their lives. Each intervention is tailored to the child’s own wishes and needs, to enable them to work through their trauma.

Additionally, the centre also runs programmes such as InCtrl which is group work designed to prevent the sexual abuse of children and young people online.

DART is another group work programme offered to help children and mothers overcome the adverse effect of domestic abuse and improves parent-child relationships and Seeking Solutions, offers children and young people help and support to deal with problems affecting their life, happiness or wellbeing.

Bronagh is also excited to begin her new role as NSPCC Northern Ireland Head of Local Services, where she will be leading on service delivery.

Bronagh said, “While I’m sad to leave behind my role as Service Centre Manager, a role I was passionate and committed to, I am absolutely over the moon to begin a new chapter in my career as the new Head of Local Services for NSPCC Northern Ireland.

“It is an honour to be appointed to this role and to lead our services, developing and adapting what we offer in these ever-changing times but ensuring we are still here for children across Northern Ireland.”