agendaNI issue 100 July/August 2020

...informing Northern Ireland’s decision-makers

Critical infrastructure: An economic priority NI Water’s Sara Venning Interim Minister for Communities Carál Ní Chuilín on priorities in the housing sector and Covid-19 impact

Film producer and Peer David Puttnam in conversation on Brexit, digital and cinema

Health Minister Robin Swann’s efforts to rebuild and transform the health service

Issue issue100 8 Aug/Sep July 2011

Health and care services • Housing • Children and •Young Carbon Tax • Special Reports: Health ICT People

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Contents 04 06

08

16

Matters arising Issues 06

Covid-19: Economic recovery

08

Cover Story: NI Water’s Sara Venning on critical infrastructure

14

Project Stratum progress

16

Dr Gabriel Scally on the different pandemic measures on the island Hosted by

28

Round table discussion: Infrastructure as an economic enabler 40

28

44

Brexit 48

49

40

64

73

97

94

Director of Prisons Austin Treacy on technology in prisons

Brexit: A sea border

Health and care services 50

Emerging from lockdown

56

Waiting list crisis

60

Health, technology and Covid-19

64

Committee for Health Chair Colm Gildernew MLA

Housing 74

Communities Minister Carál Ní Chuilín talks housing

80

Housing (Amendment) Bill

88

Affordable housing

94

Communities Committee Chair Paula Bradley MLA

Children and young people 98

Children and Young People’s Strategy

104

Towards a childcare strategy

106

Delivering e-safety

110 People: Jerome Quinn 114 Public Affairs

110

114

114

David Puttnam in conversation

118

Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

122

Birgit Schippers on facial recognition technology

126

Political platform: Sinead McLaughlin MLA

Copyright Notice: All advertisements, editorial and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without express permission from the publisher.

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agendaNi Issue 100 July/August 2020

Editorial

A new normal…

Owen McQuade, Managing Editor owen.mcquade@agendani.com

As we publish our 100th edition of agendaNi the challenges

David Whelan, Deputy Editor david.whelan@agendani.com

facing the region are unprecedented and immense.

Fiona McCarthy fiona.mccarthy@agendani.com

The Covid-19 pandemic has been severely damaging. Hundreds

Ciarán Galway ciaran.galway@agendani.com

of lives have already been lost and the move to pause much of an already failing health service has heaped further strain on record waiting lists.

Odrán Waldron odran.waldron@agendani.com Circulation and Marketing

Economically, the future outlook is bleak. Pledges to transform Northern Ireland’s economic fortunes following the return of

Lynda Millar lynda.millar@agendani.com

devolved government were swiftly put on hold as the Executive

Events

moved to manage the spread of the pandemic and its

Olivia Carragher olivia.carragher@agendani.com

implications on the delivery of critical services.

Barriers to economic growth that existed pre-Covid-19 have largely been compounded, as have many of the challenges facing the various sectors within the economy.

Advertising Stephen McCoy stephen.mccoy@agendani.com Design

As many sectors and businesses emerge from lockdown, there is a recognisable need for fresh emphasis in delivering on many of the pledges made within the New Decade, New Approach agreement and a new way of working.

Gareth Duffy, Head of Design gareth.duffy@agendani.com Paul Rooney, Graphic Design paul.rooney@agendani.com Subscriptions

Delivering new strategic frameworks that recognise the looming challenges of Brexit, climate change and the fallout of the

Sharon Morrison Email: subscriptions@agendani.com Online: www.agendani.com

pandemic, presents opportunity, if done right. agendaNi

However, recognition must be given to the fact that business as usual will not suffice. Instead Northern Ireland must find a new normal to deliver sustainable change, including greater levels of co-operation on an all-island basis.

Recognising the critical role of infrastructure in underpinning economic growth is a focus of both this edition’s cover story and round table discussion, while work already underway and identification of some of the key transformations necessary are a focus in our reports on health and care services, housing and children and young people.

David Whelan

www.agendaNi.com

bmf Business Services Davidson House Glenavy Road Business Park Moira, Co Down, BT67 0LT Tel: +44 (0) 28 9261 9933 Twitter: @agendani Web: www.agendani.com Printed by: GPS Colour Graphics

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The FSC’s Chain of Custody certification provides a way in which the material can be tracked from the certified initial source through the manufacturing process to the end user.

matters arising

Boundary Commission report annulled in Court of Appeal MPs in Westminster for 650 to 600, which would have reduced the number of Northern Ireland representatives from 18 to 17. The final recommendations saw Belfast retain its current number of four seats, unlike previous provisional plan that had seen it dropping to three, and it was argued successfully that the Commission had invoked the 5 per cent rule to deviate from provisional recommendations without a sound legal basis.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that plans to redraw the electoral boundaries of Northern Ireland should be considered null after senior judges identified a failure to fully consider all responses before the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland had finalised and published its recommendations. The Court of Appeal also found that inadequate reasons were

given for the use of a rule that allows the Boundary Commission to move away from a 5 per cent range of the UK electoral quota when constituency sizes are under consideration for reform.

The Electoral Commission’s plan, published in September 2018, outlined the intention to cut the overall number of

The High Court held in May 2019 that the Commission had not been comprehensive in its discretionary measures by failing to consider all consultation responses received during the final stage of the process. As a new bill regarding UK electoral boundaries is currently under consideration at Westminster, the Commission had held that the case could be considered academic, but the latest ruling has now fully quashed the report. The review that took place in 2018 in order to produce the now-dead report is reported to have cost ÂŁ798,000.

Domestic and sexual abuse action plan published

Justice Minister Naomi Long MLA and Health Minister Robin Swann MLA have published an action plan for year five of the seven-year Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy, along with a progress report for year four, 2019/20.

The action plan, the fifth to be published

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agenda matters

under the Strategy, features a number of cross departmental actions to combat domestic and sexual abuse, which has increased on 2019 levels, markedly so since the introduction of Covid-19 lockdown measures. These include: introducing multi-agency domestic homicide reviews; progressing the implementation of the priority area recommendations of the Gillen Review of law and procedures in serious sexual offences; piloting a scheme with the Department of Education to notify schools of domestic abuse incidents based on Operation Encompass, a similar English scheme; the introduction of free public transport for those going to refuge or emergency accommodation as a result of domestic abuse with the Department for Infrastructure; working with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs on domestic abuse in rural settings; and giving consideration to how to further

develop the Department for Communities’ Sanctuary Scheme in order to allow victims to remain safe in their homes.

Highlights of the 2019/20 year and year four of the Strategy chosen for the progress report also featured a wide array of cross departmental and legislative actions, including: the introduction of the Domestic Abuse and Family Proceedings Bill to provide for a new domestic abuse offence and statutory aggravators; the introduction of the Identification and Referral to Improve Society pilot in East Belfast and Newry/Down district GP federations; further development of the Sanctuary Scheme; continued piloting of Behavioural Changes Programmes across the Health and Social Care Trusts; and the completion of PILGRIM project, which supports sexual abuse complainants through the justice system.

matters arising

Executive Office relations strained Marie Marin email: marie.marin@employersforchildcare.org

Any pathway to recovery relies on our vital childcare infrastructure This is an unprecedented time for all of us as we respond to the impact of Covid-19 on our families, workplaces and society as a whole. The economy is expected to shrink substantially, with some sectors likely to be harder hit than others. The childcare sector is both one which will experience a significant impact, and one which is particularly vital.

Access to childcare is part of our essential economic infrastructure, and a key component of any pathway to recovery. Without access to childcare, it will not be possible for parents to progress through the five stages of the Executive’s Coronavirus Recovery Plan and move back into work – whether that is working from home, or as we start to phase back to our offices and places of work.

First Minister Arlene Foster, Head of the NICS David Sterling and deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill.

Relations in the Executive Office are visibly strained just seven months after the parties agreed to resume power-sharing.

but Arlene Foster has said that it is a signal

In a significant step, regular joint briefings by the First Minister and deputy First Minister have been reduced to press statements following the fallout over Michelle O’Neill attending the funeral of republican Bobby Storey.

Foster has fallen short of calling for O’Neill

Arlene Foster has said that she cannot currently “stand beside” the deputy First Minister and “give out public health advice”.

However, it’s highly unlikely that a threat to

MLAs from four of the five parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly backed a motion criticising Sinn Féin ministers over their attendance at the funeral austerity that Covid-19 restrictions were broken.

The motion, calling for the ministers to apologise, will have no enforceable action

“there cannot be a toleration for double standards”.

to resign. In 2017, calls by then deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness for Foster to step aside led to the three-year collapse of the institutions.

collapse the Executive will emerge from any of the parties given the emphasis being put on the importance of local decision-making as Northern Ireland attempts to economically recover from the impact of Covid-19.

O’Neill has apologised “for grieving families experiencing more hurt” but insists she did not break social distancing

While it was frustrating that the Executive’s plan failed to mention childcare, we know that considerable work is ongoing, across Government Departments – particularly Health and Education – to support the sector. Employers For Childcare is part of a Childcare Reference Group and one of a number of organisations advising on the response to the crisis. Settings are now able to apply for welcome financial support either to remain open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers, or to mitigate some of the worst of the financial impact of their closure.

However, even as lockdown measures continue to lift, childcare settings will not be operating at capacity for some time. Ultimately, some may struggle to re-open, leading to a reduction in childcare places at the very time when the economy needs working parents, and a loss of employment for staff.

While we understand that work on the Childcare Strategy has been delayed as resources have been diverted to respond to the crisis, now is the time to look ahead and plan to ensure the future sustainability of our vital childcare sector – the importance of which parents who have been working from home, while juggling childcare and home schooling, are now all too familiar with.

For advice and guidance on financial support for parents or childcare providers, contact our Family Benefits Advice Service on Freephone 0800 028 3008 or email hello@employersforchildcare.org

www.employersforchildcare.org

guidelines.

agenda matters

5

issues agenda

‘A deep and prolonged downturn’ Ellvena Graham (left) and Minister for the Economy Diane Dodds.

Minister for the Economy Diane Dodds MLA has unveiled the details of her plan to rebuild the Northern Ireland economy after the damage wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The medium-term plan covers the next 18 months and the other challenges, such as rising unemployment, reduced foreign direct investment (FDI) and Brexit complications, that are expected to come.

“It is now inevitable that we are facing a deep and prolonged downturn,” the ‘Rebuilding a Stronger Economy’, plan begins. Within, it is written that there is a “need to develop a plan to respond to this reality, and take action to rebuild a more competitive, inclusive and greener economy”. Dodds admits that this will require a change in tack for the Northern Ireland economy, with an acknowledgement that returning to the pre-pandemic economy will not deliver the levels of recovery needed.

6

agenda issues

The Minister writes that “rebuilding our economy will only be possible if we successfully adapt to the new normal created by Covid-19 and EU Exit and deliver change with constrained budgets”.

The Minister’s strategy sets out a framework with three key pillars to steer this new normal: higher paying jobs; a highly skilled and agile workforce; and a more regionally balanced economy.

post-Good Friday Agreement era. The number of those accessing unemployment benefits more than doubled from March to May 2020, rising from 29,700 to 65,200. The majority of the new claims occurred between March and April, with almost 30,000 new claimants registering in that time, and a further 5,700 registering from April to May.

The report comes at a time when unemployment figures for Northern Ireland have reached their highest in the

These figures are the highest recorded since 1997, with the most recent peak being 64,800 in February 2013. The

issues agenda

unemployment rate now stands at 7 per cent. The Labour Force Survey, which thus far has only covered the early stages of the pandemic, reported 350 proposed redundancies in May, but predicted almost 1,500 over the first two weeks of June.

Set against this bleak backdrop, Dodds’s report says that “we can expect to see more damaging impacts in the near future with a real risk of long-term scarring of our economy and society”.

The key issues currently facing the Northern Ireland economy as stated in the report are: a decline in output more severe than the rest of the UK; a higher share of food manufacturing, life sciences and public sector workers “indicating the potential for future sheltering”; the undoing of six years of labour market recovery being undone in one month and the expectation of a sharp rise in redundancies; areas that had already had high claimant rates seeing further increases; retail sales declining and the reality of social distancing meaning consumer spending will continue to fall; “the risk that these economic issues could be further compounded by the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol and EU Exit”; the combined pressures of Brexit and Covid-19 depressing rural employment; and a likely reduction in levels of FDI, upon which Northern Ireland is so dependent.

In order to address these myriad concerns, the report outlines plans to address the structural weaknesses of a lack of high-paying jobs, a skills gap and the regional imbalance.

To address the problem of low-paying jobs, the report says that Northern Ireland “must have a pathway to ensure that those currently in lower paying jobs can transition to better jobs”. Productivity is also singled out, with Northern Ireland having consistently lagged behind the rest of the UK in this area, where the UK itself is not a world leader. The report proposes a focus on four sectors “where we are already global leaders, and which have potential in providing more higher paid jobs”: life and health sciences; advanced manufacturing; clean energy; and digital.

In terms of skills, Northern Ireland currently possesses qualifications to

“Northern Ireland currently possesses qualifications to degree level in 34.9 per cent of 16 to 64-year olds, with 14.7 per cent of the same age bracket possessing no qualifications at all. In comparison, the UK rates for these figures are 39.2 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.” degree level in 34.9 per cent of 16 to 64year olds, with 14.7 per cent of the same age bracket possessing no qualifications at all. In comparison, the UK rates for these figures are 39.2 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. Northern Ireland also consistently ranks as the UK country with the highest levels of economic inactivity.

The report speaks of a need to develop skills interventions to assist those employed in sectors likely to face redundancies and unemployment to gain skills for the sectors likely to continue to provide employment. The Department for the Economy has been developing a new Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland, with key principles of investing in digital skills, creating a culture of constant learning and upskilling and reducing the skills imbalance. The recent removal of barriers such as age to access to apprenticeships is also pointed to as an area of potential for skilling and reskilling as the economy rebuilds.

Transport infrastructure and rural broadband provision are cited as the greatest impediments towards achieving the regional balance that has for so long been a goal of the Executive. While Project Stratum is designed to address rural broadband needs, the report concedes that the FDI upon which Northern Ireland is so dependent is “unlikely” to address regional disparity, making this the responsibility of indigenous industry, which require the

consumer confidence the pandemic has made so scarce.

Dodds has also announced the makeup of the Department’s Economic Advisory Group, which will be chaired by Ellvena Graham, the former head of Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland. The 11-member group is made up of board members of EY, Glanbia, Ulster Carets, Bombardier, Catalyst, Invest NI, Herbert Smith Freehills, Matrix, Grafton Recruitment and Kainos. The Minister said that “their combined business expertise will lead to expertise and advice which will be extremely valuable”, but the makeup of the group has been criticised by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party.

Criticism centred on the absence of trade union representatives and community and voluntary sector representation in the group. Chair of the Economy Committee, Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald called for the membership to be widened to “deal with longstanding problems of the past”, while the SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin called it a “missed opportunity”.

Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson called for “participation from everyone involved” in the recovery, saying: “Workers will obviously be a key part, so trade unions should have a voice in this group to advocate for workers’ rights.”

agenda issues

7

cover story

Critical infrastructure: An economic priority Chief Executive of NI Water Sara Venning talks to Owen McQuade about the investment challenge for Northern Ireland’s waste water infrastructure and her ambition to see NI Water play a central role in the region’s economic recovery.

8

cover story

cover story

Underscoring the importance of built-in resilience for a utility that acts as an enabler for so much of Northern Ireland’s economic and societal activity, Venning highlights NI Water’s effective handling of the impact of the unprecedented pandemic.

Like most organisations, NI Water faced almost immediate limitations to their ‘usual’ ways of working following the introduction of lockdown restrictions.

However, this challenge was coupled with an increase in demand for water, as the fundamental role water plays safeguarding the health of the population was realised.

The Chief Executive explains that the organisation’s Integrated Risk and Resilience Framework, an evolving risk plan which incorporates all aspects of the business from IT infrastructure to technology availability and safety measures, ensured that 750 staff were able to make a “seamless” switch to working from home.

At the same time, those staff deemed essential to frontline operations, within treatment works, for example, were able to quickly initiate protocols that ensured a safe working environment.

“As an organisation we’re good at managing incidents and ensuring business continuity. That continuity is particularly important in the context that the risk relates to public health. So, our role in ensuring water continued to flow to hospitals, care homes and for food productions was crucial,” she says.

“At the same time, the Government’s public health advice centred on two key messages of regular hand washing and keeping hydrated, again highlighting the importance of a clean, safe and reliable water supply.”

With most of the population initially housebound, and many continuing to work from home, NI Water has had to facilitate a huge shift in demand from business to home usage. The reduction in business use, Venning explains, did not weigh evenly with the spike in home use, to the point where, coupled with one of the driest springs in a century, NI Water has raised concerns around potential drought conditions going into summer.

Areas with serious sewer capacity issues prior to PC21 investment (size of circles are representative of the population impacted).

“The limitations on our wastewater capacity means that not only may homes not be built but also jobs may not be created to build these homes.”

That concern has prompted fresh impetus by NI Water to raise awareness of its crucial role in underpinning and enabling much of Northern Ireland’s economy.

“In terms of output, the results show that we are delivering our highest ever quality of drinking water and we maintained our continuity of supply throughout the challenging lockdown period. However, we’re concerned at the current levels in our reservoirs, that have dropped very quickly from being 100 per cent full at the end of winter.

“That’s why we are pushing the message about essential consumption.

We have a finite amount of water we can treat and supply to homes and businesses through our Water Treatment Works and we need to ensure that it will stretch throughout what is looking to be a dry summer.”

Offering an example of the level of strain being put on the government-owned company’s largely ageing and underfunded infrastructure, Venning points out that on 29 May alone, NI Water had to increase production of treated water by 120 million litres to over 700 million litres to keep everyone supplied, an unsustainable volume for Water Treatment Works as they stand.

The challenges posed by NI Water’s funding restraints are long-standing.

Systematic underinvestment was compounded by the PC15 business plan (for the period 2015-2021), which was set at an allocation of £990 million against a £1.7 billion requirement. The actual funding is likely to fall short of £900 million and added to this is an estimated £30 million reduction from business revenues this financial year.

Venning says: “NI Water will always prioritise its treated water infrastructure

coverissues story agenda

4 9

cover story

protect our natural environment and keep our population healthy through safe, clean drinking water and the safe management of sewage and wastewater.

“Northern Ireland’s economy, like many other countries, has stalled. Across the globe we are hearing governments talk about the importance of investing in infrastructure, particularly ‘climate friendly and green infrastructure”, to stimulate economic recovery and secure economic growth. We believe the potential that investment in infrastructure offers is doubly important right now in a Northern Ireland context. Firstly, because there is an opportunity to grow our way out of a recession and secondly because right now is the time to invest in our infrastructure so that it is ready for when the economy catches up.

Dunore Solar Farm produces 6m Kw/h per annum.

to ensure that every household, business, hospital and school has a reliable supply of safe, clean water, so when investment is restricted by government it’s the wastewater (sewerage by another name) infrastructure that suffers. Upgrades to 81 large Wastewater Treatment Works had to be deferred during the PC15 period, meaning that many are now operating at or close to capacity. This has resulted in curbs to economic development, particularly in relation to new connections for new housing and businesses.

“There are now 116 towns in Northern Ireland where those constraints are realities. The outworking of that is that we know of at least 35 housing development sites, including some 1,000 social homes, where developers can’t simply build and connect to the sewers. The limitations on our wastewater capacity means that not only may homes not be built but also jobs may not be created to build these homes.”

Similarly, the Chief Executive says that NI Water currently has 10 applications from large employers for increased Trade Effluent, needed for business expansion, which may have to be rejected due to insufficient capacity in their local wastewater infrastructure. Again, the impact on jobs and the economy is obvious.

10

cover story

Added to this are concerns around the viability of Local Development Plans being brought forward by Northern Ireland’s Local Authorities. Some 28 ‘hub’ towns have been identified in these plans as centres for economic growth, 25 of which are included in NI Water’s list of areas with little or no capacity in their wastewater systems.

“Underfunding over PC15 is part of a generational underinvestment in the sewerage infrastructure, which adds complexity and significant inefficiency to the delivery of longer term asset resilience, risks deterioration in levels of service for customers, and is leading to inadequate environmental protection through increased pollution and sewer flooding,” explains Venning.

“The benefit is that from our perspective we have a long-term investment plan, with projects already identified and ready in the planning. Investment in infrastructure represents a major opportunity to stimulate jobs and retain a lot of highly-skilled people.

“This is a major opportunity and we are hoping that the Northern Ireland Executive, as NI Water’s shareholder, recognises that we are in a great position to pick up and deliver.”

PC21 business plan sets out that £2.5 billion, including the £1 billion Living with Water Programme for drainage in Belfast, is required. The final decision on the plan by the regulator is now expected in March 2021, following a short Covid-19 related delay.

“Unless we start properly investing in our failing wastewater infrastructure, we will have to make difficult choices about our economy and our natural environment. The scale of the problem requires a major, inescapable step change in investment.”

The Northern Ireland Executive gave NI Water high profile within the New Decade, New Approach deal, stating that it will “invest urgently in wastewater infrastructure which is at or nearing capacity in many places across Northern Ireland, including in Belfast, limiting growth”.

However, Venning also recognises vast opportunities for NI Water to be central to facilitate Northern Ireland’s economic recovery; its PC21 business plan, submitted to the Utility Regulator in January, if fully funded by government, will not only help Northern Ireland’s economy to recover post Covid but also

Venning recognises that the level of investment required is a significant jump from current levels and that NI Water will face competition for a share of the block grant in challenging economic times. To this end, she hopes that NI Water has landed the point that to countenance anything less than the outlined

cover story

requirement in PC21 would have significant ramifications on the wider economy.

NI Water estimates that even a £50 million reduction in PC21 funding would mean over 20 areas in towns and cities would not be able to have their much needed Wastewater Treatment Works and sewer network projects initiated, while a circa £300 million reduction would prevent necessary work in over 65 areas across the country.

Climate While NI Water’s immediate focus continues to be on securing adequate funding to allow critical investment in its water and wastewater infrastructure, Venning says that the organisation is “determined to harness the huge and largely unseen potential for NI Water to enable climate change to be addressed”.

Emphasising the potential of NI Water to play an even greater role in Northern Ireland’s economic recovery and development, the Chief Executive believes that the utility can be a key building block in Northern Ireland’s ambition to be net zero carbon.

Highlighting its often under-stated position as Northern Ireland’s second biggest land-owner, with some 27,000 acres across over 3,000 widely distributed sites, and as Northern Ireland’s largest electricity consumer, Venning says that NI Water “is ideally placed to play a pivotal role in enabling Northern Ireland to significantly reduce harmful CO2 emissions”.

Alongside stretching goals to switch to 100 per cent renewable electricity consumption for its own operations, NI Water is already engaging with stakeholders about opening up their sites for greater investments in the likes of hydro, solar and wind generation, while also initiating the planting of one million carbon capturing trees.

Venning explains the potential benefits of utilising NI Water’s existing major electricity supply connections, if equipped with battery storage, to better align supply to demand in local distribution areas, minimising the need for network upgrades. Additionally, the requirement for NI Water to have back

Chief Executive of NI Water Sara Venning.

up energy sources at each of their sites, if converted to battery storage, could facilitate the greater capture of renewable energy generated at low demand times, thereby encouraging greater levels of renewable technology development.

with SONI’s ambition to see wind generation expand significantly by 2030.

Flexible energy demand for electrolysis, particularly at night when there is limited alternative use for wind powered electricity, could be key in building investor confidence as hydrogen

However, she believes the greatest potential relates to hydrogen, describing proposals for developing a hydrogen economy as “a real game changer”.

Explaining the potentially significant role NI Water could play in the decarbonisation of road transport, while at the same time creating efficiencies in their own processes, she says: “When you electrolyse water it creates oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen is needed to treat wastewater and so great to reduce our wastewater costs, but it’s the hydrogen produced from the same electrolysis that could be a real game changer for Northern Ireland.”

Hydrogen fuel is seen as the key to ultra low emissions for large vehicles and given the location of NI Water’s wastewater sites in every major town, Venning envisages their use as green hydrogen fuel stations, facilitating a range of HGVs and LGVS from Translink through to the agriculture and haulage sectors.

becomes more and more important,” adds Venning.

Concluding, the Chief Executive says: “There are lots of significant opportunities to harness NI Water’s assets to help address the climate emergency. All of them are very doable with joined up thinking, commitment and action from government and private sector industry, but time to address the climate emergency is short. We need get our collective heads together now.”

Venning is optimistic for the future, believing that NI Water has consistently demonstrated the importance of investment in NI Water’s infrastructure in facilitating economic improvement and the importance of their service to public health and hopes that this will be endorsed with the necessary financial backing. As society begins to contemplate what ‘normal’ may now

NI Water is in the process of applying for funding for a pilot programme in relation to the electrolysis of water.

look like, safe clean water and sanitation

“Producing hydrogen is also a good fit

and climate change.

remain vital in the face of rising challenges such as health pandemics

cover story

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issues agenda

Cross-border testing and tracing contact match for the app to be adjusted based on the strength of the Bluetooth signal and duration of exposure. Using the settings in use by Switzerland’s app, the experiment logged no contacts despite 60 handsets being placed within two metres of each other. Despite this, interim HSE Chief Information Officer Fran Thompson has said that field tests had shown a 72 per cent overall success rate.

Northern Ireland looks set to follow Ireland’s lead in introducing Covid tracing technology following the official launch of Covid Tracker Ireland.

Ireland’s new contact tracing app went live on 6 June after weeks of testing and some delay to the rollout. The app, which has been designed to operate on a cross-border basis, is also likely to be available in Northern Ireland soon with the Executive partnering with the app’s designers in order to procure a rollout for Northern Ireland too.

Concerns had been raised about the reliability and accuracy of the new technology in its early life, with the UK Government expressing worry about false alerts. However, Ireland has now joined the likes of China and Germany in digitally tracking the movement of the people within, in an attempt to identify those diagnosed with Covid-19 and warn those who may have come into contact with them.

Tests had been carried out in the Republic of Ireland ahead of the rollout of the app, with members of An Garda 12

agenda issues

Síochána participating as they had been one of the few workforces still outside and interacting regularly during the pandemic. The results were satisfactory enough for health officials to advise that the rollout move to the next phase and subsequently full roll out.

Because the app has been designed to support UK mobile phone numbers, cross-border rollout of the app has already been accounted for; this provision also makes it possible for any visitors from Britain to utilise the app during their visit. The app is expected to be released in Northern Ireland before the end of July.

An early stumbling block in testing, conducted by a team from Trinity College Dublin, found that the metal of a bus’s fittings and structure could cause problems for apps based on the GoogleApple application programme interface (API). This API allows the triggering of a

The Executive has partnered with the Waterford firm in charge of developing the app, Nearform, in a move that would see them become a trendsetter in the UK as far as tracing apps are concerned. A Department of Health statement to the BBC confirmed that work had been commissioned to develop a proximity app that “includes examining the interoperability of apps and the sharing of information across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic”.

The Executive had previously rejected plans for the NHS’s app over fears that it would not be compatible with the Republic of Ireland. At the time, Minister for Health Robin Swann said: “We have to ensure that we progress the work done for a Northern Ireland version so that it can interact with the Republic of Ireland app.” The HSE’s app had originally been scheduled for release in early April, but delays regarding privacy and efficacy had slowed its development.

Northern Ireland rolling out an app before the rest of the UK would be in keeping with the Covid-19 experience thus far, given that the Executive was the first of the devolved institutions to roll out its own contract tracing mechanism.

Following the criticism that surrounded the UK Government decision to halt tracing in March, the Executive unveiled its “enhanced contact tracing pilot” on a five-day-a-week basis in April before expanding the programme in May. By early June, 480 Covid-positive people had been contacted, with 721 contacts successfully traced.

Leadership in lockdown also the subject of a video input I did recently with my daughter to support young emerging leaders. On a Belfast, London, Singapore link-up last month, I reflected on developing a much more holistic appreciation of resilience by learning from someone in the next generation.

Principal and Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College, Louise Warde Hunter.

I am sure that you are familiar with the TV ad with the strapline “We don’t make a drama out of a crisis”.

That is exactly the spirit of collective leadership and determined action I have found since taking up my new post in the middle of Covid-19 lockdown as Principal and Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College, writes Louise Warde Hunter.

Arriving on 20 April 2020, after a long commute downstairs to my repurposed music room (which family seriously needs seven guitars, two ukuleles, a mandolin and a violin), I logged on and my new IT promptly went caput! So, the first morning was spent talking to my new team via the phone but by noon I was up and running on Teams, Skype, email, and several social media platforms. By 2pm the sense of arrival was complete. But what a strange way to land in a new role especially one so focussed on delivering to people and to serving our wider community. A fourcampus college with no sign of its 12,356 students and with its 1,058 staff all doing their best to continue to deliver their work from home.

Despite the strange times the last two months have flown. I have met, and continue to meet a good number of my new colleagues through video conferencing. Through them I have had a detailed insight into how important Belfast Met is to thousands of lives,

families and businesses. I have seen at first hand the important learning community the College represents, one dedicated to serving others in developing and enhancing skills, never more important than now as we work to support economic recovery.

The speed at which our lecturing staff moved from face to face learning to remote delivery methods has been remarkable, flipping a classroom-based approach to an online model seemingly overnight. And of course that required the support of colleagues not on the front- line interface with our students.

Success, in this case, really did have many mothers and fathers.

Recognition of the different needs of our diverse learners has ensured that the health and wellbeing of students, as well as staff, has been front and centre. I have grown in understanding of the resilience of colleagues and learners alike, seeking, and succeeding, to adapt to new ways of working. Resilience was

The profoundly human nature of our ability to regroup, reinvent and rebound seems to me to be at the heart of the challenges we face organisationally and societally today. Linked to that, the relationship between leadership, change and communication has always fascinated me. The subject of a thesis many moons ago, I find the practice usually more interesting than the theory and have been inspired by the commitment to shared leadership, pace of adaptation and engagement that I have witnessed since taking up post at Belfast Met. My own original engagement plan involved lots of face to face meetings.

That has been replaced by online chats, virtual meetings and weekly vlogs.

There’s a real intimacy in being invited in to people’s homes that I think has made us ‘cut to the chase’ a lot more. I for one hope that we hold on to that sense of connectedness as we migrate back to offices and campuses. Therein lies a whole different kind of recovery.

Belfast Met offer a wide range of Full Time and Part Time courses, including those in Leadership and Management, alongside an extensive range of business support programmes to upskill, reskill and innovate.

For more information please visit www.belfastmet.ac.uk

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Maps of Postcode centroids in Northern Ireland by NGA classification: Postcodes containing one or more “White” premises.

‘Competitive’ process for broadband improvement The Department for the Economy believes a government scheme to enhance broadband connectivity across Northern Ireland remains on track and will receive the necessary funding over the next four years.

The tendering process for Project Stratum closed on 5 May. The tendering deadline had initially been extended following a data refresh by the Department in January 2020, which led to a downsizing of the intervention area by 18,390 premises.

There were concerns that the outbreak of Covid-19 might have pushed the tendering deadline further, however, the

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Department has confirmed that tenders were “submitted in accordance with this timeline”.

The Department would not provide details on the number of or name of those tendering for the project but a spokesperson stated that the process “remains competitive”.

Project Stratum is a £165 million project

seeking to improve connectivity for those unable to access broadband services of 30 Mbps or greater across Northern Ireland.

In December 2019, the Department announced that 97,140 premises across Northern Ireland were potentially eligible to benefit from improved broadband connectivity under Project Stratum, following the publication of its response

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to a public consultation. However, a UKwide data refresh exercise was conducted during the months of December 2019 and January 2020 and coupled with progress on other broadband initiatives and ongoing work by broadband infrastructure providers, led the Department to announce a reduction in the number of premises eligible to 78,750.

Following the closing of the tendering process, a spokesperson for the Department said that the anticipated date for contract award remains to be late September 2020. “Officials are working to ensure that progress aligns to this targeted date, subject to final approvals and state aid assurance,” he added.

Around 90 per cent of premises in Northern Ireland have access to a superfast broadband service, according to Ofcom, short of the 95 per cent target set by the UK Government and largely achieved in Britain by December 2017.

Northern Ireland’s connectivity rate when the Project Stratum process was initiated in June 2018 was 88 per cent.

Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report 2019 reported Northern Ireland to have a lower rural 30+ Mbps rate than England, Scotland and Wales, with just 68 per cent of rural premises able to access such speeds.

Project Stratum is a £165 million project, with £150 million of that intended funding arriving through the £1 billion confidence and supply deal struck between the DUP and Theresa May’s Conservative Party in 2017 and the extra £15 million coming from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Questions were raised over the security of the outlined funding following the announcement of the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) funding package from Westminster, which incorporated the confidence and supply funding into a broader allocation to the Northern Ireland Executive.

Initially, £3 million of the £150 million had been included for capital allocation for 2019/20. In March the Department responded to inquiries as to why this had yet to be drawn down.

“Broadband remains a key priority for both the Executive and the UK Government, and we fully expect the funding for this project to be profiled against the practical deployment requirements indicated, and we are working on that basis.”

A spokesperson said that the full £150 million had been “reprofiled across the financial years to 2023/24”.

agreed to release the 2020-21 tranche of

Following the closing of the tendering process, the Department confirmed of the full £165 million that: “The project’s funding profile requires this to be allocated across four years in order to meet the anticipated deployment requirements for broadband infrastructure across the target intervention area.”

totalling £45 million for this financial

Initially, the then Secretary of State indicated that confidence and supply funding would cease following the NDNA financial package and the Executive agreed to provide replacement funding to allow for the continuation of these schemes while negotiations were ongoing.

funding from the financial annex to the Confidence and Supply Agreement year, of which £15 million was allocated to Project Stratum, in line with the funding profile,” a Department’s spokesperson stated.

However, the remaining funding for the future roll out of the project will be required to be allocated by the Executive through the Department of Finance’s future budgets. In unprecedented times for economic decision-making, the Department remains confident that funding will be available when necessary for Project Stratum.

“Broadband remains a key priority for both the Executive and the UK

However, subsequently the HM Treasury confirmed that the funding for Confidence and Supply will be made available in 2020-21.

Government, and we fully expect the

“On 9 April 2020 it was confirmed that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury

working on that basis,” added the

funding for this project to be profiled against the practical deployment requirements indicated, and we are spokesperson.

Summary of premises released after the Department’s public consultation These figures have now changed as a result of the reduction of premises

Number of postcodes

Number of premises

White

15,104

97,140

Grey

28,074

411,223

Black

13,769

334,317

1,590

8,669

Under review

White= No qualifying broadband infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within three years.

Grey= Only one network is present or is to be deployed within the coming three years.

Black= At least two networks of different operators exist or will be deployed in the coming 3 years.

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Covid-19: “Turning the final page of this story” Ciarán Galway discusses the adequacy of Ireland’s public health response to Covid-19 and the necessity of all-island coordination with Gabriel Scally, President of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Belfast-born public health specialist Gabriel Scally entered the wider Irish public consciousness having led the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme. Commencing in May 2018, the work of the Scoping Inquiry concluded in June 2019. Prior to this, in Northern Ireland, Scally assisted as an expert witness and advisor to the chair of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemiarelated Deaths, the report of which was published in January 2018.

More recently, throughout the Covid-19 crisis, Scally has been a ferocious critic of the British Government’s lethargic response to the pandemic. In March, reflecting on the lessons learnt from the

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Ebola outbreaks and applied in the context of Covid-19, WHO Executive Director Mike Ryan advised: “Be fast.

Have no regrets. You must be the first mover… If you need to be right before you move, you will never win.”

Echoing Ryan’s sentiments, Scally asserts: “In traditional public health terms, you respond to an infectious disease outbreak with urgency and you make all possible attempts to get ahead of the virus as soon as you possibly can.”

The public health ‘toolbox’ in such scenarios includes: testing to identify the disease if it isn’t immediately obvious;

tracing the infection backwards in an attempt to identify the index case; contact tracing to follow spread beyond an infected individual; quarantining as an ancient method of preventing further spread; and disseminating information to tell people that you have found it, thereby raising awareness and determining a potentially wider pattern.

Scally indicates that the countries that have been most effective in their public health response are those that have taken note of, and learnt from, the experience of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the zoonotic viral respiratory disease, and thus acted swiftly to introduce social restrictions,

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shutdown transport systems and introduce border controls, as in South Korea and Vietnam. Most crucially, exemplar countries adopted the principle of finding the virus, tracking it down and killing it.

“Interestingly, many of the locations that have dealt well with it have been islands, not unlike Ireland. New Zealand has done well, Australia has done extremely well, as has Taiwan. Greece has done amazingly well which is interesting given how much its reputation suffered because of its response to and full engagement in creating the economic crisis that affected so many European countries,” Scally says.

Adequate Acknowledging that it has not been “as good as one would have wanted”, the public health expert regards Ireland’s response as having been “adequate”. In particular, he highlights the failure to halt movement at Irish seaports and airports.

“In some ways we are victims of our geographic position and connections.

Pursuing some of those measures is countercultural, certainly in a political context, even if it is on public health grounds,” he says.

Another specific criticism Scally makes relates to Ireland’s data systems.

Suggesting that some of the Covid-19

“Consider the shortages of PPE in care facilities. If that’s shielding, then it’s not so much a shield as a sieve.” data produced has been “first class” and describing the daily briefings as accessible and transparent, he is critical of the guidelines in respect of death registration.

“The length of time within which a death must be registered is three months which is astounding,” he says, adding: “Most people think that deaths should probably be notified to someone official slightly sooner than three months. In Northern Ireland, England and Wales the equivalent figure is five days and in Scotland eight days.”

Consequently, data is very slow in emerging and it was originally thought that Ireland’s performance was much better than the reality. EuroMOMO, a website that provides monitoring for infectious disease outbreaks, initially portrayed Ireland’s excess deaths as remaining flat, for instance. A notification on the site now indicates: “In Ireland, as a result of very significant delays in

death registrations during March and April 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, weekly z-scores of excess all-cause mortality do not reflect current Covid-19 (and non-Covid-19) excess mortality in Ireland.”

Lamenting this failing, Scally regards excess mortality comparisons – the number of deaths greater than the average of the previous five years – as the acid test for public health performance.

Care homes Similarly, Scally is critical of the high mortality rate in Irish care homes, a trend that has been mirrored in several countries. “It is a terrible indictment of the way in which we treat elderly people.

Not just the numbers of deaths but the fact that some people are dying, I suspect, without adequate medical and nursing care because the care homes cannot provide it,” he says.

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do. It just requires investment of time and money in quarantining people one way or another. It must be rigorous and universal.

“Otherwise, it makes a nonsense of everyone on the island practising social distancing. People from all parts of the world crammed cheek by jowl in metal tubes for hours and breathing recirculated air and then dispersing all over Ireland upon arrival is just crazy. I recognise fully the problems of having that discussion within the island and with the neighbouring island, but that must be had if we don’t want this to go on, cost more lives and necessitate more disruption,” he says.

North/south harmonisation Scally has been a vocal proponent of allIreland harmonisation of the public health response to Covid-19. He praises the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on public health cooperation on an all-Ireland basis co-signed by Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan and the North’s Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride as “saying all the right words”.

Under normal circumstances, Scally suggests, many of the people dying in care homes would have been admitted to hospital. That didn’t happen.

“Personally speaking, in such circumstances, I would like to be very well looked after by expert nurses and doctors who have access to some fairly powerful drugs to help me through that.

“That’s one of my concerns and a second concerns the language used which was about ‘shielding’ and ‘cocooning’ people. In fact, rather the opposite seems to have happened.

There seems to have been very little done. Consider the shortages of PPE in care facilities. If that’s shielding, then it’s not so much a shield as a sieve.”

Easing lockdown At the same time, the public health

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specialist is satisfied that Ireland has met the criteria set by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a guideline for easing lockdown. “We are heading into the final phase now in terms of eradicating the virus from the island, or we should be, if it wasn’t for the North. Just imagine that: if we had no cases on the island, for a few weeks, we could unlock everything. After that, we must be vigilant to pick it up when it pops up. The phases of ending restrictions could be undertaken in an orderly but relatively swift fashion,” he says.

However, Scally is still troubled by the issue of inadequate border control.

“Unless we take control of that situation, we will end up like China where we import many new cases and run the risk of undoing all our efforts. It’s not hard to

However, Scally is doubtful whether the Department of Health in Northern Ireland can deliver on the MOU. “It’s not like normal government in Northern Ireland. I do get the feeling that although there is a First Minister and a deputy First Minister, that they don’t have any control over the Health Minister.

“To use my old-fashioned NHS language, it’s not quite clear what the performance management regime is in the North. How can the whole population there and indeed across the island be sure that Northern Ireland’s Department of Health is going to do the job, particularly given some of the ways in which it has been behaving. It has been a very unfortunate episode, I think.”

Single epidemiological unit Ireland cannot be regarded as two distinct epidemiological units because of the nature of the 499 km-long mile border, Scally contends. “The virus does not respect borders and there are people who live and work on a cross-border

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basis. We treat Ireland as one epidemiological unit for animal health purposes, so why does it not make sense to treat it as a single unit for human health? To avoid doing so is throwing away our advantage,” he says.

While emphasising that there is only one outbreak on the island of Ireland, the public health expert distinguishes between the responses in either jurisdiction. Following the announcement of school closures in the Republic on 12 March, Scally watched closely over the following weekend as reports filtered in from all across Northern Ireland of people either closing schools unilaterally or refusing to send their children to school.

“The decision that really struck me was made jointly by the heads of the special schools in Belfast to close, irrespective of what the British Government said. It’s a good example of the public leading on the handling of this outbreak and the politicians catching up belatedly,” he reflects.

Following the lead of Westminster, community testing and contact tracing in Northern Ireland had also been abandoned on 12 March, a decision Scally regards as a fatal departure for many people. With the Northern Ireland Executive publishing its strategy for easing lockdown and announcing a revival of testing and tracing, he proposes that a perfect opportunity for mutual assistance had arisen.

“In the Republic, case numbers are falling and much of the contact tracing capacity isn’t being used. That has been well described in the press. As the numbers decrease, there will be much more intensity in tackling new cases, but there will be spare capacity, for example, in laboratories.

“Meanwhile, the North is trying, without visible evidence of success, to put a case finding, testing, contact tracing and isolation policy in place, with limited laboratory capacity. Here we have a fantastic opportunity for cooperation.”

Overall, Scally feels that very little is standing in the way of an effective allIreland response to the ongoing challenges posed by Covid-19. “It merely requires the will on behalf of some people to lay aside their long and no

“We will either get to zero cases on the island and relax many restrictions or, if we don’t have effective border controls and a good testing regime, we will have to wait for a vaccine.” doubt dearly held principles, prejudices and beliefs, focusing instead on ridding the entire island of this virus. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Ballycastle in County Antrim, Ballina in County Mayo or Bandon in County Cork, it’s in everyone’s interest that there are no cases anywhere on the island.”

From the first day that follows this crisis, the public health expert asserts, planning must begin for future pandemics. Once the data has been finalised, Ireland, he suggests, must ask itself why its response was not as robust as countries such as Greece, Denmark, Norway or Finland.

Looking ahead

Leaning on his experience from the CervicalCheck Inquiry, Scally advises against scapegoating individuals. “It’s an awful response. Rather than doing the hard learning and getting the system right. It’s easy and it’s wrong. We have a fantastic chance to get make sure that this never happens again in Ireland,” he insists.

Ireland, as a whole, now faces a choice.

“We will either get to zero cases on the island and relax many restrictions or, if we don’t have effective border controls and a good testing regime, we will have to wait for a vaccine,” he contends.

“I haven’t made a big public deal about this next issue because it’s not quite the time, though the time is approaching.

There will be a moment when we get through this and there will be a great deal of rejoicing at that time alongside a great deal of grieving for all the people who have died unnecessarily. Personally, I have lost a friend and I hate that. I’m in public health because I hate preventable death. That’s what my career has been; trying to stop people dying unnecessarily.

However, as we emerge from this, we must remember how we got here in the first place.”

There is a constant risk from the emergence of new novel viruses and there are always new combinations and strains. Only a single virus needs to get it ‘right’, finding some vulnerability and bypassing our defence mechanisms.

Paraphrasing a famous quip, Scally states: “The risk hasn’t gone away you know. It’s still there and will still be there in the future.”

Optimism Conceding the inevitability of occasional Covid-19 outbreaks as are being experienced elsewhere such as South Korea, Scally emphasises the importance of vigilance alongside the preservation of some degree of social distancing while necessary and relaxing it when possible.

The experience, he believes, opens opportunities to pursue new thinking in the organisation and delivery of health services. This includes consideration of UK 1948-type action in terms of bringing private hospitals into public ownership.

“I’m very optimistic and I’ll be delighted to see the end of this. It can be done, and the all-Ireland coordination is vital in achieving an organised end to this episode. A joint end. We have to turn the final page of this story at the same time, north and south,” Scally concludes.

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Climate action: Guidance needed agendaNi assesses the latest environmental figures in the absence of a new Programme for Government, expected to include key actions in tackling climate change and environmental improvements.

The New Decade, New Approach deal which brought about the resumption of devolved government in Northern Ireland included a number of significant pledges in relation to a strategic approach to the challenge of climate change. However, with many countries across Europe already well advanced in their environmental improvements and an ultimate goal of emitting zero carbon by 2050, the Northern Ireland Executive has yet to publish a fresh Programme for Government, giving clear direction to the region’s ambitions.

Currently, Northern Ireland’s environmental improvement measures are being largely guided by outcomes identified in the previous draft Programme for Government, devised prior to the collapse of the Executive and Assembly. In the Executive’s absence, these initial outcomes were transposed into an Outcomes Delivery Plan by the Northern Ireland Civil

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Service, first published in June 2018.

However, such outcomes lacked hard, binding targets and instead sought to improve on a range of key indicators including greenhouse gas emissions, waste management and biodiversity.

Northern Ireland’s last functioning Programme for Government included a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 35 per cent on 1990 levels by 2025. However, with significant advancements across Europe, including the Paris Climate Accord and the UK’s decision to declare a climate emergency in May 2019, it is likely that this target will be revised.

New Decade, New Approach set out plans for a long-awaited Climate Change Act, which would legally underpin environmental targets. Alongside those targets set to be included in a new Programme for Government will be a new Energy Strategy, which is currently

being developed, led by the Department for the Economy, and will set out a roadmap for a zero carbon society transition.

Northern Ireland is currently the only region of the UK without an Environmental Protection Agency, which would serve as an independent oversight body in ensuring targets are met. New Decade, New Approach sets out an ambition to establish one, however, to date this has not happened.

The predicted detrimental economic impact of Covid-19 has recently prompted a range of business, community and environmental groups to lobby Northern Ireland’s joint leaders to use the crisis to integrate a planned “Green New Deal”, also outlined in the New Decade, New Approach document, into any economic recovery strategy.

Released in May 2020, the Northern Ireland Environmental Statistics Report

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Greenhouse gas emissions by sector Northern Ireland, 2018 4% 27%

19.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e)

23%

14%

15% 12%

4%

g Waste Management g Transport g Residential g Other g Business g Energy supply g Agriculture

sets out progress against some of the key indicators included in the Programme for Government. While progress has been made in some areas, cause for concern exists around the extent of the achievements.

“If policy-makers choose to set a similar target

A prime example is in the area of greenhouse gas emissions. Figures for 2018 show that after a minimal rise between 2016-2017, Northern Ireland's greenhouse gas emission dropped by 2 per cent. This represents a 20 per cent decrease from the baseline year of 1990.

In comparison, the UK reduced emissions by 43 per cent in the same period. England and Scotland reduced emissions by 46 per cent and 45 per cent respectively, while Wales reduced emissions by 31 per cent. While the Programme for Government will record Northern Ireland's 2 per cent decrease as a positive change, the overall 20 per cent decrease represents a significant gap from the 35 per cent by 2025 target, originally outlined in the Programme for Government 2011-2015.

million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent

emissions, above its 3 per cent population share. If policy-makers choose to set a similar target of zero carbon emissions in Northern Ireland by 2050, then it would need to eradicate 19.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in the next 30 years, a tall ask when considering that just 4.86 MtCO2e has been eradicated in the previous 30.

The UK’s Climate Change Act, which without its own legislation, Northern Ireland has opted to be bound by and contribute towards wider UK targets, has committed the UK to reducing emissions by 100 per cent by 2050 from those 1990 baseline figures. Northern Ireland currently accounts for 4 per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas

Of course, greenhouse gas emissions is not the sole indicator of environmental improvements in Northern Ireland and will be just one element of a future Environment Strategy to be put to new Minister Edwin Poots, following the closing of a consultation by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in February this year.

of zero carbon emissions in Northern Ireland by 2050, then it would need to eradicate 19.4 (MtCO2e) in the next 30 years, a tall ask when considering that just 4.86 MtCO2e has been eradicated in the previous 30.”

Air quality Air quality will also be a key focus. The Outcomes Delivery Plan sets out a key indicator to measure progress against the annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentration at monitored urban roadside locations. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is part of a group of gaseous air pollutants produced as a result of road traffic and other fossil fuel combustion processes and is monitored across 16 sites across Northern Ireland.

Objectives are outlined by the UK Air Quality Strategy, which uses the same objectives set out in the EU Air Quality Directive. Roadside nitrogen dioxide levels have decreased from 40.6μg/m3 in 2012 to 29.6μg/m3 in 2019 and the

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Northern Ireland greenhouse gas emissions 2007-2018 24

MtCO 2 e

23 22 21 20 19 18 2007

2008

2009

average annual mean concentration of NO2 has fallen by over a quarter across Northern Ireland's urban background sites in 2019 compared to 2011-2016 figures.

In relation to the Programme for Government indicator, the mean nitrogen dioxide level for the 10 sites used was 4.2μg/m3 less in 2019 than figures for 2014, meaning a positive change was recorded. While Northern Ireland’s nitrogen dioxide levels sit comfortably below those objectives set out for the UK and the EU, and are also decreasing, plans for greater electrification across transport modes and changes to heating systems, to eradicate fossil fuel combustion means that these objectives will likely be continuously revised downwards into the future.

A further challenge for Northern Ireland lies in the contribution of its agriculture sector to ammonia levels. Ammonia is recognised as an air pollutant and in Northern Ireland emissions have increased some 8.7 per cent in 2018 compared to 2001 levels. 90 per cent of all ammonia emissions in 2018 in Northern Ireland came from livestock. In total the emissions from livestock 10.6 per cent in Northern Ireland compared to 2001, compared to a 10.8 per cent decrease for the UK as a whole for the same period.

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2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017 2018

Ambitions to reduce Northern Ireland’s levels of ammonia emissions, expected to be included in environmental improvement policy, will likely have to be balanced with the significance of Northern Ireland’s agricultural sector, most notably, its reliance on livestock and the subsequent economic contribution through exports.

per cent target in 2018/19, recognising

In terms of water quality, the Outcome Delivery Plan looks at the indicators in relation to both Soluble Reactive Phosphorus (SRP) in rivers and Winter Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) in marine waters. When combined for the purpose of measurement, the indicator is reported as no change, however, a more detailed analysis highlights a need for actions in relation to these areas.

Although minimal, Northern Ireland’s average concentration of SRP is above levels reported in 2015 and levels of DIN have increased significantly from 26.45 μM in 2015 to 35.71 μM in 2019, a negative change for Programme for Government Reporting.

the European Commission through its

significant annual increases and an 8 per cent rise from 2014/15 baseline year.

It is highly likely that any new environmental targets in regard to waste set out by the new Executive will attempt to align closely with revised legislative proposals on waste set out by Circular Economy Package. Amidst its various ambitions, the EU aims to achieve a common EU target for recycling 65 per cent of municipal waste, 75 per cent of package waste and reduce landfill to a maximum of 10 per cent of municipal waste, by 2030.

These statistics serve as just some examples whereby Northern Ireland must seek environmental improvements and tackle climate change through new policy direction and initiatives. The absence of decision-making has meant that Northern Ireland has not been equipped to initiate the significant long-

An area where Northern Ireland’s future environmental targets will seek to build on previous successes is in relation to waste and specifically recycling. The EU’s Waste from Household target stated that by 2020 recycling of waste materials should be increased to 50 per cent. Northern Ireland reached the 50

term plans already progressing in other parts of the UK, Ireland and Europe.

With ministers now back around the Executive table, there is an expectation for the approval of a range of plans aimed at addressing the climate and environment challenges.

The importance of construction training post Covid-19 CITB NI are focused on skills and training, we work with contractors, professional and trade bodies to support training initiatives and skills development for the overall benefit of the industry.

Training is important at every stage of business but never has it been as important than during the global pandemic, which has had a major impact on every sector of our economy and society. As we progress through the recovery stage, we all must review, adapt, and take the opportunity to embrace the lessons we have learnt from this crisis which will enable us to enhance and grow our industry.

Throughout the pandemic crisis CITB NI committed to continuing to provide additional support, advice and guidance to local construction employers in relation to levy and grant as well as ensuring training initiatives were accessible by moving them online. In April and May we paid out ÂŁ143,000 in grants to industry including ÂŁ108,000 (76 per cent) to support apprentices. Apprentices are vital to the construction industry as skills shortages and an aging workforce are putting the industry at risk. We need to continue to protect and improve this talent pipeline to help sustain the future of construction. In addition, ÂŁ17,000 was paid out as part of Training in Partnership grants to industry federations and employer bodies to provide training to the industry.

Prior to Covid-19 we were delivering mental health training to the construction industry via our Mobile Training Unit. We refocused some of this training to reflect the current situation and worked with industry professionals Inspire to deliver mental health support webinars and a

confidential telephone helpline service.

The industry federations have worked hard to provide best practice guidelines on construction getting back to work and onsite. We encourage employers to take account of these guidelines and government advice which will support and guide our industry back to work safely and productively.

As for the economy, many companies have either lost, or had delayed, contracts, jobs and income and the phased return to work will affect the speed of completion of contracts and work. Prior to Covid-19 our research from the Construction Skills Network had predicted a 0.8 per cent growth for Northern Ireland with 2,500 new recruits needed during the five-year forecast period, with the key focus on the construction of social housing and repair work. This will most likely change and as the statisticians work on the models and forecasts, we will plan and help develop the necessary and appropriate skills training required which will help ensure the industry is future proof.

Looking towards the future, CITB NI will continue to focus on providing the support and services needed to ensure local businesses are equipped with all the right skills. We will take our lead from the industry on the priorities, content and method of delivery. We, along with the rest of the industry, are looking at the measures we have had to put in place as a result of Covid-19. Some of these measures suggest that we consider new

ways of developing our workforce and I imagine these will enhance rather than replace what has gone before. Through a mix of grant funding and direct training interventions CITB NI will help develop the workforce to meet client needs and grow their business.

Registered employers are encouraged to make use of the grant scheme to help improve skills within their workforce. The CITB NI training grant scheme offers direct grants to registered employers to support a wide range of training and qualifications for employees working in Northern Ireland. The training grant funds are easy to claim. Employers are encouraged to claim online via the website.

For further information on what we can do to help you and your construction training, log on to www.citbni.org.uk, like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CITBNorther nIreland or follow the discussion on Twitter @CITBNI , Instagram @CITB1 and LinkedIn http://linkd.in/1GBeyLf

Supporting cross-border trade and collaboration during the pandemic out a survey in April as the crisis hit. It showed that 80 per cent of businesses had seen a dramatic reduction in their sales in the first few weeks of the crisis.”

Adapting to help SMEs in a new landscape InterTradeIreland then widened its approach, introducing a number of new supports to help businesses that trade across the border move out of crisis mode and into the recovery phase. At this point Gough stresses that the body wanted to develop initiatives that focused on its remit of cross-border trade and business development, and not to confuse the landscape for SMEs by duplicating what other government agencies were doing in both jurisdictions.

He acknowledges the comprehensive response from both governments to support businesses on both sides of the border.

Aidan Gough, Designated Officer of InterTradeIreland, discusses how the organisation has responded to the Covid-19 crisis and why cross-border trade will be vital to economic recovery.

The catastrophic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has already had a significant impact on cross-border trade and business development. This is in stark contrast to the latest figures before the crisis hit. Cross-border trade had been at an all-time high of €7.4 billion and was a big economic driver for both jurisdictions.

“Once the current crisis hit, like most organisations, our first priority was to make sure our staff were safe and that the organisation could function when the island went into lockdown. The staff have been fantastic. Just as our employees contributed to business growth during the period of expansion they’ve been

working hard when SMEs need us the most,” states Aidan Gough.

InterTradeIreland initially turned its attention to the cross-border trading companies and organisations who were on its programmes. The economic development body is unlike both Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland who have their own clients, whereas the cross-border body runs programmes that assist businesses through various initiatives. “We had to ensure companies on the programmes had the resources and capabilities to continue on those programmes and get the benefits from them. We also carried

“Our approach has always been value through collaboration. We had worked previously with TechIreland, an organisation that identifies and works with new emerging technology companies across the island, to develop a Covid-19 business map. This showed all the businesses that were willing to cooperate in response to a public need related to the pandemic,” explains Gough. The business map was launched in April 2020 and has since grown substantially. The initiative has led to cooperation between companies on several projects. “The map shows a business other potential business partners and effectively speeds up the collaboration process. Businesses have been incredible in the way they have responded in repurposing production to meet a public need,” he adds.

InterTradeIreland’s existing programmes have also been leveraged to respond to the crisis. The Co-Innovate programme aims to increase the numbers of small

and medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in research and innovation across the border region of the Republic, Northern Ireland and parts of western Scotland.

The five-year €16.6 million project was the first funding offer to be announced under the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body. In the wake of the pandemic, the programme brought together, and provided the initial funding for a partnership of 20 businesses supported by Queen’s University Belfast to mass produce visors on an industrial scale of tens-of-thousands each week.

“This existing programme showed that businesses are willing and capable of responding on a cross-border basis,” says Gough.

Going digital InterTradeIreland’s corporate plan has digitalisation both of its own supports and helping SMEs to adapt and adopt digital processes, as one of its central planks.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought forward the digitalisation of business processes, forcing change and adaptation in a time frame that no one expected. As a result, the body has been able to respond very quickly to business needs and has re-engineered many of its services, including its sales programmes, funding supports and new Covid-19 initiatives so that they can be accessed and implemented in the new environment created by the pandemic.

It also launched the E-Merge programme to help companies embrace their digital sales options. E-Merge provides £2,500/€2,800 fully funded consultancy support to help businesses develop online sales and e-commerce solutions.

Advice is provided in a range of areas including e-marketing, website management, e-commerce, online payment systems, secure logistics, customer service and the legal and insurance implications of moving online.

There has been a strong uptake for the programme as the Covid-19 crisis has hastily forced many businesses online.

There’s also been a lot of interest in InterTradeIreland’s Emergency Business Solutions programme. Firms are offered £2,000 /€2,250 worth of support to risk asses their current business position, assist with cash flow forecasting, HR issues and to help manage suppliers.

Businesses are also directed to the appropriate source of relevant supports in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Another element that illustrates InterTradeIreland’s willingness to adapt to the new landscape is the

Hero Shield Project, Shnuggle A group of firms set up not-for-profit company, Hero Shield Ltd, to manufacture face visors for health workers with help from €300,000 of funding from the Co-Innovate programme.

The Co-Innovate initiative, led by InterTradeIreland and supported by the European Union's INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), is providing the cash injection to the cross-border group of 18 companies, to help them produce thousands of lowcost, quality face shields in response to Covid-19.

There has been an overwhelming response from the health sector both north and south, with Health and Social Care Northern Ireland having placed an order for 70,000 visors per week.

Adam Murphy, CEO of Shnuggle, said: “Hero Shield was born when we heard about the desperate need for PPE. We saw an opportunity to use our collective skills and knowledge of precision engineering, plastics and manufacturing to create a low-cost, fast-manufacture face shield. We wanted these to be distributed free of charge or at-cost. We will sell some product at a small profit to private companies, which will raise funds to make even more Hero Shields. Funding from Co-Innovate has provided us with the financial support to keep this amazing venture running for the benefit of all in society.”

reconfiguration of its all-island Innovation programme that brings in internationally recognised speakers. The programme is now delivered online and is reaching an even wider audience than previously. A series of funding and recovery webinars that help businesses navigate their way through the current crisis as well as avail of key supports in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, has also proved popular.

Looking ahead, Gough sees the area of supply chains becoming more important: “We are going to have to help firms take a strategic look at their supply chains.

There is an obvious need to diversify supply chains and even to bring them closer to home. Redesigning supply chains will be an important factor in the recovery and we are looking at initiatives in this area.”

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Seedcorn, Tracworx This Limerick company was last year’s winner of InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn competition, which recognises and identifies early start companies with high potential. Tracworx has used the Seedcorn funding to repurpose its technology to combat Covid-19. It has developed a tracking device to help hospitals with social distancing and to trace where contacts have been indoors.

Brexit Brexit is another once in a generation issue and it will again come into sharp focus towards the end of 2020, with the issue of deal or no deal. “Although there is the Northern Ireland protocol, there are still important issues that could impact on the way we trade across the border on this island. One of the main issues is the significant amount of cross-border trade from Northern Ireland to the Republic that ultimately leaves the island as part of an EU free trade agreement,” says Gough. If Northern Irish goods are not treated as part of the EU, that could have real consequences for trade from north to south.

Challenges and opportunities The main challenges to the end of 2020 will be the emergence from the Covid-19 crisis and Brexit. Businesses will redesign and adapt as we move to a new ‘normal’ but Brexit will also be a challenge. “We are planning for the recovery and to help business who trade across the border to repurpose and redesign their business models and to keep them informed and ready to react to whatever Brexit deal emerges,” Gough states.

Before Covid-19, InterTradeIreland had looked at major areas of opportunity for cross-border trade and business

development. “Some of these will become even more important in light of the current crisis. These include Industry 4.0 and a raft of new technologies, such as blockchain and AI that will change the way we do business. There are opportunities for early adapters of these game changing technologies. Other areas where there are real opportunities for cross-border cooperation include adaptation to the low carbon economy, cooperation to drive small firm productivity and in sectors such as advanced manufacturing and health and life sciences – where there is scope for developing internationally competitive allisland clusters building on world leading indigenous businesses, multi-nationals and world class R&D. “While the short term is focused on recovery from the current crisis and InterTradeIreland has been very quick to respond, looking further ahead there are many real opportunities for cross-border cooperation that will deliver mutual benefits in terms of business development and international competitiveness,” he concludes.

Featured are three examples of how InterTradeIreland has been helping business collaborate, pivot and respond Covid-19.

CovidBizMap, Axial3D InterTradeIreland teamed up with TechIreland to develop an interactive map. It tracks those responding to the needs of the Irish Government and Northern Ireland Executive during the Covid19 pandemic. It is generating new connections and collaborations and identifying clusters of expertise.

One Belfast company on the map is Axial3D, a former winner of an InterTradeIreland FUSION Exemplar award. At the core of this innovative SME is 3D printing capability. The company is now printing thousands of face shields and test swabs for Covid-19.

W: www.intertradeireland.com InterTradeIreland helps SMEs across the island by offering practical crossborder business funding, intelligence and contacts.

Translink: A Return Journey Translink Group Chief Executive Chris Conway looks at how the current crisis has impacted on public transport.

The past few months have been extraordinary, with all aspects of life changing, not least our daily commute. The present crisis has had a dramatic impact on the local business sector, resulting in a decline in the use of Translink services as people rightly follow the advice to stay at home.

Chris Conway, Chief Executive, Translink.

However, public transport has a key role to play in helping to redevelop our society and economy once a phased normality returns; Translink projects like the Belfast Transport Hub, the North-West Transport Hub in Derry~Londonderry and Glider phase 2 connecting north and south Belfast will play a part in helping to restore our economy and our community in the times ahead.

Our dedicated teams, guided by Public Health Agency advice, have been working hard to maintain public transport services for key workers and we have been proud to offer free transport to NHS and carer staff throughout the present crisis to help make their essential journeys a little easier.

Safety continues to be our top priority and we have introduced a range of additional measures in bus and rail stations to help keep everyone safe. These include new social distancing signage in stations and on board vehicles, regular deep cleaning of vehicles and facilities, use of mobile cleaning teams during operational service, erection of screens to reduce staff and passenger interaction and providing hand sanitiser and gloves to front line staff. We’re also providing hand sanitiser facilities for passengers in stations across Northern Ireland and will be introducing systems and procedures where appropriate in our stations to facilitate social distancing further.

We have introduced additional services where appropriate, particularly at peak times; we will continue to keep this matter under review in the weeks ahead. We trust that people will understand that we are following this path in the interests of passenger and staff safety, and would advise passengers who need to make essential trips to travel outside morning and evening peak hours if possible and to allow some extra time for their journey.

Our recently-implemented ‘no change’ policy will also stay in place to help reduce interaction between passengers and staff.

Single journey tickets are now available to purchase in advance of travel via Translink’s mLink app for NI Railways, Metro, Glider, Goldline, P&R, yLink and 24+ customers. This latest development adds to the existing range of mLink mobile tickets already available such as weekly, monthly or day travel options and reflects a widespread shift towards contactless payment options.

Moving forward, I believe better days will return and that public transport will have a key role to play in the recovery and in reconnecting people to employment, education, leisure and healthcare opportunities. Translink has been a key stakeholder in Northern Ireland’s economic and commercial success in the past and we will continue to do this into the future as we look to revitalise our economy.

Wash your hands

Prepaid tickets, mLink, Smartcards & contactless payments

Maintain social distance

Things will look a little different now in stations and on board ...so give yourself extra time before your journey and use prepaid tickets or Smartcards as change cannot be given.

The climate change emergency will still be a challenge as we recover from the Covid-19 crisis and there will be a need to move further and faster in a ‘greener’ direction. Translink will remain at the forefront of efforts to combat this other major threat to our community in the months and years ahead.

We will need the support of political and business leaders as we work to help Northern Ireland rebuild and recover from this crisis.

This will take time but please be reassured we are doing all we can to make public transport a safe space for everyone.

We look forward to welcoming you back on board when the time is right.

More details can be found at www.translink.co.uk

Stay Home | Save Lives

roundtable discussion

Infrastructure investment: a key economic enabler post-pandemic Grant Thornton hosted a virtual round table discussion, bringing together stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, to discuss the importance of infrastructure investment as a means for Northern Ireland to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

How important is infrastructure investment as an economic driver? What sectors are particularly reliant on good quality infrastructure?

Paul Stapleton Infrastructure is fundamental for all aspects of society. The economy relies on having modern, effective, and functioning infrastructure in any sector you can think of. As we emerge from the pandemic, we must compete harder than ever to attract inward investment into Northern Ireland. Having effective infrastructure is a key part of that.

Infrastructure itself is also a huge stimulus; investment in infrastructure makes a huge contribution to the economy. It is fundamental to the economy and society overall.

John Ahern Infrastructure investment cannot be neglected. It is a key driver for productivity and therefore competitiveness, but new infrastructure can also unlock new economic opportunities for further growth. Look at the countries around the world investing big percentages of their GDPs: China is way out ahead of everyone else and the UK is much lower in those rankings. We see how economic growth can be driven by infrastructure; one follows the other or one can stymie the other.

Jenny Green We know that every sector is reliant on good infrastructure, it underpins everything that we do in our society, ensuring that we’re constantly improving our quality of life and giving our citizens the opportunities that they deserve. We typically look at economic infrastructure,

Round table discussion hosted by

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but we need to look at social infrastructure as well because there is not a government department here that isn’t impacted by infrastructure. To be able to drive success across all the sectors, we need to make sure we have a collective vision for what we want our society to be and that’s what ICE is trying to focus on at the moment. The question is: what does our leadership envisage and how can infrastructure support that? It cannot be looked at in a sector-by-sector sense, leaving us to fight over pots of money.

Ronan Larkin Well-functioning infrastructure is the backbone of any economy, be it growing or prosperous. Our economy is certainly going to come under increased pressure in these next two-to-three years postCovid-19. If we take it back to water and drainage infrastructure: water is essential for everything we do, whether it is at home or in the workplace. 21st century drainage that is able to connect and take on board new housing or businesses is vital. One of the challenges we face is bringing that together and ensuring it is funded.

Clare McKeown

Jim Mackinnon It is certainly critical that you have enough affordable housing to support your economic and employment objectives. Let’s not forget the importance of broadband, which will be vital for our enterprises of the future. We are all in the same space as far as that issue is concerned.

Andrew Webb It’s inarguable that infrastructure can either enable and amplify economic goals or stop them dead in their tracks. It is just in that point of inflection where we wonder if infrastructure will hinder us as we try to achieve smart cities and grow the population of Belfast. Can that happen if the wastewater treatment infrastructure isn’t ready? The multiplier effects of infrastructure development can be crucial because you have the immediate impact of the construction phase filtering through to the wider economy, into leisure and retail spend.

Then, in the operational phase, it supports the day-to-day activity of the economy, so it is absolutely crucial to our economic ambitions.

What needs to be done to facilitate infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland?

Paul Stapleton The key enablers for successful delivery are policy, funding, an effective planning process, community engagement and the right skills. It must begin with policy, if you don’t have clear policy from the Executive, it’s very hard to make

Roundtable Participants John Ahern John Ahern joined Indaver, a waste management company, as Managing Director in 1995 with responsibility for the Irish and UK market. He has overseen the growth of Indaver in Ireland which has become one of the country’s leading waste companies. Today, John is the Executive Chairman of Indaver’s Ireland and UK activities with responsibility for the development of waste-to-energy plants across the region. Prior to joining Indaver, John worked in the LPG gas industry in Britain and Ireland for 15 years.

roundtable discussion

The UK Government’s net zero carbon 2050 target now gives us a powerful policy tool to send long term signals to invest in integrated infrastructure, reducing waste and increasing efficiencies. What we see globally, are the most progressive cities using innovation to integrate infrastructure, making it more efficient. For example, waste to energy systems are generating renewable heat and renewable electricity which is used in turn to power cleaner electric vehicles, so less waste and cleaner power. Decarbonisation combined with digitalisation are the new enablers, what we must do is invest in people with these skills sets to enable the infrastructure and in turn the economy to flourish.

Jenny Green A chartered civil engineer, as Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Regional Director Jenny Green is responsible for working with more than 2,000 ICE members in Northern Ireland, enhancing their knowledge, promoting their expertise and helping the public better understand infrastructure. She works with a wide range of industries, representative bodies, civil servants and politicians, to reinforce the importance of infrastructure to our quality of life.

Ronan Larkin Ronan Larkin is a chartered global management accountant and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). He joined Northern Ireland Water as Director of Finance in 2005 and in 2019 became the lead for the development of Northern Ireland Water’s programme for Commercial Excellence. Ronan is a council member of Water UK and is President of the Institute of Water Northern Ireland.

Jim Mackinnon Jim Mackinnon graduated with first class honours in geography and a diploma in town planning with distinction before joining the former Scottish Office in 1979. He held various positions before being appointed Chief Planner and Director for the Built Environment in 2000.

Since retiring in 2012, Jim has undertaken a range of consultancy work, including a spell as Director of Planning for Belfast City Council as well reviews of the planning services in Newry, Mourne and Down as well as Ards and North Down councils.

Clare McKeown Clare McKeown is Sustainable Development Manager at Belfast City Council. She has been at the forefront of sustainable development policy implementation for almost two decades at both local and national level, as Senior Policy Advisor with the UK Sustainable Development Commission in Northern Ireland and subsequently Head of the Whitehall Team. She is an honorary fellow of Queens University and board member of BITC.

Paul Stapleton Paul joined NIE Networks as Managing Director in May 2018. He is a committee member of the Institute of Directors in Northern Ireland and a director of the UK Energy Networks Association and of E.DSO (European Distribution System Operators). He joined ESB in 1991 and held a number of senior management positions including General Manager of Electric Ireland, ESB Group Treasurer and Financial Controller of ESB Networks Limited. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Andrew Webb Andrew Webb is Grant Thornton’s Chief Economist where he leads the firm’s work on a wide range of economic advisory assignments across the public and private sector. Andrew specialises in local economic development and has developed several growth plans for local councils. He is a board member of Action Renewables, Chair of Belfast City Centre Management and is a recently elected Fellow of the Institute of Place Management.

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“It’s inarguable that infrastructure can either enable and amplify economic goals or stop them dead in roundtable discussion

their tracks.”

Andrew Webb Chief Economist, Grant Thornton, Belfast progress on the other elements. It has been encouraging recently to hear members of the Executive, like ministers Dodds and Mallon, talking about the importance of infrastructure in a green recovery post-Covid-19. We need the same urgency we showed in dealing with the pandemic to deal with the consequences arising from it. If we make the right decisions in 2020, we can put shovels in the ground in 2021.

Jim Mackinnon We talked about the importance of strategy and policy, but I think, as became clear during the Covid-19 crisis, a lot of these noble aims and ambitions fall down in their implementation. Words can be quite cheap. In Scotland the National Planning Framework identifies infrastructure projects and associated locations. After some debate, the Parliament agrees the need and principle for the project so that further consideration focuses on points of detail not the rationale or justification.

A strategy and an action plan, rather than vague promises, is what is needed in order to move forward and make clear the direction of travel for Northern Ireland.

Jenny Green ICE has been doing a lot of work looking at global best practice for infrastructure.

We released a piece of work last year called Enabling Better Infrastructure and one of the key recommendations within it was identifying three key stages of infrastructure development, the first of which is a national vision for infrastructure followed by a national needs assessment. We are releasing a report at the end of this month, recommending that the Executive

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establish an independent infrastructure advisory body to lead us into a holistic approach, moving us beyond local decisions.

Andrew Webb What we have found over time is that maturity and bravery are required for these actions. There are well documented instances of politicians on picket lines against projects because they’re locally controversial and later finding themselves in ministerial positions making the key decisions. In Northern Ireland, everything is local, so if we can mandate this decision making to an independent body and give it the autonomy it needs, it can mitigate the localism.

John Ahern There must be a vision. We invest in many countries around Europe and we look at two things first: that they know where they are and that they know where they are going. Northern Ireland is somewhere in the middle of answering those questions. It scores well as having great potential, but it has gaps in its vision and lacks a plan. It is competing

with countries with advanced plans for investment; countries that have prepared for inward investment. Greater certainty is needed, people need to be told in a timely manner if they are going to get planning or not.

Ronan Larkin Northern Ireland Water probably has enough policy for water and drainage from government to allow us to get on with our role in the meantime; the challenge faced by our Executive and our regulator is ensuring sufficient medium term financing and funding is put in place to underpin our PC21 business plan with investment money. We have produced a strategy document up to 2046 that puts out our vision for water and drainage. We have submitted our PC21 Business Plan to the regulator and will get a determination back in September this year. Our plan is about starting to move away from the situation of economic constrained areas where development is halted because of a lack of investment in drainage infrastructure and waste water treatment. We need to ensure this is underpinned with funding to facilitate our £2.5 billion six-year plan. People have talked about the trickle-down effect of infrastructure spending; for every pound NI Water invests, there’s a further spend of two to two and a half times in the Northern Ireland economy.

Clare McKeown Belfast City Council’s new Resilience Strategy focuses on shocks and stresses in the city which weaken the economy in the long-term. These relate primarily to the energy, transport, power and health infrastructures. Knowing this I’d like to raise our vision. The UK Infrastructure Commission’s advice to the UK

“Grasp the immediacy of this and through robust and efficient decision making, planning must become something that will sustain the economic recovery, rather than obstruct it.”

Jim Mackinnon Former Chief Planner, Scottish Government

How should the planning process be reformed to support future infrastructure investment?

Paul Stapleton Planning is key. Often NIE Network projects are investment enablers for wind projects, waste projects and industrial developments seeking to connect to the electricity network. If we cannot complete our project, the planning process could be holding up associated investment on a scale that is 10 times greater.

As an infrastructure provider, timeliness and consistency are our two key asks of the planning process. While there are many benefits of decentralised planning across individual councils, there are also disadvantages, particularly when attempting to deliver national infrastructure in a coordinated manner.

Looking at a more centralised and holistic view of infrastructural needs and planning might provide a more cohesive solution.

Ronan Larkin We do not want to be an obstacle to development in any shape or form. We have been examining our own internal process to determine what we have to do to facilitate developers in delivering their schemes. This is becoming much more digitised, enabling individuals to access and track their development process from application for a network connection all the way through to the endpoint. There is an opportunity right now to take the planning authorities planning portal and make it a much more accessible and digitised tool and there are sufficient companies with digital and coding skills in Northern Ireland right now

“We typically look at economic infrastructure, but we need to look at social infrastructure as well because there is not a government department here that isn’t impacted by infrastructure.”

roundtable discussion

Government is for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for low carbon and digital sector enhancement to bring us to that net zero future. We do need to give this serious consideration. But how? We do have some success stories. We are now importing approx. 50 per cent renewable electricity onto the grid. That happened because innovative technology, combined with a clear policy and a structured funding mechanism came together. If we can harness and replicate that approach, then it’s the way forward.

I would encourage the Government to be bold here. We could be facing into long term recession and we need a sharp focus on a stimulus in those sectors to make things happen.

Jenny Green Regional Director, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) to make that happen. How can we all be assured that is happening at an efficient pace?

Jenny Green The lack of digitisation in the planning process has been exposed by the Covid19 lockdown. If there was a holistic approach to the planning, even if the decisions continue to be taken at a local level, guidance could be issued to the local authorities, the developers and clients to assist with targeting development in a particular way. That would help to make projects more agile.

John Ahern A planning application can require years of preparation and millions of pounds. A system whereby you’re waiting on a Saturday news report to determine which minister will be deciding your project’s fate is not good. Imagine trying to explain to your masters back in Belgium that you can tell them on Saturday which minister we got and whether we’re going to get planning or not. That’s not the kind of country that people are going to invest in. It needs to be based on something broader than an individual. A good minister or a bad minister; that’s a lottery. That’s not how you develop infrastructure.

Andrew Webb Since RPA, the planning system leaves a lot to be desired. We hear a lot of frustration from those at the coalface who believe that the centralised system was more effective. The lockdown exposed this and will hopefully trigger a rethink. At the same time, while the planning system has its flaws, the infrastructure deficit here is so significant that it could hinder everything else. As

such, the finance deficit is perhaps even more significant.

Jim Mackinnon The Northern Ireland Planning Service and wider planning system do not have a good reputation. If you look at the figures, five years after the transfer of powers, there are no up-to-date local plans in Northern Ireland for use and adoption by the new local authorities.

These plans are supposed to guide development. For major planning applications, there is a target of 30 weeks for the determination of an application. However, it takes most councils between 55 and 60 weeks.

That’s not very encouraging.

I have also experienced the IT system for planning in Northern Ireland. To say it is Heath Robinson-esque is to overstate how good it is. It is really clunky, both from the perspective of the public using it and also those accessing it in the local authorities. It does not meet the needs of the Planning Service or Northern Ireland.

How should infrastructure investment be funded? What role should the private investment have in funding infrastructure?

Andrew Webb I don’t have a full shopping list of everything that needs to be expended to make our infrastructure fit for purpose but it’s in the many billions of pounds when you think about road schemes, energy plants, water and sewage and everything else. We must think about different ways of funding beyond the traditional stumping up of cash by

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“The key challenge for Northern Ireland is to put the right models in place to enable and unlock the roundtable discussion

private funding.”

Paul Stapleton Managing Director, NIE Networks government. One cause for hope is that we’re in a UK Government context where there is talk of an ‘infrastructure revolution’, so you would hope that could lead to a stream of infrastructure money coming from the centre post-Covid-19.

Northern Ireland must move beyond a reliance on what Westminster does.

There’s an opportunity to bring in private money as well, similar to the Private Finance Initiative in Scotland and Northern Ireland could also tap into its vast diaspora for novel ways to raise money.

just not going to be enough. We know money needs to be spent on healthcare and education and we need to make it clear to the leadership that infrastructure isn’t separate from those investments. It’s such a good stimulus for recovery, which we know we will have to face in a serious way. One of the things ICE has called for is the consideration of another low interest loan source similar to the European Investment Bank, perhaps a UK investment bank.

Jim Mackinnon

Indaver has a strong balance sheet and is in a strong position to fund any project it’s involved in. To touch on the Private Finance Initiative, there are positive stories. Indaver was involved in a project in Aberdeen which took only two and a half years from the bid starting to the contract being awarded. The project for Arc21 has been going for 12 years already and hasn’t even received planning permission yet. Meanwhile, there is significant investment available from institutions. For example, pension funds are very keen on infrastructure

The Private Finance Initiative is regarded as a better alternative to PPP, though it is not without its own challenges. I agree with the sentiment that a cocktail of funding sources will be the way ahead.

Jenny Green We are limited by the nature of the block grant. Political opinions around funding for infrastructure need a rethink if we’re going to drive things forward at the speed that we need to because there’s

John Ahern

“Water is essential for everything we do, whether it is at home or in the workplace.

21st century drainage that is able to connect and take on board new housing or businesses is vital.”

Ronan Larkin Director of Finance and Regulation, Northern Ireland Water

investment because it aligns with what they need. Usually, the big institutions will get involved in a serious way once you have planning permission. Northern Ireland suffers from a bad reputation in that area and has to compete with the rest of the world for this investment.

Ronan Larkin NI Water goes through the same process and scrutiny here as occurs in England and Wales. We’re much more efficient than we were 10 years ago and delivery is much leaner. Our regulator has confirmed the efficiency gap between NI Water and the UK Water companies has pretty much been closed since 2007.

Our Executive’s issue with funding is that they have to find it from within the block grant. All this money must be divvied up and portioned out. What Northern Ireland needs for its water and wastewater needs is investment, rather than waiting around for decisions on how much is available. We need to find a way to access much more funding because the plan we have in place is required to future-proof Northern Ireland. If that falls behind it’s going to be very difficult to build up social housing or attract foreign direct investment and new industry and jobs.

Paul Stapleton The reality we’re facing is that there will never be enough public money for all the challenges we are facing. The key challenge for Northern Ireland is to put the right models in place to enable and unlock the private funding. NIE Networks is an interesting model in that we’re a privatised infrastructure provider, but we’re also regulated. We fund investment off our own balance sheet but undertake programmes as determined by the regulator and at rates determined by them. So its private capital delivery public policy. That’s a model that works very well. All of the energy shift to renewable sources was essentially funded by private capital because the right policy and guidelines were there.

How should infrastructure investment be more sustainable? How important will ‘green’ infrastructure investment be in the future, particularly with the challenge of climate change?

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Clare McKeown Investment in green infrastructure is crucial to reach the net zero carbon target. Already we are seeing capital being repurposed globally as record levels of investment are directed into renewable energy and battery storage, electric cars, hydrogen buses and cleaner fuels etc. We are also seeing the relevance of investing in natural capital and investing in skills. This all helps to bend the emission curve and in the process generates jobs and prosperity.

“Funding a ubiquitous high speed broadband service is an equally a key enabler for reducing our carbon

The challenge will be to put that intention

Jenny Green

is the time to make policy decisions,

The Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment analysed 196 fiscal policies following the 2008 economic crisis and concluded that green stimulus packages offer higher economic multipliers. That is important to acknowledge. In the context of net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Northern Ireland has fallen behind in creating policies conducive to this.

Clare McKeown Sustainable Development Manager, Belfast City Council

into action and the most important thing now is fostering a sense of urgency. I don’t think that we have yet fully appreciated the impact that this pandemic has had on the economy. Now removing obstacles from green infrastructural investment so that we can spend capex and have shovels in the ground in 2021. It’s not simply an opportunity, it’s an absolute necessity

Andrew Webb We went into this crisis believing that society would be fundamentally changed and that there would be opportunities to do things differently. Over time, I’ve grown uneasy that the rhetoric will not be matched with action. I hope this doesn’t happen because we have an opportunity now to grasp the green agenda and see it for what it is: a significant economic boost.

Paul Stapleton For NIE it’s about enabling clean energy.

There are many reasons to be optimistic, including the recent soundings from the Executive which has clearly identified the potential of the green recovery.

Jim Mackinnon We all aspire to a greener economy and a more sustainable way of living.

However, when the realities of what this can mean become apparent in terms of new infrastructure, such as charging points or turbines, there is often local controversy and appeals. We must grasp the immediacy of this and through robust and efficient decision making, planning must become something that will sustain the economic recovery, rather than obstruct it.

from an economic perspective.

Ronan Larkin

John Ahern

The economics can work in Northern Ireland. There is a legislative target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and Northern Ireland must achieve this and there is much to be done. From our own perspective, the strategy that Northern Ireland Water has in place reflects its objective of decarbonisation. We are a significant energy user and want to ensure that we contribute to the 2050 target. Meanwhile, financiers are moving money away from fossil fuels and into renewables.

I hope for a green revival. Never waste a good crisis. Covid-19 showed us that

Likewise, the OECD is advocating a green recovery and argues that economic stimulus packages should be aligned with climate action and mitigation policy. Emerging from this crisis, we have to approach the challenges from the right angle.

roundtable discussion

footprint.”

One silver lining of Covid-19 is that it has given us a unique opportunity to test ecommerce, e-learning, e-fitness, e-health etc. These digital innovations are a key enabler to reduce our carbon footprint and could help change our behaviour permanently. So funding a ubiquitous high speed broadband service is equally a key enabler for reducing our carbon footprint. We are likely to see a sharp focus on these issues as COP 26 approaches.

decisions that were assumed to be ‘impossible’ were in fact possible. There is a huge willingness among institutions to invest in green economies. We need action now. The UK economy shrank by 20 per cent in April 2020 and if that’s not a wakeup call then I don’t know what it is we’re waiting for.

“I hope for a green revival.

Never waste a good crisis.

Covid-19 showed us that decisions that were assumed to be ‘impossible’ were in fact possible.”

John Ahern Executive Chairman, Indaver Ireland and UK

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Creating a digitally skilled public workforce Beverley Smith, Academy Facilitator and Head of Digital Faculty for the UK Government’s Government Digital Services (GDS), explains the process by which the UK Government founded its digital learning academy and the teaching strategy implemented thereafter.

“In the UK, we have a Government Transformation Strategy, created in 2017, that outlines the scope and objectives for the UK Government up to 2020,” Smith explains. “It is about transforming the relationship between the citizen and state by exploiting digital to build and deliver services. The way the UK did this was to create Government Digital Services GDS over seven years ago. Our flagship operation is the gov.uk website. gov.uk has been copied because it is open code and the GDS model of having this area of 34

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expertise has been copied as well.”

The digital strategy carried out by the UK Government comes with five objectives: 1. business transformation; 2. grow the right people, skills and culture; 3. build better tools, processes and governance; 4. make better use of data; and 5. create shared platforms, components and reusable business capabilities.

“We fall under number two, developing the right skills and culture among our people and leaders,” Smith says.

“The big word in there is ‘culture’ because it’s not all about following different processes, it’s working in a different way and creating a new culture for people to work in. The academy is part of the way the Government are addressing this in the UK. It’s not the only solution, we still have things like Civil Service Learning that we can go to, or job shadowing and on the job training.

The GDS Academy is one arm.

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“When the digital specialists started coming into Government around 2012, the thought was that we could upskill all these great civil servants to do some of the digital, data and technology (DDAT) roles. The UK Government decided to embed digital skills throughout government, make sure that digital experts who come in actually understand government, make sure that civil servants of other professions understand digital, strengthen the leadership skills of agile project management and establish a better way to develop policy and deliver services in tandem.”

The history of the GDS Academy begins in 2014, and it has delivered to over 10,000 students. It was created in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which wanted to build its own internal digital capability. The academy was set up with the idea to grow digitally equipped talent internally. The DWP digital academy started in a job centre in Fulham, London, with an eight-week foundation course in digital learning.

“We got lots of feedback, most crucially that eight weeks is too long and too difficult for those trying to scale up,”

other departments started hearing about the academy and expressing interest in sending some of their teams to these courses.”

important so that everybody can work on the same level.”

With 10 facilitators across four hubs in London, Leeds, Manchester and

The academy won the Civil Service Building Capability and Skills Award 2015. When Kevin Cunnington, to that point the Business Transformation Director, left DWP for Cabinet Office in 2017, the academy was transformed into a cross-government academy, which now also helps local government and has helped other international governments set up their own academies.

“All our offerings are currently in the classroom. We’re exploring other mediums, piloting online self-managed blended learning, putting some of our offerings online. Our unique selling point is the fact that we’re talking about working in an agile way from a government perspective,” Smith explains.

“At the moment, most of our offerings are in the digital part of DDAT but we will start to move into areas such as data and technology. We also offer coaching in organisations after their training and have previously delivered academic masterclasses.

“The UK Government decided to embed digital skills throughout government, make sure that digital experts who come in actually understand government, make sure that civil servants of other professions understand digital, strengthen the leadership skills of agile project management and establish a better way to develop policy and deliver services in tandem.”

Newcastle, Smith says that the academy is constantly iterating content, gathering feedback and evaluations in order to tailor their offerings to the changing needs of the students. “We have short feedback loops, so we quite often change courses from week to week. That helps our users to make sure they’re getting the best possible, but it also keeps our facilitators on top of their game,” she says.

The academy also covers digital in government, user centred design and other digital tools. Their “bread and butter” are courses aimed at different levels of capability, with the strategic aim of building expert capability in the DDAT professions and their leaders and appropriate expertise in the ways of working with digital for non-DDAT leaders.

They are aided in their work by the DDAT Profession Capability Framework, which identifies 37 roles in government, working in a digital way. There are an estimated 17,000 civil servants in the UK working in DDAT roles. The framework splits down the roles and details requirements, skills needed, possible career paths, courses that can be undertaken and information needed in order to swap roles in the course of a career.

“You don’t get any qualifications or

Smith says. “If you’re running an organisation, you probably can’t let a member of your team go for eight weeks.

We cut down some face to face content and changed the way we delivered some of the training. The course is now 10 working days and we still feel we capture the essence of digital and cover everything necessary. We were delivering this foundation course in London and Leeds and also started running one-day awareness courses. It became obvious there was a need for courses for training teams and leaders who want to work in this way. People in

“What makes it different is that it’s not all about sitting at desks and being told how to do things and working through a workbook. It’s experiential learning where we try things out for ourselves.

We do this usually in groups of about 15 people. We have to create a very safe environment where people are able to relax and try things without fear of repercussions. They have a go, fail fast and try a different way. This is learning by doing and it’s all about consolidating very quickly on something you’ve learned. We encourage everybody to leave their grades at the door, which is

certificates when you’ve been on one of our courses. They have recently all been revamped and we will be looking into official accreditation in the future. Senior leaders are telling us that they don’t have three days to go on a course, so we are working on a one-day model for them. We run many day long awareness events because we get some attendees who come along on these courses fully expecting digital to mean they will be upskilled in IT skills like Excel — there is still a real need for general awareness” Smith concludes.

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It’s time to deliver for victims of domestic abuse welcomed, we at Victim Support NI believe that no victim should be denied legal protection.

The Bill’s main objective is to criminalise coercive, controlling behaviour and psychological harm. It is not a panacea for all legal gaps and shortcomings relating to domestic abuse: comprehensively tackling this ingrained societal issue will necessitate reaching beyond the justice sphere and embracing cross-cutting health, education, housing, socio-economic, equality and immigration solutions.

Victims have waited too long for a law that reflects the reality of domestic abuse, let’s not make them wait any longer, says Victim Support NI’s CEO Geraldine Hanna.

The Domestic Abuse & Family Proceedings Bill is currently undergoing scrutiny by the Justice Committee, before making its way back to the Assembly floor in the Autumn. This Bill has had a longer trajectory than most: earmarked for introduction to the Assembly in February 2017 following intensive efforts by then-Justice Minister Claire Sugden, the Bill was shelved with the collapse of the Executive. The almost-bill would languish for three more years, leaving victims and survivors no closer to legal protection from the coercive, controlling behaviour that pervades domestic violence.

In the intervening years, the shortcomings of our legal system in tackling domestic abuse have been exposed on an international stage, during the UK’s examination by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Amidst a laundry list of recommendations that pointedly referenced Northern Ireland, CEDAW urged that measures were adopted to protect women from gender-based violence. The Domestic Abuse & Family Proceedings Bill is a significant step towards meeting that obligation. The fact that the Bill will apply not only to women but to all victims is to be

Nonetheless, Victim Support NI is reassured by Minister Long’s commitment that identified gaps will be addressed in a future Miscellaneous Bill.

Outstanding issues like stalking, nonfatal strangulation, and parental alienation, deserve timely consideration to ensure that any legislative changes are effective. We also feel strongly that victims of coercive, controlling behaviour have waited too long already for this law to come into effect.

Accordingly, we have submitted written and oral evidence to the Justice Committee, urging them to facilitate the passage of this Bill at the earliest opportunity for the benefit of victims.

That notwithstanding, the Bill requires some work to make it fit for purpose.

One aspect, the reasonableness defence, has been flagged by numerous organisations as problematic. Victim Support NI acknowledges the rationale for including a reasonableness defence within the legislation. Without such a defence, those caring for a person with conditions such as dementia might find that actions intended to protect are construed as abuse by the law.

That said, the clause as it stands is a blunt instrument, which could create difficulties for any victim with a disability or vulnerability seeking protection from

the law. Given that people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be victims of domestic abuse, and are much less likely to report it, it would be unconscionable if they were denied justice due to a blanket ‘reasonableness’ defence.

Another concern is the defence being used to cause further harm to victims in the courtroom. There is a risk that anyone with a disability, addiction, or mental health issue, could be painted as unstable or lacking capacity to make their own decisions, with abusive behaviour being ‘for their own good’.

Even worse is the potential for unfettered use of the defence to result in high attrition rates, or victims not reporting in the first place for fear of what they’d have to endure at trial. We have called on the Committee to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent the spurious use of this clause. We believe that the true test of this law will be in its application, so we have urged the Committee to ensure that explanatory guidance is included alongside the Bill.

A further area of concern is the child aggravator clause. The motivation behind Clause 8 is noble, it is not uncommon for predatory abusers in their 20s, 30s, or older, to deliberately target young victims of 16 or 17, as their naivete and lack of relationship experience can make them easier to control.

However, the child aggravator in its current form is not only applicable to those predatory abusers, but also the 17-year-old offender who is in a relationship with another young person.

In other words, where the offender is a child themselves. While it is indisputable that abuse by someone of any age is unacceptable and should be effectively dealt with, we do not believe it is fair for young offenders to be given enhanced punishment in the same way as older perpetrators who intentionally target and exploit young victims. Surely such an outcome would not reflect the spirit on intent of the law.

It is also important to highlight the essential elements that are missing from this Bill, namely training, awarenessraising, and adequate resourcing. We believe that these elements should be added to the Bill for several reasons.

To convict someone under this law, there must be evidence of a course of

conduct that amounts to abuse. This will require not only the collection of multiple strands of evidence, but also an understanding by investigators of what that evidence might look like. For instance, a bunch of flowers left at a person’s doorstep may seem innocuous, indeed a ‘nice gesture’. However, in a certain context, that act may harbour sinister intent, such as that of an abusive ex-partner demonstrating they know where their victim lives. If a responding officer or prosecutor isn’t aware of what abusive behaviour can look like, they may disregard valid complaints and set back the course of justice for that victim.

The same can be said for juries deciding on a case. The fact that domestic abuse goes beyond physical violence remains novel in many quarters of our society, and our juries are made up of those ordinary people. How can we ensure that a case is tried fairly if those involved in decision-making do not possess an understanding of what coercive controlling behaviour looks like, and what behaviours are capable of meeting this threshold?

Finally, the debate around the establishment of a Domestic Abuse Commissioner warrants scrutiny. On the face of it, the proposal may seem meritorious, given that England and

Wales inaugurated their first commissioner in September. However, the English Domestic Abuse Commissioner has been introduced in a jurisdiction where a prominent Commissioner for all victims of crime already exists. This is not the case in Northern Ireland. While we have a Commissioner for victims of the Troubles, we do not yet have a dedicated commissioner with the remit to cover all crimes.

Victim Support NI believes that victims of crime, including victims of domestic abuse, would be best served by the establishment of an overarching Victims’ Commissioner for Northern Ireland with the appropriate power, resources and independence from government. If such a role followed in the footsteps of the current Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird, domestic and sexual violence would no doubt feature prominently in their work, while also ensuring that victims of other crime are not left behind.

Victim Support NI T: 028 9024 3133 or 028 7137 0086 E: info@victimsupportni.org.uk W: www.victimsupportni.com

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Infrastructure:

‘not fit for purpose’ system in need of reform As the Executive adopts a fresh emphasis to deliver major capital projects across Northern Ireland, failures to implement the necessary reforms, which have seen major flaws in even the projects of greatest priority, threaten to hamper ambitions.

While much has been made of the perceived underfunding by the UK Treasury in delivering on the ambitions of the New Decade, New Approach deal and the implications of this underinvestment in Northern Ireland’s infrastructure requirements, a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office, completed prior to the Executive and Assembly’s return, has highlighted a poor track record by the public sector in delivering against its major capital projects portfolio and described the current commissioning and delivery arrangements in Northern Ireland as “not fit for purpose”.

New Decade, New Approach outlines ambitions to “turbocharge” infrastructure delivery in Northern Ireland, describing how the Executive will drive the delivery of essential

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infrastructure projects in order to build a “Northern Ireland that is equipped for a prosperous shared future”. However, such lofty ambitions appear ignorant of evidenced need for reform of Northern Ireland’s delivery system.

In 2013, a review by the Procurement Board (undertaken by SIB) of the commissioning and delivery of major infrastructure projects in Northern Ireland found that in the commissioning and delivery of major infrastructure projects “the system as a whole is not fit for purpose and works against…best endeavours to deliver”.

The review recommended change to all parts of the current system, adding that “the system needs to be overhauled and reformed in order to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness, and to ensure that it delivers better value for

money for taxpayers”. The report received limited support and while some actions were progressed by the Department of Finance, reform largely stalled with the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) noting that “some of the improvements to the commissioning and delivery of infrastructure are not being realised”.

In the same year, the CBI advised that changes were required to Northern Ireland arrangements to enhance the ability of the public sector to deliver value for money. Suggestions included: more intelligence-led commissioning of infrastructure; moving away from the process-driven culture; more realistic budgets; and prioritisation of turnkey solutions. It also suggested a move towards the Scottish and Irish model where there exists a centralised

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procurement and delivery agency, primarily for education and health capital building projects.

However, many of these changes have yet to be adopted, as evidenced by the C&AG’s review of major infrastructure projects and further recommendations have been made for consideration to be given to “the potential benefits of alternative commissioning and delivery models”, crucial given the likely increase in capital expenditure available to Northern Ireland through UK infrastructure priorities and a funding commitment for infrastructure by the Irish Government.

The C&AG endorsed the recommendations of the previous reviews, adding that while it notes a fundamental change in the relevant part of the Health Estates Investment Group to the Department of Finance’s (DoF) Construction and Procurement Delivery (CPD) in 2014, “it’s disappointing that further progress in transforming and delivery arrangements in Northern Ireland has not been made”.

Lack of reform By way of analysing the impact the lack of reform has had on major capital project delivery, the C&AG’s report analysed the public sector major capital projects portfolio and in particular, progress in delivering 11 major projects (seven flagship and four identified as having experienced problems). Between 2011 to 2019 departments in Northern Ireland managed 54 major capital projects, with a total estimated cost of £5.5 billion, the majority of which were managed by the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Health.

Historically, delays in large capital projects, as reported by the departments, are encountered at the preconstruction stage, particularly in the case of major road projects as a result of funding issues, legal challenges, planning issues or due to limited interest in the project from the construction industry. However, the 2015 identification of flagship projects by the Executive, seen as an effective way of addressing funding issues by protecting budgets on projects over a

“Existing, cumbersome governance and delivery structures within the Northern Ireland public sector are not conducive to maximising the achievement of value for money.”

Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General five-year period, had aimed to address some of the challenges.

Despite this, the C&AG reported that of the 11 major capital projects it examined, each of them suffered time delays and/or cost overruns when compared against original timescales and budgets.

As examples of some of the projects with the most significant problems, the A5 project, a flagship project of the previous Executive, is expected to be delivered 10 years later than originally planned. The Critical Care Centre is now expected to be completed and occupied eight years later than previously planned and the Ulster University, Greater Belfast Development now needs to attract substantial additional external finance to bridge a major funding gap.

Estimates are that the A5 will exceed costs by 38 per cent, the Regional Children’s Hospital will cost 59 per cent more than the original business case and Casement Park, which was expected to be completed three years ago, is expected to exceed its original estimate by some 42 per cent.

Other projects, none of which were delivered to the expected timescale, have also incurred cost increases. The Critical Care Centre is now expected to cost 60 per cent in excess of the original business case estimate, Ulster University, Greater Belfast Development is expected to cost 27 per cent in excess of the original budget and the Strule Shared Education Campus is expected to run 27 per cent in excess of the original budget.

“While accepting that project delivery problems are not unique to Northern Ireland, it is disappointing that, in the 11 high profile projects considered in this report, costs and timescales envisaged at the outset of projects, were not achieved. Even flagship projects,

identified as the Northern Ireland Executive’s highest priority and with funding secured over a longer period, have suffered time delays and/or cost overruns. Inevitably, where projects suffer substantial cost overruns, this impacts on the delivery of other projects,” says the C&AG. Notably, some of these projects have been name checked in New Decade, New Approach as areas of priority delivery including the A5/A6 roads, Casement Park and the sub regional stadia.

However, the Northern Ireland public sector continues to face significant challenges in delivering against its major capital projects portfolio. These challenges, such as funding uncertainty, legal challenges, planning delays and a lack of appetite from the local construction industry to take on public sector work, are likely to remain into the new Executive’s delivery plan until reform is delivered.

“Existing, cumbersome governance and delivery structures within the Northern Ireland public sector are not conducive to maximising the achievement of value for money,” the C&AG says.

“We do not wish to be prescriptive about future structures, but we consider that there is considerable merit in considering how alternative models, resourced with sufficient, highly skilled staff might improve future infrastructure delivery.”

The report concluded that, given the importance of major capital projects to the economy of Northern Ireland, the C&AG will revisit the area through future studies. One on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Northern Ireland planning system at central and local government level, and another on identifying the lessons arising from Judicial Reviews.

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Technology: Prisons unlocked Davis House, a new £54 million accomodation block at Maghaberry.

Historically recognised as a sector averse to risk, Northern Ireland’s prison system is undergoing a digital transition and recognising efficiencies through the introduction of innovative technology.

In 2015, Maghaberry Prison, one of Northern Ireland’s three operational prisons, was deemed by inspectors to be one of the most dangerous prisons in the UK. By 2018, inspectors said that the high security prison had undergone a remarkable and one of the quickest turnarounds ever seen.

While the turnaround can be attributed to a combination of changes, the introduction of greater levels of digital technology has played a part, according to Director of Prisons at the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) Austin Treacy.

Discussing the role of digital technology in the prison system, Treacy sets out challenging conditions in making innovative projects land and effect real change in the period of Executive absence and working with one-year budgets. “It’s not impossible, but it is tough,” he says.

The context for change was a hierarchical prison system adverse to

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risk. Unsurprisingly, computer systems that existed within such a system were, at best, restrictive in their capability.

The starting point for Treacy and his team was the introduction of finger scanning recognition and visitor bookings. Treacy highlights the value of learnings attained from other prison systems across the UK, where poor specifications were reflected in the eventual product.

With the NIPS system embedded and functioning well, he says that the experience offered an initial taste of what IT could do in an operational setting of a prison. The introduction offered confidence to expand the capability of the biometrical technology further and utilise it to digitise the staff pay-roll.

Similarly, PRISM, a software system used to manage inmate information and monitor NIPS performance, was rolled out to secure build PCs in prisoner facing areas for the first time, representing a move away from the traditional model and allowing for

information to be put right into the secure landings for staff access.

Treacy is aware that in effecting change, potential opportunities must be seized and identifies one such opportunity as the development of Davis House, a new 360-people capacity block at the Maghaberry site, which represented one of the Northern Ireland Civil Service’s largest capital investments.

Davis House, which was completed in 2019, runs everyday with just 27 prison officers. This is extremely efficient considering the logistics involved in managing the daily routines and movements of 360 prisoners including recreation, meals, learning and skills course attendance and healthcare.

“Our expectations are to be highperforming and we recognise that a big part of this is enabling our staff to facilitate this,” explains Treacy.

“Supportive technology is a recognisable way of doing this.

“In assessing that we could run Davis

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house with 27 staff we looked at the business transactions of everyone in our care. How many transactions do they need every day with our staff and which of those, through the introduction of technology, could be removed.”

The first phase of business improvement was the introduction of in-cell technology for inmates to make their meal requests daily and make tuckshop purchases – worth £750,000 in sales across all prison sites in Northern Ireland annually. A further ambition is to enable automated stock control, ensuring efficiency and benefit to both the consumer and the provider.

Treacy explains that discussions are also underway with their healthcare provider to introduce NHS online, as well as potentially chaplaincy and dental services.

Rapid rollout While much of this new innovation is centred in Davis House, Treacy is aware of its wider capabilities. “At this minute in time we are also looking at what other parts of our infrastructure are capable of rapid rollout. Where we have been able to access surplus monies, we have initiated retrofitting and cabling in our other facilities in preparation for eventual rollout.

“This ensures that we don’t just see the benefits of digital technology in our showcase building but that the benefits are felt throughout the estate.”

Treacy states that by the end of this year, NIPS aim to be the first prison system in the UK where every cell will have a telephone and in-cell computer system.

“All of these things take away transactions for staff and allow them to focus more on the rehabilitative process for those in their care. That’s the major opportunity.”

Another potential introduction which NIPS have been examining is the introduction of unescorted, fully automated movement around the site at Maghaberry. Smart turnstiles linked to inmate diaries, which authorises movement between locations. Such an approach would need to be risk managed but also generates greater efficiencies in removing the need for staff

“A lot of what we have done are seed opportunities and are us taking initial steps and creating a space to build upon the ability of technology within the prison system.” escorts and freeing up their time to do more valuable tasks.

Not all technology innovation is linked to the prison’s infrastructure. Body-worn devices have also been utilised. For example, as well as the traditional model, WiFi enabled body worn cameras have been introduced for tactical efficiency, ensuring an incident can be viewed almost instantaneously by the relevant powers at any of the various Department of Justice sites. The prison has also trialled activity trackers, something Treacy says has been successful and beneficial for older persons in their care with limited mobility.

Skype, for trusted prisoners, Google Translate and personal development unit (PDU) tablets have all been recognised as beneficial to operations and efficiencies when provided in portable formats.

Transport Prisoner transactions often not considered when looking at prison operations are those which take place away from one of the three prisons. NIPS own a fleet of vehicles for prisoner transportation and in 2018 they purchased 13 new vehicles.

Treacy explains: “Again, we saw an opportunity through this investment to analyse the potential of digital technology. We consulted on potential options and one that we liked was that similar to technology used by the ambulance service in introducing mood lighting within vehicles, recognising the impact this can have on people experiencing trauma, anxiety or distress.

“In the same vein, we looked at the potential of information systems within the vehicle. Our new vehicles are the first custody vehicles, either police or prison owned, to have a DVD player, which following a consultation with staff, was recognised as beneficial to those being transported, especially on longer journeys.”

Concluding, Treacy says: “A lot of what we have done are seed opportunities and are us taking initial steps and creating a space to build upon the ability of technology within the prison system.

Do I think that an activity tracker is our point of arrival? No, bit it initiates the journey to where we can go and I think it’s a useful first step.

“Underlying it all is our business to make the community safer by supporting and challenging people to change.”

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Achieving Irish unity Author and journalist Paul Gosling outlines some of the fundamental arguments included in his recent publication, the second edition of ‘A New Ireland – A New Union, A New Society’, which explores how Brexit has created a different context for discussing Irish unity.

Boris Johnson’s popularity has sunk over his failed handling of Covid-19. But unionism was already disillusioned by his negotiations over Brexit, in which he disregarded his pledges over the treatment of Northern Ireland. David Cameron exercised similarly bad judgement, by launching the Brexit referendum process while instructing government officials not to prepare for an EU exit vote.

Now Northern Ireland is within months of the end of transition period, forcing us into leaving the EU family against the wishes of the majority of the population here. Yet neither citizens nor businesses have a clear idea of what our future relationship will be, not with the EU, the

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Republic of Ireland, nor with Great Britain. It is even possible that the UK will finalise its leaving of the EU without a trade deal – with a new threat of a hard border in the island of Ireland. Who said history does not repeat itself?

This political roller-coaster has caused an increasing number of people in Northern Ireland to question which is more important: their membership of the European Union or the United Kingdom.

The apparent disdain and disinterest of English nationalists to Northern Ireland exacerbates this. That relationship is likely to be under greater tension in the future.

It is clear that, in the short-term at least, Northern Ireland will be financially poorer

for leaving the EU. Farmers are at risk of losing most of their income, which comes from EU grants. Consumers may have to pay more for food, with new bureaucracy involved in sending goods from GB to Northern Ireland. Our businesses will find existing trading relationships with GB becoming more cumbersome and less profitable.

These factors have created a different context for discussing Irish unity. For one thing, Brexit is pushing us towards what some unionists have called ‘an economic united Ireland’, involving closer trading links with the Republic of Ireland. For another, referendums in the south on gay marriage and abortion have disarmed complaints from the

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North that the South is under the control of the Catholic church.

Politics in the south are coming to terms with the concept of Irish unity, with economists and politicians giving it serious consideration. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil seem to recognise that change may be coming. Both parties have promised to invest in the North as a means of strengthening relationships and improving economic conditions here. Meanwhile, Sinn Féin gained the most electoral support in the recent general election – in truth, more for its policies on housing and health than on Irish unity.

Former leaders of the DUP and the UUP, Peter Robinson and Mike Nesbitt, have warned their party colleagues not to assume a border poll would necessarily go their way. It is time to consider what for many has long been unthinkable, Irish unity is possible. Brexit has opened more minds to this, but the difference in economic performance between south and north in recent decades is just as significant.

Once, Belfast was rich from shipyards and linen, while Derry had its shirt factories to create employment: those days have gone. Now Dublin is a major global hub for digital business, while the country is a global centre for pharmaceutical research and production. The Republic has reaped the rewards of decades of investment into skills development, education, R&D and infrastructure. That could have been the North, but it wasn’t. What, exactly, is Northern Ireland’s USP (unique selling point)?

Yet, it would require a very narrow mindset to think that we could have an Irish unity referendum one day, and a united Ireland the next. Consider how long it has taken to fail to achieve a Brexit conclusion. The handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China took 13 years.

The purpose of my book ‘A New Ireland’ is to consider not just the arguments for Irish unity, but also to consider how it would happen, not with a bang, but a process and a programme. First, the referendum needs to be prepared for, with votes in both jurisdictions on the

“Without a clear commitment to a free at point of delivery healthcare system in the Republic, it is unlikely that people in Northern Ireland would vote for Irish unity.” principle of unity. Secondly, the negotiations take place to determine the terms. Thirdly, a second set of referendums would be held to confirm that the negotiated settlement is acceptable. Then we have the fourth element, which is the period of handover, itself taking the time needed to prepare the way.

I have proposed that this handover might take 10 years. This would be the period in which the core challenges would be resolved. It would enable the Northern Ireland ‘subvention’, the subsidy paid by the British state, to be gradually reduced. Parallel to that, Northern Ireland would have to address its core problems. These include a private sector that is too small and not productive enough. We need to invest more in skills training and education. We also need better infrastructure, including roads, water, electricity, rail and broadband.

But the Republic needs to change, too.

The recent general election illustrated the extent of discontent regarding both housing and health. There needs to be more social housing construction, both south and north. And more reform and investment in health, north and south.

Without a clear commitment to a free at

point of delivery healthcare system in the Republic, it is unlikely that people in Northern Ireland would vote for Irish unity.

The basis for an NHS-type healthcare service has been agreed in the Republic through Sláintecare, but progress towards its implementation has been too slow. It is good to see that the European Union’s recommendations for Ireland’s economic recovery are led by the suggestion to accelerate and extend the adoption of Sláintecare. But a merger of the two systems into a single all-island, free, healthcare system could provide significant improvements in terms of outcomes and service quality, while reducing overheads. This island is too small for two health systems.

Moving towards Irish unity after it has been agreed in a referendum is as much a challenge as winning the referendum itself. But it provides the basis for Northern Ireland becoming a more reconciled, socially cohesive, progressive and economically successful place. That is an opportunity that deserves very serious consideration.

The second edition of ‘A New Ireland – A New Union: A New Society’ has just been published and is available from Amazon and some bookshops.

agenda issues

43

brexit

Brexit: Future trading arrangement British Prime Minister Boris Johnson marks Brexit on 31 January 2020.

With the UK having officially left the European Union, all eyes are now turned to the future trading relationship. Ireland’s Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Trade, is a central figure.

As the UK and EU negotiators jockeyed for position ahead of talks on the future relationship, both sides have offered vastly differing views on what such an agreement might look like.

Boris Johnson’s refusal to extend negotiations on the future trading relationship beyond 2020 is a major factor of the increasing risk that any future trade is done under WTO terms.

The ambitious deadline was already being met with scepticism even before the outbreak of the global pandemic.

The window to secure a deal is actually less than the 12-month calendar year, given the likely time delays associated with the EU ratification process. In essence, the window for one of the world’s most complex trade

44

agenda brexit

arrangements, the terms of which are unprecedented, is less than six months.

Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan was highly sceptical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s timetable, describing the British Government’s decision to enshrine the December 2020 date in law as “very odd” and a “stunt”.

chooses to diverge further from EU regulations, these will increase. Former Chancellor Sajid Javid raised concerns earlier this year in warning businesses to adjust because the UK “will not be a rule taker”.

“From our point of view it is important that we move from stunt to substance. It would be helpful if the focus was on content rather than timetables,” he said.

The recent command paper by the UK on the Northern Ireland Protocol appeared to show a move by the UK to acknowledge the necessity to adhere to the terms of the agreement. However, the command paper lacks technical details and advocates for ‘soft’ solutions.

The EU’s publication of its draft negotiating guidelines appears at odds with Prime Minister Johnson’s assertion that the UK has no intention of following EU rules in future. Trade barriers between the UK and the EU have already been established and where the UK

The EU are insisting on “level playing field” clauses in a future agreement, hoping to prevent the UK from undermining the single market in key sectors. Johnson has said that there is no need for an agreement to involve EU rules any more than the EU should be

brexit

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan.

obliged to accept UK rules.

An optimistic reading of the UK’s approach is that Johnson and the Government are preparing the ground for alignment in key economic areas. Chris Giles of the FT interpreted the prediscussion discourse as being a request from the EU to Britain to not diverge its current standards from the EU minimum level. Similarly, he believes that Johnson is indicating that the UK Government “does not want to take back control from the EU, it wants the right to do so”.

“Mr Johnson regularly appears to be threatening the EU, when in fact he is just reading out agreements already struck in martial tones,” he explains.

“The battles Mr Johnson chose to fight this week sounded blood-curdling, but are either fights against an army of straw men or battles in areas where a path towards compromise seems likely to be found.”

However, that the UK is unlikely to align fully with EU regulations is clear in that the British Government has outlined not one but three potential future shapes of an agreement. Its preference is for a free trade agreement between “sovereign equals”. That the EU would view the UK as an equal is overly ambitious. Trade Commissioner Hogan recently described the UK’s exit from the single market for greater control over trade as like trading a Rolls Royce for a second-hand saloon.

With an economy almost six times that

of the UK, the EU recognises that it is much less dependent on trade with the UK than vice versa. The EU is the UK’s most important trading partner. However, the EU is well aware of the UK’s capacity to disrupt its economy given its proximity. While this may buy the UK some flexibility in negotiations, it’s unlikely to be enough to prevent the EU walking away from the negotiations if the UK seek to undermine the single market.

The UK’s other option is for a Canadastyle agreement. The EU-Canada deal, which took eight years to negotiate and has yet to be signed off by all member states, is far from the zero tariff and zero quota desire mooted by some and retains tariffs on things like poultry, meat and eggs, as well as increasing quotas in other areas. The deal takes little account of services exports, meaning high tariffs would be economically damaging to the UK, and London in particular. Finally, such a deal would not remove the necessity for border checks.

The ‘Australian model’ is no deal in nicer terms. Australia’s trade with the EU is negligible and they currently operate on WTO terms. An EU-Australia Partnership Framework agreed in 2008 reduces some trade barriers but is not a free trade agreement.

In the event of no trade agreement, risk of checks and controls at the border in Ireland would be avoided through the terms negotiated in the withdrawal agreement, which state that goods must

be controlled as they cross the Irish Sea into Northern Ireland. However, even this is a cause for uncertainty. Prime Minister Johnson has repeatedly downplayed the need for such checks to be carried out.

In a visit to Belfast in January, Michel Barnier acknowledged Johnson’s assertion that no checks would take place in the Irish Sea by warning that the UK’s decision to create two regulatory spaces would render frictionless trade impossible and checks indispensable.

Highlighting the EU and the UK’s “joint responsibility” to make the agreement work on the ground, he stressed: “The EU takes this responsibility very seriously. The withdrawal agreement must be applied with rigour and discipline by all sides. It cannot be reopened under the guise of implementation. We will be monitoring its correct application very carefully.”

The commitment of the EU to compel the UK to honour the terms of the withdrawal agreement and any future trading relationship is not in doubt.

However, as recently as the end of January, Hogan, warned that a no deal outcome was still a possibility.

“Both sides have cards to play, but perhaps the UK doesn’t realise the EU might have more cards to play. So, time will tell in the context of the negotiations how the relationship will be, or the mood music in the negotiations,” he said.

agenda brexit

45

brexit

Post-Brexit immigration laws A central tenet of pro-Brexit arguments, the UK Government has rolled out its vision for post-Brexit immigration, signalling its preference for a much more restrictive points-based system. The suitability of the uniform proposals, especially in Northern Ireland, has since come under question.

Following the publication of the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) report on salary thresholds and pointsbased systems, the Government released a policy statement detailing its plans for the future of UK immigration, outlining its intention to “attract the high-skilled workers we need to contribute to our economy, our communities and our public services” and to create a “high wage, high skill, high productivity economy”.

system and the operation of the UK border, which will include the eventual introduction of Electronic Travel Authorities. Throughout the process of developing these rules, the Government has accepted the MAC’s recommendations to lower both the general salary and skills thresholds, from £30,000 per annum to £25,600 and from RQF6 (bachelor’s degree) to RQF3 (A Levels or equivalent).

The new rules will take effect from 1 January 2021 and the UK Government says that they “recognise that these proposals represent significant change for employers” and that they will deliver a “comprehensive programme of communication and engagement” in the meantime, and thereafter “keep market data under careful scrutiny” to monitor pressure zones in key sectors.

Every applicant will be required to meet a threshold of 70 points in the new points-based system in order to obtain a visa. Core to these points are three criteria: a job offer (worth 20 points), the job offer being at an “appropriate” skill level (20 points) and the applicant possessing English language proficiency to a desired level (10 points).

These reforms, the Government says, will eventually lead to “further improvements” in the UK’s sponsorship

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agenda brexit

Points-based system

While some point qualifiers are tradeable, allowing the applicants to juggle conditions in order to make up the required 70 points, the above three are not in most situations.

For example, an applicant meeting the three criteria above that is offered a job on or above the general salary threshold of £25,6000 per annum will be awarded 20 points, and thus the full 70, for that salary level. However, someone offered a job within the minimum allowable salary threshold (£20,480-23,039, worth 0 points) could make up that shortfall by possessing a PhD in a STEM subject relevant to their job (20 points, 10 points for non-STEM subjects) or by being offered a post in a MAC designated shortage occupation (20 points).

The MAC will produce and maintain a shortage occupation list that will decide which occupations will give applicants that 20-point boost in order to provide “immediate temporary relief for shortage areas”. The UK’s current shortage occupation list contains a wide array of professions, from teachers to the creative arts, but shortages are at their most prevalent in the STEM and medical professions. “As now,” the Government says, these workers will be able to be

brexit

accompanied by their dependents.

The Global Talent route that previously applied to non-EU citizens will begin to apply to EU citizens, meaning “highlyskilled” workers who can achieve the required level of points will be allowed to enter the UK without a job offer if they are endorsed by a “relevant and competent body”. There will also be a “broader unsponsored route” in line with MAC recommendations. Proposals for this route will be explored in the “coming year”. In May, after the Government’s plans had been published, Parliament voted to give initial backing to legislation that would end free movement of workers between the UK and the EU.

Northern Ireland It remains to be seen how these new rules will impact Northern Ireland, but initial reaction across the political spectrum has been largely negative, ranging from outright condemnation to queries as to whether regional variability, as yet unannounced, will be possible.

Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard called the policy statement an “unworkable proposal that is going to cause havoc for our local economy”, a view repeated

by SDLP MP Colum Eastwood and UUP MLA John Stewart, who respectively called the statement a “fundamental threat” and an “absolute disaster for the care sector in particular”.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry commented on the uniformity of the proposals, saying that a “one-size fits all approach doesn’t work”, while DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said that there are “different needs in different parts of the UK and we have the agri-food sector as our biggest industry here”.

Northern Ireland’s unemployment rate fell to 2.4 per cent during quarter four of 2019, but the rate of economic inactivity (25.6 per cent) is significantly higher than Britain’s (20.6 per cent). Economic inactivity is collated in part using the amount of students, sick, disabled and retired people within an area, and while some of these are expected to enter or return to the workforce, it is projected that this amount will not make up the

Characteristics

Tradeable

Offer of job by approved sponsor

No

20

Job at appropriate skill level

No

20

Speaks English at required level

No

10

Salary of £20,480 (minimum) – £23,039

Yes

0

Salary of £23,040 – £25,599

Yes

10

Salary of £25,600 or above

Yes

20

Job in a shortage occupation (as designated by the MAC)

Yes

20

Education qualification: PhD in subject relevant to the job

Yes

10

Education qualification: PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job

Yes

20

labour shortfall these new rules will create in Northern Ireland.

absolute minimum allowed for

The uniformity of the measures is something that does not give recognition to the economic disparity present within the area covered by the rules. Average weekly earnings in Northern Ireland are £535, £50 lower than the UK average of £585. Northern Ireland has experienced better year-on-year growth in that area (3.3 per cent nominal and 1.2 per cent real growth versus the UK’s 2.9 per cent nominal and 0.9 per cent real) but that simply serves to illustrate the historical gap that has existed between the earnings in Northern Ireland and in the rest of the UK. The median yearly income in Northern Ireland is £22,491, rising to £27,434 for full-time workers; in the UK as a whole, these figures are £24,897 and £30,353 respectively. The full-time mean is £32,083 in Northern Ireland and £37,428 in the UK.

area.

Even in terms of specified shortage occupations, Northern Ireland is at a deficit. For example, a registered nurse in Northern Ireland can earn between £17,000-35,000, with a median salary of £23,337. Northern Ireland has a lower floor, ceiling and median than London (£21,000-37,000, median of £26,205) and Glasgow (£22,000-36,000, median of £25,594) and a lower floor and median but higher ceiling than Bristol (£21,000-30,000, median of £25,965). Of these four areas, it is only possible in Northern Ireland to earn less than the

Points

applicants in what is a critical shortage

It is the salary thresholds that seem to pose the greatest threat to Northern Ireland, with it not being unusual for professionals such as architects and solicitors to earn less than the £25,600 threshold here. There are fears for shortages in agriculture also, where plans to expand the number of seasonal workers allowed to 10,000 have been dismissed as not being nearly enough.

So much of Northern Ireland’s industry works on an all-island basis, especially the food and drink sector, whose base supplier is agriculture.

With 65 per cent of migrant workers in Northern Ireland being EU citizens, compared to 40 per cent across the UK, this raises the prospect of industry simply moving south of the border to maintain this labour supply. The MAC has estimated that 70 per cent of the EU migrants who have entered the UK since 2004 would not be eligible for entry under these new rules, which would impact industry here more than anywhere else. This reform has been one of the strongest propellers for proBrexit arguments and Brexit certainly means Brexit; what that means for Northern Ireland looks bleak.

agenda brexit

47

brexit

Irish Sea border: Detail lacking Over four months after the ratification of the withdrawal agreement, the first official statement on the potential consequences of the Northern Ireland protocol by the UK Government has been published in the shape of a command paper.

The paper represents an effort by the UK Government to both provide assurance to the EU that they will uphold their legal obligations but also to reinforce to unionists that an international border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland will not be erected.

The command paper lacks the specific detail on the implications of an Irish Sea trade border many businesses had required, mostly because the precise details are still to be negotiated by the UK and the EU. The UK Government added a number of objectives to the arrangements already set out in the Protocol including to ‘strengthen the Northern Ireland economy’ and to ‘respect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’. The general consensus is that such objectives are largely meaningless until the actual implementation arrangements are agreed.

48

agenda brexit

The UK Government has proposed ‘light touch’ enforcement of rules in its four principles for implementation, namely that there is no additional process or paperwork on trade from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK; that there are no tariffs on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland; that there is no new physical customs infrastructure; and that Northern Ireland is to benefit from new UK FTAs. However, as has been highlighted, the UK can propose an approach to the enforcement of rules but do not have grounds to amend the rules themselves.

The UK Government has consistently said that there will be no border down the Irish Sea but ultimately, declarations on goods as they move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will be a requirement.

The UK has suggested that existing infrastructure in Northern Ireland could be

used for customs facilitation and border management, minimising the disruption.

However, they have provided little to no detail about how and where checks would take place.

Within the command paper the UK has acknowledged new administrative requirements on goods movement and declarations on goods as they move between Great Britain to Northern Ireland will both be required. Also acknowledged is that tariffs will be collected on goods at risk of entering the single market at ports of entry.

However, the command paper contains an effort by the UK to soften the implications of the legal obligations within the protocol for the public. For example, the command paper talks about the use of technology in administrative procedures to minimise documentation, yet no specifics have been offered as to how this would reduce the administrative burden or if the technology exists to implement this.

Similarly, the command paper speaks of ‘consensual’ application of the rules, which some have highlighted as misleading in relation to consent to the Protocol. The command paper states that regulatory alignment will happen ‘on the basis of democratic consent’, however, regulatory alignment does not require consent and the consent vote only applies to Articles five to 10 of the Protocol. Concerns have been raised that the use of language has given the impression that the Protocol is temporary, and it is within the gift of the Northern Ireland Assembly to vote it away.

The general consensus on the command paper is that detail of the UK’s ambitions is vague and that information on customs and tariffs, which many had hoped would be made clear, remains absent. The absence of such detail raises questions around the likelihood of legislation for unfettered access for Northern Ireland to Great Britain being in force by 1 January 2021.

Health and care services report

health and care services report

Emerging from lockdown Health Minister Robin Swann says that “support, understanding and patience� are necessary as he set out a roadmap for efforts to rebuild a crisis-hit health service.

50

Robin Swann, a surprise slection for the health portfolio following the resumption of the Northern Ireland Executive in January, will be expected to defend the public health decisions taken in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak and their lasting impact on a health service already in a state of crisis.

The Health Minister opted not to disclose to the public the best-case scenario highlighted to him by scientific modelling, which put the figure at 250 deaths.

Swann did outline the figure that had been given to him by experts that 3,000 people could die in a reasonable worstcase scenario but asked the Executive to back his strategy to not disclose the lowest figure, which it has transpired was the closest to the current death toll, to avoid giving the public a false sense of security while lockdown was being implemented.

While it is recognised that actions taken by the health service, including the pausing of some services, ultimately saved lives and reduced the potential spread of the virus, concerns remain as to what the overall cost of these measures will be.

“Despite the action I took to protect our highest priority services, a terrible consequence of the pandemic is that for some people, conditions will have gone undetected or untreated longer than they otherwise would have. I am also deeply concerned about the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown on mental health, especially for our most vulnerable citizens,” the Health Minister says.

health and care services report

The Minister recently stated his disappointment at the leaking of a document which showed that he opted to relay information on the worst case scenario impact of Covid-19 to the public but did not disclose available modelling on the best case scenario.

Northern Ireland’s death toll, of 824 at 6 July, is substantially less than the potential scenario outlined by Swann, in March, of 14,000 people dying as a result of Covid-19.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy and Health Minister Robin Swann.

problems in health and social care long before any of us had ever heard of coronavirus.

“Staff were under severe strain. Budgets were repeatedly squeezed. Waiting lists were dire. Emergency departments were seriously over-stretched. Our social care system was described as collapsing in slow motion.”

Acknowledging that decisions taken by the health service will also be a key element of future demand, he states: “The Health and Social Care system has had its own lockdown, services were scaled back substantially to keep people safe and to focus resources on caring for those with Covid-19.

“As we emerge from the first wave of the pandemic, it is no easy task to build services back up to pre-existing levels.”

In early June, Swann published a strategic framework titled ‘Rebuilding Health and Social Care Services’ which paints a bleak picture of the challenges facing health and social care in Northern Ireland in the wake of the first wave of Covid-19, describing the impact as “profound” and “long-lasting”.

Swann is aware that increased pressures are imminent and that these pressures will be compounded in a system which was already failing.

On top of existing challenges and built up demand, Northern Ireland’s health and social care service will not be able to return to its previous state.

“Our aim should not be to simply go back to the way things were,” he explains. “There were serious embedded

“The virus remains a very real threat.

Normal business will not be possible while that remains. Keeping the public

and staff safe is an absolute priority.

That means enforcing social distancing and separating Covid and non-Covid care as much as possible,” the Minister explains.

“There are other serious pressures too.

Long-term demand for PPE across health and social care and wider society will be substantial. The Department’s budgetary position continues to be hugely challenging. And we will also have to retain additional capacity in the health system in anticipation of a potential second Covid-19 wave,” he adds.

Included in the framework are plans by all Northern Ireland’s HSC Trusts for scaling up services in the immediate period, including emphasis on high priority cancer services and other urgent conditions. The plans state that Trusts have prioritised inpatient, urgent and red flag investigations across all sites, as well as increasing scheduled routine activity for daycase and diagnostics (with reduced capacity due to infection restrictions).

Measures introduced to tackle the pandemic are expected to create a backlog of demand in Northern Ireland’s already constantly growing hospital waiting lists. Prior to the virus outbreak, Minister Swann labelled waiting list figures as “appalling” and the Health service are already recognising the likely impact of the move to curtail elective and diagnostic services during the early

4 51

context that the Department of Health has received no additional funding in its 2020/21 Budget in relation to delivering on the priorities set out in the New Decade, New Approach deal.

health and care services report

Minister Swann has reiterated that the ability of the Department to deliver on these ambitions will continue to be constrained in the absence of additional funding. A major critic of Stormont’s handling of the health service over the past decade, the Minister recently told an Ad Hoc Committee at Stormont that: “Running health and social care on close to empty for 10 years robbed it of capacity, resilience and flexibility.”

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Health Minister Robin Swann and Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride.

“Emerging research indicates that population health is highly likely to be negatively affected by the wider impacts of Covid-19, with the greatest effects felt by the most disadvantaged.” stages of the pandemic outbreak.

The impact will not only relate to pent up demand in waiting lists in secondary care. Primary care and community care have also been widely affected with many areas registering large decreases in demand for services, which could ultimately lead to a significant number of health issues not being identified.

Similarly, community teams often utilised in the management of long-term conditions, rehabilitation and recovery have been severely disrupted. These impacts stretch right across the age spectrum ranging from elderly patients having long-term conditions managed to allow them to live at home to a reduction in health assessments for children, meaning issues may not have been identified early.

52

Mental health is another area where an initial decline in service demand was recognised, figures now suggest that this has reverted to an increase. The framework outlines anecdotal evidence from clinicians that indicate “an increase in acuity of those presenting with severe mental health problems, and a larger number of new presentations, previously unknown to mental health services”.

Problems in social care are longstanding and the recognised need for radical reform of adult social care will undoubtedly be hampered by the significant concentration of Covid-19 within care homes. At the same time, the provision of domiciliary care has been impeded and additional services such as day centres and respite services have generally come to a halt.

The Strategic Framework echoes the Minister’s assessment that the introduction of lockdown regulations was essential in controlling the spread of Covid-19 but recognises the wider impacts on population health.

“Emerging research indicates that population health is highly likely to be negatively affected by the wider impacts of Covid-19, with the greatest effects felt by the most disadvantaged,” it states.

Adding: “It is therefore likely that any growth in life expectancy will stall and perhaps even flatten in the wake of Covid-19. In terms of the social determinants of health, there are likely to be negative impacts on poverty, employment, economic security, and potentially educational attainment.”

All of these issues must be tackled in the

However, there is also some positive outlook within the road map. For example, the ambition to integrate elements of the health transformation programme which were well-advanced into a new way of working. Service innovation in the form of Covid-19 centres to reduce infection risk, effective telephone triage and video consultations, especially in primary care, and technology utilisation in social care have all been flagged and potential areas to be built upon and expanded.

The Health Minister has repeatedly stressed his pride at those involved in the health and social care sector in their response to the HSC’s “biggest challenge since its inception”.

“I have seen so many examples of excellence, innovation and commitment as our health and social care staff rose to the challenges created by Covid-19.

Decisions were taken at pace, services were reconfigured, mountains were moved. Staff have worked across traditional boundaries time and time again,” he says.

“I cannot thank them enough. We must build on that spirit in the months and years ahead. Innovations like telephone triage and video consultations will be embedded in primary and secondary care.”

He added: “I don’t want to simply restore the health and social system to the way it was at the beginning of 2020.

That would do a disservice to our great staff and the people of Northern Ireland.

“I honestly believe we can make it better.

That will require patience, careful planning, sustained investment and collective support, not just around the Executive table but across society as a whole.”

health and care services report

Delays to transformation The New Decade, New Approach deal set out a range of priorities for improvements in the heath service, however, many of these are now set to be delayed as a result of measures introduced to tackle Covid-19. The Department has released a risk rating of the anticipated delay of those priorities.

Red: High risk of delay • Develop Cancer Strategy by December 2020 • Improvements will be made in day case elective care by the end of 2020 • Improvements will be made in Urgent and Emergency care by the end of 2020 • Improvements will be made in stroke by the end of 2020 • Improvements will be made in breast assessment by the end of 2020 • Mental Health Strategy by December 2020 • Introduce a new Action Plan on Waiting Times • No one waiting over a year at 30 September 2019 for outpatient or inpatient assessment/treatment will still be on a waiting list by March 2021 • The Executive will provide increased investment to fully implement service improvements for palliative and end of life care including enhancing the contribution of hospices; and to increase support for palliative perinatal care

Amber: Medium risk of delay • Extend publicly funded IVF Cycles from 1 to 3 • Deliver reforms of health and social care as set out in Bengoa, Delivering Together and Power to People Reports • Successor strategy and action plan to the Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs Phase 2?

• Build capacity in general practice through the ongoing rollout of Multi Disciplinary teams to cover a further 100,000 patients by March 2021 • The Executive will expand university provision at Magee in line with commitments made by the previous Executive, including through the establishment of a Graduate Entry Medical School (from a DoH perspective)

Source: Rebuilding HSC Services Strategic Framework

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health and care services report

Addiction: An ‘increasingly unsustainable burden’ Substance misuse is a contributing factor in the use of an average of 200 hospital beds per day in Northern Ireland, but despite its significant cost to the public purse, finances allocated to tackle the problem are minimal.

Despite the “high and rising” levels of harm caused by substance misuse, the Department of Health allocates a “small” annual budget to tackle issues, the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) has found.

The report estimates that annual cost of alcohol misuse is in the region of £900 million, a significant increase of over £200 million from 2009 levels. An estimated £250 million of these costs are borne directly by the health and social care sector. However, despite significant costs, the Department of Health allocates just £8 million per year for the implementation of the New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs. An additional £8 million per year is allocated for statutory addiction services from within the mental health budget. The allocation to addiction services represents 5 per cent of the total mental health budget.

54

Alcohol misuse deaths in Northern Ireland have risen higher than anywhere

else in the UK, up 40 per cent since 2013. At the same time, the numbers seeking treatment for drug misuse have almost doubled from 2,107 in 2007 to 4,100 in 2019. While alcohol remains Northern Ireland’s deadliest substance in terms of misuse, strikingly, the NIAO estimates that drug misuse deaths have increased by more than 200 per cent over this period.

Department reviewed the strategy in 2018 and published findings in 2019 but no new substance misuse strategy has been published to date.

As well as a “significant escalation” in demand for drug misuse treatment, particularly relating to heroin use, addiction services have also reported changing patterns of drug use, highlighting the misuse of prescription drugs and polydrugs being significant factors.

In the year previous (2017-18), the total cost of hospital admissions where alcohol and drug related conditions were recorded was almost £23 million. Recent reports suggest that one in 10 people in a hospital bed are alcohol dependent and one in five are drinking at a harmful level. Over 73,000 hospital bed days were occupied where substance misuse was recorded as a contributing factor in 2017-18, equating to 200 hospital beds occupied every day.

Despite this, the Department of Health’s strategy for reducing harm relating to drug and alcohol misuse remains outdated. The New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs (NSD) was originally updated and extended from an end date of 2011 to 2016. The

Offering some context to costs associated with treating substance misuse, the NIAO estimates that A&E attendances relating to alcohol misuse in Northern Ireland in 2018-19 alone cost almost £33 million.

Prescription drugs The NIAO reports that the number of

deaths linked to prescription drug misuse is rising and is now involved in the majority of drug related deaths in Northern Ireland. Diazepam and Tramadol are the two most common drugs to feature on death certificates, however, there has been a “rapid” increase in the number of Pregabalin related deaths in the last five years.

33%

2019 (6,743)

20%

2007 (5,583) 0%

29%

38%

18% 20%

Drugs only

62% 40%

60%

Alcohol and drugs

80%

health and care services report

Northern Ireland prescribes higher levels of Diazepam per capita than any other UK region, three and a half times as in England. Similarly, Tramadol was mentioned in 14 per cent of drug related deaths in Northern Ireland in 2018, compared to just seven per cent in England, Wales and Scotland.

Pregabalin was mentioned in 54 drug related deaths in 2018, an increase from five deaths in 2014. In Northern Ireland, more Pregabalin is prescribed per capita than any other part of the UK.

Increase in the proportion of people who present for drug misuse treatment

100%

Alcohol only

Source: Department of Health

Pressures UK alcohol related deaths per 100,000 people

As a result of increased demand, the NIAO outlines that addiction services are facing significant and growing pressures, “including the increasing complexity of care required, an ageing cohort of service users and co-existing mental health issues which make management of treatment more complicated”.

The NIAO report recognises that long waiting times can serve as a deterrent for people seeking treatment, contributing to increased dropout rates and negatively influencing health outcomes. In particular, it points to long waiting lists for the Substitute Prescribing Service. The Department has long sought to share responsibility of this care with primary care to reduce the pressure on statutory addiction services but has not yet been successful.

In addition, it states that referral pathways from statutory addiction services to rehabilitation providers are inconsistent and recommends these are reviewed.

Despite the scale of the problem, the NIAO describes the performance of the Department’s monitoring as “limited” and states that as a result, it cannot be sure it is getting value for money or delivering effective service.

“The Department’s performance monitoring of substance misuse services

20 15 10 Deaths

This is having a knock-on effect in relation to waiting lists. In July 2019, over 1,100 people were waiting for a first appointment with Tier 3 addiction services and Northern Ireland waiting time targets for substance misuse services are longer than the targets across the rest of the UK.

25

5 0 2013

2014 Northern Ireland

2015 Scotland

2016 Wa les

2017 England

Source: ONS

is very limited. Data collected is not reliable or complete, therefore the Department cannot demonstrate that services are effective or delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The Department’s Substance Misuse Database has not been published for over two years due to quality issues,” the report states.

an “increasingly unsustainable burden”.

“The Department has little information on outcomes for service users. The data collected is largely activity based, rather than focusing on outcomes. Whilst we acknowledge that this information can be difficult to collect, ultimately the Department’s data should focus on the impact services have on people’s lives rather than the numbers coming through the door.”

“As a result, it has not been possible to determine whether spending on addiction services provides value for money or whether service users are getting the best possible outcomes.

Commenting on the findings, Northern Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General describes substance abuse as

“While the information that is available paints a worrying picture of a growing problem, it is disappointing that the Department has little reliable information on outcomes for people seeking treatment for addictions,” says Kieran Donnelly.

“The future focus must be on the impact services are having on people’s lives, not just the number of people looking for help. That’s why my report recommends that clearly defined objectives and outcomes are built into the Department of Health’s new alcohol and drugs strategy.”

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health and care services report

Waiting list crisis set to deepen A new action plan on waiting times is at high risk of delay as the hospital waiting list crisis in Northern Ireland’s health service looks set to intensify.

The Department has identified a significant number of the priorities set out in the New Decade, New Approach document as high risk for anticipated delay in delivery. As well as the development of a cancer strategy and an action plan on waiting times, it also expects to miss its target to have no one waiting over a year at 30 September 2019 for outpatient or inpatient assessment/treatment still waiting by March 2021.

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“even more horrendous now”.

A waiting list crisis in Northern Ireland preceded the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is now understood that efforts to tackle the virus will further compound the existing problems.

A strike by healthcare workers in Northern Ireland in early 2020 over pay and working conditions was seen as a key element of the decisions by parties in Northern Ireland to return to powersharing. The New Decade, New Approach deal which saw the Executive reformed included a number of key promises in relation to a failing health system and the need for significant transformation. Many of these promises are now expected to be delayed following the turning of attention from policy makers and the health service to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Health Minister Robin Swann has indicated his belief that efforts to restore the health and social system operations to pre-Covid-19 levels will not be enough, stating in the Assembly that waiting lists that had been “unacceptable” before Covid-19 were

The full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the health service still remains to be seen but cause for concern lies in statistics prior to the pandemic outbreak, which paint a bleak picture of the levels of delays in the system.

Figures released by the Department of Health for the three months leading up to 31 March, which do not factor in most of the Covid-19 crisis period, show that over 307,000 people were still waiting for a first appointment with a consultant, a rise of over 18,000 (6.3 per cent) people at the same time last year.

Almost 80 per cent of these patients were waiting more than nine weeks for their first consultant-led outpatient appointment, again a significant increase on the 74 per cent waiting at 31 March 2019. Almost 40 per cent were waiting more than a year.

These figures far exceed the 2019/20 ministerial target which outlined an ambition that by March 2020, at least 50 per cent of patients should wait no longer than nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment and no patient should wait longer than a year.

Similarly, waiting times for inpatient and

Reduction in outpatient activity from 9 March to 13 April 2020 60

40 30

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% reduction

50

20 10 0 Routine

Red flag

Urgent

Source: Department of Health

day case admission failed to meet the ministerial target of at least 55 per cent of patients waiting no longer than 13 weeks, with no patient waiting for a year.

The curtailment of elective and diagnostic services will undoubtedly have adverse impacts on the already extensive waiting lists.

Outlining the scale of the challenges facing the health service and his plan to rebuild services, Health Minister Robin Swann says: “We faced huge strategic challenges prior to Covid-19, which included an ageing population, increasing demand, long and growing waiting lists, workforce pressures, the emergence of new and more expensive treatments and ongoing budget constraints. These challenges have been compounded by Covid-19.”

The Department of Health estimates that the downturn in secondary care activity has caused significant growth of waiting lists in most areas. The exception is that of urgent inpatient waiting lists, where a reduction of 1 per cent has been recognised. The Department believes that: •

the routine inpatient waiting list has grown by 5 per cent;

•

the urgent inpatient waiting list has grown by 31 per cent; and

•

the routine outpatient waiting list has grown by 4 per cent.

Projections by the Trusts suggest that the six weeks to June resulted in similar reductions in activity, which is expected to further impact on waiting lists. Also

“We faced huge strategic challenges prior to Covid-19, which included an ageing population, increasing demand, long and growing waiting lists, workforce pressures, the emergence of new and more expensive treatments and ongoing budget constraints.”

Health Minister, Robin Swann noteworthy is the fact that growth figures are based on the data available on 1 April, and do not factor in the trend of steadily increasing waiting lists, even in the absence of Covid-19 measures.

The Department noted a 40 per cent

Surrounding the direct figures on secondary care are the potential knockon effects of reductions of activity in other areas. Health practitioners have voiced concerns about the potential backlog of health issues within society that have yet to be identified.

With that demand now starting to

downturn in red flag outpatient activity.

Essentially meaning a huge fall off in the number of people with suspected cancer being seen through April and into May. increase again, there will be an inevitable increase in the demand for surgery.

The Health Minister has outlined plans for the five health trusts to publish plans for tackling waiting lists, provide highpriority cancer services and deal with

For example, emergency department activity reduced by 47 per cent across Northern Ireland compared to last year’s figures at the early stage of the pandemic outbreak and GP appointments have reduced by 19.4 per cent compared to last year.

other urgent conditions. However,

At the same time, a number of screening services had been paused and in-patient bed occupancy for those with the most severe mental illness fell by 15 per cent between mid-February and the end of March.

that preparations are in place for a

amidst increasing pressures, issues such as a challenging budget scenario and staffing shortages remain.

Added to this is the fact that Covid-19 remains a concern. As well as ensuring potential second wave of the virus, health services must operate differently than before to negate the potential of increased spread and protect both patients and staff.

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Health inequalities 2020 While medical advancements have been credited as one of the core reasons people in Northern Ireland are living longer, latest figures from the Department of Health have highlighted the ongoing inequality in the health outcomes between the most and least deprived areas of Northern Ireland at both a regional and sub regional level.

Covid-19 and its long-term impact on public health, as well as the health service itself, will undoubtedly be a key factor in the delivery and analysis of health statistics in future. Globally, many countries have recognised a disproportionate effect on the most deprived communities by the virus.

Differing health systems, physical geography and contrasting government approaches mean that it will likely take some time before data can be fully analysed to assess whether such a thread will be a constant for all countries.

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For example, in early June, Public Health England found that people living in deprived areas were at greater risk of

dying with coronavirus but research by the Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland found that affluent areas had shown a “small increase�, when compared to less well-off areas.

While it is too early to suggest that such a theme will be a constant, data gathered prior to the virus outbreak serves to highlight the ongoing gaps between health outcomes for the most and least deprived communities.

Broadly speaking, health outcomes across the population in Northern Ireland are improving, however, many major gaps remain among the least and most deprived for various indicators, continuing to widen in some instances.

A core example, whereby broad improvements or little change serve to mask somewhat existing inequalities, is in life expectancy statistics. In the most recent figures, gathered for 2016-2018, male life expectancy from birth has improved in both the most and least deprived areas, compared to figures for 2012-2014, while female life expectancy has remained constant. However, there remains a 7.1 year deprivation gap for males and a 4.4 year gap for females.

Meaning that males and females living in the 20 per cent most deprived areas are estimated to live over seven years and four years less than those 20 per cent living in the least deprived areas.

Healthy life expectancy, a different

statistic than the life expectancy from birth figures, also retained its inequality gaps, while there was a negative change in the most deprived areas for females.

At the same time, disability free life expectancy changed negatively for males and females, with evidence showing a widening of the inequality gaps.

In terms of rates of premature mortality, there was a general decrease across Northern Ireland including in its most and least deprived areas. Inequality gaps were narrowed but remained large. An example offered is that of respiratory mortality among under 75s, where the rate of deaths was over three times greater in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived.

Most indicators improved at a regional level for major diseases but the existing inequality gaps remained constant.

There was an exception in incidence of cancer, where there was negative change in both the most and least deprived areas. The biggest inequality gap exists in admissions due to respiratory diseases, where the rate is doubled in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived.

In relation to hospitals, most inequality measures narrowed with the exception of emergency care attendance and elective inpatient admissions, which remained similar. The largest inequality gap is noted in emergency admission, where the rate among those living in the most deprived areas is some 60 per cent higher than in the least deprived areas.

Mental health Suicide rates in Northern Ireland’s most deprived areas are over three times higher in comparison to the least deprived areas, with the gap continuing to widen according the Department’s report. Large inequality gaps continue to exist across a range of other mental health indicators. There was a narrowing of the gap in relation to self-harm admissions, where positive change was recorded in both the most and least deprived areas, however, increases were recorded for both communities in prescription rates for mood and anxiety disorders.

Some of the largest health inequalities

across Northern Ireland continue to be in relation to alcohol, smoking and drugs.

Alcohol specific mortality and alcohol related admissions are estimated to be some four times greater in the most deprived areas when compared to the least deprived. Drug related admissions decreased across all areas but the death rate for drug related causes and drug misuse rose and the inequality gaps widened.

Sub-regional In the 2020 annual report, analysis of the sub regional areas looks at both the Trust or the local government district areas (LGD) and compares them to either the regional average or to the 20 per cent most deprived areas within an area and the area’s average.

With the exception of the Belfast Trust, more inequality gaps widened than narrowed in the HSC Trusts and the same was true for the majority of LGDs, except for five.

Belfast Trust (32), Belfast LGD (32) and Derry City and Strabane (25) had a majority of health outcomes that were worse than the Northern Ireland average, compared to the likes of Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD, were no health outcomes were recorded as worse than the Northern Ireland average, and Ards and North Down, were just one outcome was recorded as such.

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Regional health inequalities refer to the difference in health outcomes between the 20 per cent most deprived and 20 per cent least deprived areas of Northern Ireland.

Alcohol specific mortality and alcohol related admissions are estimated to be some four times greater in the most deprived areas when compared to the least deprived.

For male life expectancy, only the Southern Trust and Newry, Mourne and Down LGD experienced a narrowing of the inequality gap between the 20 per cent most deprived areas and the area average. For female life expectancy, the inequality gap between the 20 per cent most deprived areas and the area average widened in South Eastern Trust and in the Antrim and Newtownabbey; Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon; Belfast and Fermanagh and Omagh LGDs. Drug related mortality was the largest inequality gap seen in three of the five HSC Trusts and nine of the 11 LGDs. According to the Department’s report, in the South Eastern Trust, the rate in its most deprived areas was more than two and a half times that of the Trust average. While in Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD the rate in the most deprived areas was almost three times the LGD average.

Suicide was another recognisable statistic where large inequality gaps exist and was among the five largest inequality gaps for Belfast Trust, as well as for Antrim and Newtownabbey and Mid Ulster LGDs. Statistics taken from the Health Inequalities: Annual Report 2020, published by the Department of Health.

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Health, technology and Covid-19 The use of digital technology in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore once more concerns around privacy and security in relation to data usage.

The past decade has seen a substantial push within health systems to utilise digital technology advancements to provide greater efficiencies and ultimately better outcomes. Digital health records, automatic procurement and big data analysis are just some examples whereby Northern Ireland has sought to modernise and transform the delivery of healthcare.

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the use of big data. However, the extent to which these technologies are being utilised has differed significantly across the globe and, particularly in Europe, have been met with some resistance over concerns around privacy.

The advantages of each digital advancement, particularly those that deal with personal information of citizens, have all had to be closely balanced with privacy rights, as well as security concerns.

In May, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Research and Information Service produced a briefing paper on the use of digital measures to combat Covid-19 to support the Covid-19 Ad Hoc Committee and the Health Committee with their scrutiny of the pandemic response, focussing on the technical and ethical challenges of the use of contact tracing apps and big data.

Understandably, following the outbreak of Covid-19, attention has been turned to how technology can be best utilised in tackling the pandemic. To date, the result has been mainly a greater focus globally on two major digital programmes: digital contact tracing and

Northern Ireland, which has resumed contact tracing following an earlier move away from the policy, is hoping to roll out a track and trace app by the end of July. Contact tracing is currently being done manually, through telephone calls.

Both the UK Government and the Irish

Government have announced plans to use digital platforms and introduce apps, with the Irish Government rolling theirs out in early July.

Asian countries were the first to rapidly develop digital technologies in response to the spread of the virus and in a bid to emerge from lockdown. However, while the effectiveness of a range of measures such as communication monitoring, movement monitoring and facial recognition were recognised for their effectiveness, the intrusiveness of such technologies made their introduction in Europe highly unlikely, given the greater levels of legal restrictions and stronger privacy culture.

Many countries across Europe did recognise the potential benefits of contact tracing technology and initiated work on how the technology could be adopted to in a way that at least lessens www.agendani.com the privacy concerns of citizens. The

result was a call from the EU Commission for a more cohesive approach, both for greater operability purposes and more effective regulation.

Most concerns are based around a centralised and decentralised approach.

Centralised data collection relates to control by a health authority of a central server for data collection. In comparison, a decentralised model, such as that being developed through the Google and Apple in collaboration, uses individual phone technology, negating the need for data to be retained in one place. This approach is widely viewed as better from a privacy perspective but less accurate than a centralised model and removes the ability of health authority to gather data for resource planning.

For Northern Ireland, public acceptance of the model will be important if and when a contact tracing app is developed. Norway, for example, was one of the first European countries to exit their lockdown and use a centralised app. However, citizen concern around privacy are said to be largely responsible for a high drop out rate in app usage.

Less than 900,000 people are actively using the app, out of the 1.5 million who downloaded it.

The UK and France continue to pursue a centralised model, however, both Germany and Italy have changed their original stances in favour of a decentralised model, and many countries have followed their lead.

Big data As well as gathering mobile data for contact tracing apps, governments have also recognised the value in utilising location data for better understanding of movement patterns before, during and eventually after the pandemic.

The health service in Northern Ireland, in recognising a need for transformation, has put a much greater emphasis on big data analytics in recent years, recognising the potential it provides for preventive models of care rather than reactive treatment. Again, central to progress and ambitions, has been the

legal underpinning of the ability to gather, retain and use people’s personal records.

Understandably, the privacy issue is also prevalent in any progress to utilise mobile data for policy decisions such as the easing or hardening of social distancing measures or the location of resources regarding testing. There are question marks over whether, if channels of data gathering and sharing are opened, it would ever be possible to return to previous ways of working.

Whereas contact tracing technology in most countries requires an action to be taken by citizens to include themselves in a programme designed to digitally exchange details, the technology needed to gather data regarding movement is already present in most people’s personal devices. Location signals and individual device IDs are commonly used in even the most basic smartphone apps.

Utilisation of big data in relation to disease outbreak has been proven to be effective prior to Covid-19. For example, the Assembly’s research report highlights that in Africa, in particular, aggregated mobile data has been used to track malaria in order to identify areas with large medical needs and to track future potential outbreaks and mobile phone carriers have increasingly been sharing mobile data with individual EU governments to assist with tracking Covid-19.

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However, varying levels of government and citizen levels of awareness and concern in relation to privacy, within individual countries, have been highlighted by the fragmented approach to contact tracing apps.

Understandably, the privacy issue is also prevalent in any progress to utilise mobile data for policy decisions such as the easing or hardening of social distancing measures or the location of resources regarding testing.

Mobile phone operators are not the only organisations working with governments to provide mobility patterns and data.

Both Facebook and Google are also producing data for use. While all data providers have stressed the security of their measures to anonymise the data provided, concerns exist about the potential to reverse these security measures.

“Privacy commentators and civil liberties groups have raised concerns about whether the data will be repurposed for other means and for how long the EU intends to hold onto the data,” the report states.

With the pandemic expected to come in waves, consideration of the best use of big data in Northern Ireland will be an important factor in both assessing the impact of measures in ensuring the health service is prepared for both potentially high and low demand, as well offering the opportunity to analyse restriction impacts for future scenarios.

The rapid pace of technology development in healthcare have brought with them a host of advantages but also present a range of new challenges in regard to privacy. Policy makers will have to balance ambition with public trust in deciding how best to utilise new technologies both during the pandemic but also planning for the extent to which it continues to use these in the postpandemic period.

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Comparing Covid-19 on the island of Ireland: Impossible, undesirable or doable?

Reactions to north/south Covid-19 comparisons fall into two broad camps.

First there are those who suggest that it is ‘impossible’ to compare Northern Ireland with the Republic as the published statistics count different things. Then there are those who say that north/south comparisons are ‘undesirable’, although typically this is implied rather than stated outright.

There are two significant obstacles to a comprehensive understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on mortality in Ireland. One is the statistical challenge while the other is an unwillingness to pursue comparative study on a north/south basis, writes Mike Tomlinson, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, Queen’s University Belfast.

As the first wave subsides, I suspect we have lost our appetite for numbers.

There is something morally questionable about reducing so many lives cut short to an overall death toll or a death rate, especially when this comes across as an unseemly international league table.

Exactly the same sentiment arises over north/south comparisons on the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland’s Minister of Health recently described such comparisons as ‘crude and often ghoulish’. But compare we must, as this is the way we learn from others.

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Several months ago, the Irish Times published an opinion piece (22 April) in which I suggested that the Covid-19 death rate in Northern Ireland was considerably higher than in the Republic: ‘one island with two very different death rates’ ran the headline. Different policies, on the pace of lockdown and on testing

and tracing, appeared to have resulted in different outcomes.

The response to this was not what I expected. It ranged from the First Minister’s special adviser referring to the piece publicly as ‘the now widely dismissed report’, to the London-based think-tank Policy Exchange devoting a 15-page pamphlet to the topic. More surprisingly, two days after publication, Facebook branded the Irish Times piece as ‘partly false’. This ensured that the article was relegated in the news feed, and distribution reduced. People sharing the content were referred to a report by a third party fact-checker which had rated the statistical comparison as ‘unsubstantiated’. The false news tag remained in place for a full week until Facebook reclassified the piece as ‘opinion’ on 1 May.

It is certainly difficult to compare the data on deaths. For Northern Ireland there are four figures to choose from.

The lowest of the four is the daily reported number of Covid-19 deaths based on those tested positive for the disease and published by the Department of Health. Then there are three statistics published weekly by NISRA (the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency). Two of these are a count of death certificates which mention Covid-19: by date registered and by date of occurrence. Finally, we have a figure for ‘excess deaths’, a measure of the spike in deaths from all causes over and above what would normally be expected at this time of year, based on an average for the preceding five years. This is the highest figure and the one that is regarded by most epidemiologists as the key statistic.

Three of these four counts are shown in Figure 1 (I’m indebted to Chris Giles at the Financial Times for the design of this graph). The top set of columns represent an estimate of the excess deaths occurring between the weekly published figure.

For the Republic the daily reported deaths include those tested positive for the disease and also ‘probable’ Covid19 deaths referred to the Coroner (see Figure 2). No other data will be available until the mortality statistics for the first quarter of 2020 are published.

Where does this leave us for making comparisons? At the time of writing, the daily reported figures indicate a death rate for the Republic of 35.1 per 100,000 population and 28.9 for Northern Ireland.

1,200

1,000

Excess all causes, estimated

800

Excess all causes, official NISRA registered (occurred) DoH daily

600

400

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The daily counts receive the most publicity and are the most often quoted.

But they are not comparable for two reasons. First the Republic’s daily total includes some deaths (about 250) that have not been tested positive for Covid19 (see Figure 2). Secondly Northern Ireland’s daily figure – the black line in Figure 1 – consists mostly of hospital deaths whereas these are only a minority (about 40 per cent) in the Republic’s daily total. This is a direct result of different testing policies. In the Republic, testing and contact tracing, whatever the difficulties, were expanded from early March. But from 12 March the British Government decided to stop contact tracing and to restrict testing to hospital patients.

Figure 1: Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland

Number of deaths

How is it that Northern Ireland, with later lockdowns and more restrictive testing, is recording a lower crude death rate?

This is contrary to what one might expect from the international experience where countries following World Health Organisation guidelines and acting quickly, have recorded much lower Covid-19 death tolls.

200

0

Figure 2: Covid-19 related deaths in Republic of Ireland

Within a matter of days, fell behind the Republic in the confirmation of cases.

By 21 March the Republic’s case rate was double Northern Ireland’s and the later expansion of testing in Northern Ireland did not change the overall picture: The Republic’s rate at 494 per 100,000 population (20 May) was more than double that in Northern Ireland (235). Put another way, towards the end of May about 1 in 50 had been tested in Northern Ireland compared to one in 20 in the Republic.

One way of approaching the comparison is to look at excess deaths. This is regarded as the gold standard for assessing the impact of an epidemic or other exceptional event on mortality. As Spiegelhalter (Cambridge Professor of Statistics) says, excess mortality “is currently a reasonable measure of the total impact of the epidemic, both the virus and the measures taken against it”.

What about excess deaths in the Republic? While weekly mortality statistics are not published, there is a proxy for excess deaths that several academics are now using to assess the impact of Covid-19. Seamus Coffey, University College Cork, has shown that there is a remarkably close relationship between the official count of registered deaths and death notices posted on RIP.ie going back over a number of years. Indeed, the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan has stated that the RIP.ie data captures over 98 per cent of deaths registered in the Republic. This means we can compare north/south excess

deaths using the RIP.ie data.

There is a significant difference north/south as to how the excess deaths figures compare to the other measures.

In the Republic the total of Covid-19 positive and ‘probable’ Covid-19 deaths now exceed the estimate of excess deaths from all causes (Figure 2), unlike the position in the Northern Ireland (Figure 1) where the NISRA registered deaths were 84 per cent of the excess by 19 June, while the Department of Health daily figure was only 56 per cent.

But taking the excess deaths up to 29 May (when excess deaths ceased in the Republic) we find that the crude death rate per 100,000 population in Northern Ireland is 58 per cent above that in the Republic. Standardising for age, using the European standard population, brings the figure down to 32 per cent.

As the policy discussion turns to the relaxation and possible re-introduction

of lockdown measures, there is a danger that efforts to suppress the virus will be undermined if the two jurisdictions do not follow similar policies. Two areas stand out. First, testing, tracing and isolating practices need to be aligned to prevent the infection circulating more freely in one part of the island relative to the other. Secondly, as Gabriel Scally and others have argued, health surveillance at points of entry to the island needs to be the same either side of the border in order to control the import of the virus.

Ideally, in future, the Republic will shorten the time allowed for a death to be registered from three months to five days and will publish mortality statistics weekly as in Northern Ireland and on a similar basis. The need to compare outcomes does not disappear with the first wave.

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A healthy perspective Colm Gildernew MLA, Chair of the Assembly’s Committee for Health, talks to David Whelan about the committee’s role in healthcare transformation and response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gildernew is a fresh face in the Northern Ireland Assembly despite being coopted to replace his sister over three years ago. The absence of Stormont has meant that January marked the first opportunity for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA to operate in the fully functioning institutions.

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Gildernew believes that his experience as a social worker equipped him well to take up the role as Chair of the Health Committee. “My experience of working in the community, in particular the older persons community team has given me an insight into the many issues and indeed the complexities around social care and health in general,” he explains.

“I also believe that work provided me with some of the tools that are an important aspect of my current role; be that self-reflection, circumspection and a range of skills that have helped me navigate some of the issues we have faced.”

Unquestionably, the health and social care sector represented the largest bulk of work following the return of the institutions, even prior to the pandemic outlook.

Outlining what lay in the in-tray of the Health Minister and subsequently the Committee, Gildernew says: “The key pressing issues were the major

difficulties facing the health and social care service in relation to waiting lists, which were some of the worst on these islands. Additionally, workforce issues were inherent. We were looking at a situation where nurses were out on picket lines as a result of pay and conditions, but also of staffing levels.

“All of that was in the context of an urgent need to progress the transformation agenda, which we had broad consensus on.”

Unknown at the time was the impact the Covid-19 outbreak would have on the delivery of services and ambitions to urgently deliver health and social care

transformation. However, Gildernew stresses that those early ambitions were not completely sidelined as efforts focussed on managing the spread.

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“When the extent of the pandemic became clear, to a degree, but only to a degree, those issues were overtaken by the urgency and immediacy of the response to Covid-19. Even throughout Covid-19 the committee has continually engaged with the Department in relation to funding and the need to protect those transformation ambitions.”

Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 has become a huge focus of the committee’s work and Gildernew highlights that members have continued to meet frequently to deal with the volume of work required.

A large part of that work has centred on the measures introduced by the Executive and the Department.

Discussing the role the committee has in shaping those measures, the Chair states: “Our role was to scrutinise the impact of measures and we continue to engage on that. We have been presented with a number of regulations of measures needed to deal with the emergency and our role has been to explore whether those measures are effective.”

An example cited by Gildernew of where the committee has been able to effect positive change is in relation to regulations being brought forward on children’s social care.

“We asked for a briefing from a number of stakeholders and we were able to go back to the Department with a number of suggestions for improvements but also assurances on not only necessary use, but length of use. We were able to build in significant mitigations on behalf of those children who were potentially impacted by those measures in areas such as privacy, digital disadvantage, and the rights of children to be heard.

“It is a good example of how a committee could engage and could impact in a positive way on the measures to ensure that they are is good as they could be in the current circumstances,” he adds.

While Gildernew highlights a continued focus from the committee on those initial health transformation ambitions, undoubtedly, the circumstances for delivery have changed. Existing pressures in the delivery of health and social care are set to be compounded

“Even throughout Covid-19 the committee has continually engaged with the Department in relation to funding and the need to protect those transformation ambitions.” by pent up demand and significant delays in many of the planned actions within the New Decade, New Approach document are now inevitable.

Gildernew admits that new priorities may well need to be established but states the committee’s outlook that those preCovid ambitions remain a priority.

“Certainly, new priorities will be identified and one of those that springs to mind is mental health. The committee has facilitated a specific session to look at the surge in mental health needs and we believe there is a need for the Minister and the Department to focus on what could be a significant upswing in terms of demand around mental health services.

“It is welcome that a mental health champion has now been appointed and the Executive has taken mental health on as a significant area of work, crosscutting all departments, and the

committee want to support that.

“However, the committee recognised the need to rebuild services to meet the remaining priorities. I don’t think anything has changes in this regard.”

Gildernew acknowledges that the difficulties and the complexities have increased but adds: “The transformation of our health service remains a priority. It is clear that it wasn’t in a good place coming into this pandemic, so we therefore need to ensure that the work that had been identified is progressed at the earliest stage and to the fullest degree possible.”

Rebuilding health In June, Health Minister Robin Swann published the Department’s Strategic Framework for Rebuilding Health and Social Care Services. Some have criticised the framework for failing to incorporate the broader necessity for change in the health service, believing

4

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“We have reflected a strong concern that the rebuilding process should engage as many voices as possible. Particularly, there is an issue around allied health professionals and their level of input into the transformation agenda and shaping the rebuilding plans.” that it is largely focussed on the immediate period, as Covid-19 pressures ease.

Asked about the role of the committee in shaping the framework, Gildernew points to engagement with departmental officials, the Minister and the Chief Medical Officer on a range of issues in a bid to see greater involvement in the shaping of the rebuilding of services by health and social care staff.

“We have reflected a strong concern that the rebuilding process should engage as many voices as possible. Particularly, there is an issue around allied health professionals and their level of input into the transformation agenda and shaping the rebuilding plans.

“We have also met with a number of representative bodies, including the unions and we are urging the Department to engage with those unions and to engage with frontline staff, both, in order to learn lessons from Covid-19 and to implement any learning in the shaping of services in a way the addresses the complexity of the issues and utilises the experience of those bodies and groups to better inform future delivery.”

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Gildernew describes it as “sobering” to hear from frontline representatives in relation to the difficulties faced in the early days of the pandemic. Having listened to a range of evidence in his role as Chair of the Health committee, he believes the committee’s role is to add value to the work done during the pandemic by identifying things that potentially could have been done better and highlighting any learnings to prepare the health service for the future.

“In those early days personal protective equipment (PPE) was a huge concern, as was testing and tracing. We have looked in some detail at the care home sector.

We do acknowledge that a huge amount of complex and difficult decisions have had to be made in a very short space of time and that there has been good work in that respect.

“Our job is to add value to that in identifying what potentially could have been done better and what we might learn in relation to this pandemic, but also for future pandemics or future health crises here. That may not be in front of us right now but in the future, we will need to be prepared.”

Gildernew points to significant learning which has already been attained such as the requirement to have stockpiles of particular items of PPE and describes the committees work in engaging with various sectors to discuss local supply, adding: “A key lesson which emerged was that, in a pandemic, the world becomes a very competitive place for these products and services. The committee’s role is to assist in that learning, to scrutinise the decisions taken and to see how they might be taken better in future.”

RQIA One significant fallout of the Department’s handling of the Covid crisis was the resignation of the board of the RQIA, which claimed that decisions were taken in the name of RQIA but without its input around the scaling back of care home inspections.

The Health Minister has since announced an independent review into the circumstances surrounding the

resignations, however, Gildernew believes that the committee will continue to look at the RQIA as part of the overall picture in relation to adult social care and the care home situation.

“We have indicated that we would like to continue to engage with RQIA in the spirit of learning lessons from the early weeks of the pandemic and the fact that the sad reality is that over 50 per cent of people who have died as a result of Covid-19 lived in that care home sector.

So, there is an urgency there.

“The committee recognises that there is a number of strands to the involvement of RQIA and we will continue to look at the broader picture to ensure that we have a robust regulatory framework in place to protect people in care home settings while the inquiry does its work.”

Looking to the future work of the committee, the Chair says that the committee will work to ensure broad consultation alongside proper coproduction and co-design are features of transformation to an improved health service to the future.

“We will also stay tightly focussed on the review of adult social care, which is a very important piece of work. We need to ensure that we build a system that is fit for purpose and that people can be provided with a place to live and enjoy their life. Mental health will also continue to be a focus for the committee and indeed the department.

“We will continue to scrutinise and to maximise the benefit we can bring to the overall picture of improving our health service,” he concludes.

health and care services report

Review ordered into RQIA resignations An independent review has been ordered after the entire board of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) resigned following a disagreement over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

All nine board members of the health watchdog resigned in protest in June, saying that they had not been consulted on a number of decisions taken by the Department of Health. The moves made that are believed to have triggered the resignations include the reduction in the number of inspections in care homes, the redeployment of RQIA staff, Chief Executive Olive Macleod among them, to other agencies and RQIA inspectors being put to work in different roles in care homes.

The RQIA is responsible for monitoring the quality of health and social care in Northern Ireland, including the carrying out of inspections of care homes, which were so heavily impacted during Covid19. In a statement to the BBC, the resigned board members said that they “couldn’t stand over” the decisions, which they said “diluted the RQIA’s independence and critical function as a regulator to maintain the protection of vulnerable adults in residential and nursing homes during the Covid-19 crisis”.

The Department of Health defended itself against the criticism, saying that the frequency of inspections was lowered in an attempt to lower the risk of infection; official figures show that more than half of the Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland occurred among care home residents.

After calling the resignations a “matter of regret”, Health Minister Robin Swann ordered an independent review. The Minister said that the resignations would have “no impact” on the daily operations of the RQIA. At a press briefing, Swann defended the Department of Health, saying that they had to make decisions quickly as they were in the “teeth of a full-scale emergency”.

Swann appointed Christine Collins as interim chair of the RQIA and further defended the actions of the Department by saying that other parts of the UK had done similar. The Minister said that he was aware of “tensions” between the RQIA board and Department officials since the beginning of May, but that he was still surprised by what came after and “didn’t expect it to culminate in the

resignation of the board”.

Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride has said that he will fully cooperate with the review and that he believes that the decisions of the Department had saved lives as the pandemic began to spread.

McBride said: “The decision was to reduce the frequency of visits to care homes, not stop them. It was designed to protect individuals in care homes, reduce footfall and the risk of infection.”

Restrictions on the frequency of care home inspections were lifted on the same week that the resignations were announced, but the damage had been done as far as the RQIA board’s relationship with the Department is concerned. Questions were asked about the announcement of a review coming so quickly on the heels of the resignation announcement, but Swann said that he would rather act quickly than slowly.

Department of Health permanent secretary Richard Pengelly has written the terms of reference for the review, although other details have not been announced as of yet.

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Mental health delays The long-awaited publication of a mental health strategy for Northern Ireland is set to be further delayed due to the pandemic workload, despite recent findings that a third of people in Northern Ireland met criteria for depression and anxiety related to Covid-19.

The Department of Health has included a dedicated Covid-19 Mental Health Response Action Plan in its Mental Health Action Plan published in May but states that co-production of the anticipated 10-year mental health strategy has not been “possible as expected”, meaning the strategy will not be published by the end of this year as anticipated.

Recent research produced by Queen’s University Belfast, which explored the psychological impact of lockdown and the pandemic on people in Northern Ireland, found that of those surveyed 30 per cent met the criteria for anxiety, 33 per cent for depression and 20 per cent met the criteria for Covid-19 related PTSD due to the current pandemic.

At the same time it’s been revealed that additional monies of £1.35 million secured for Northern Ireland’s latest suicide prevention strategy published in September 2019, have yet to be allocated.

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Northern Ireland remains the only region of the UK without a dedicated mental health strategy, despite recording the highest mental illness levels of any region. Recent statistics prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, show that rates of

mental health illness are 25 per cent greater in Northern Ireland than in England.

The New Decade, New Approach document, which saw the resumption of devolved government in Northern Ireland, set out a target to have a mental health strategy published before the end of 2020. In the meantime, however, the Bamford Review continues to inform policy on mental health in Northern Ireland, despite having begun in 2002 and completed in 2008. Calls for a dedicated strategy on mental health have been long-standing given the stark reality of statistics in Northern Ireland.

Around 6 per cent of Northern Ireland’s health budget is dedicated to mental health, half of what England dedicates to the challenge. Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University, Deirdre Heenan, recently stated that the relatively low level of investment has “led to underfunded psychological and mental health services and increasing waiting times”. Adding that: “This legacy of increased psychopathology and underresourced services is reflected in general practitioner prescribing rates for antidepressant medication, which are the highest in the UK.”

The Minister for Health Robin Swann outlined suicide prevention, mental wellbeing and mental health services as his top priorities upon taking up the post.

While many will welcome that steps have been taken to outline an action plan in the lead up to a long-term strategy, there is also a recognisable desire to see adequate levels of funding associated with planned measures.

There is hope that a long-term strategy will go further than recent measures taken by the Department in relation to mental health, such as the Protect Life 2 strategy. The strategy was published in the absence of a minister, a fairly unprecedented step, in September 2019 and was welcomed in its ambition to reduce the suicide rate in Northern Ireland.

Criticisms of the strategy centred on the absence of guaranteed long-term funding but it was also argued that the decade-long strategy was under ambitious in its targets for addressing the suicide crisis, while an implementation plan has yet to be produced.

The target of a 10 per cent reduction in the suicide rate in Northern Ireland within

Age standardised suicide rate per 100,000 in UK jurisdictions (2017 and 2018) 18.5 18.6 16.1 13.2 12.8

15 10

13.9

9.2

10.3

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Rate per 100,000

20

5 0 England

Wales 2017

Scotland

North ern Ireland

2018

Source: Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

five years would mean that the recent figure of 16.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 of the population in Northern Ireland would be reduced to 14.9 deaths. In comparison, the overall rate in the rest of the UK is around 10.1 deaths per 100,000.

The strategy was ambiguous around future funding. The Department of Health, through the Public Health Agency, invests around £8.7 million annually in suicide prevention, an estimated 0.16 per cent of the overall annual health budget and it was outlined at the publication of the strategy that a further £1.35 million had been secured for the 2019/20 financial year, through additional health transformation funding allocated under the confidence and supply package.

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Health has confirmed that the £1.35 million is “part of the decisions that have yet to been taken on funding of further suicide prevention projects in this financial year”.

Asked whether, following the return of ministerial decision making, the strategy has been progressed the official confirmed that both an Executive Working Group on Mental Wellbeing, Resilience and Suicide Prevention and the Protect Life 2 Steering Group had been established and had met and added that “the Department intends to upload a summary of current implementation of Strategy actions to the Departmental website shortly”.

On whether further funding considerations had been given to the strategy, he added: “In addition to the existing £8.7 million budget for suicide prevention, £300,000 additional funding has been allocated to extend the Self Harm Intervention Programme in 2020/21. Decisions have not yet been taken on funding of further suicide prevention projects in this financial year.”

The Department’s mental health action plan has been recognised as progress, however, it is likely most will reserve judgement until delivery of the strategy has commenced. Core themes of the strategy are centred on three categories: immediate service development, aiming to fix immediate problems; longer term strategic objectives, such as an overall workforce review; and preparatory work for future strategic decisions, such as further action plans on technology integration or governance changes.

The action plan prompted the announcement in April that Northern Ireland is to create the position of a mental health champion, filled on an interim basis in late June. Other key inclusions were plans to create a specialist community perinatal mental health service and dedicated managed care networks for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

A number of planned reviews have also been outlined including a review to consider the response to homicide and suicide, the use of restraint and seclusion, transitions between CAMHS and adult service and old age psychiatry,

outcomes data collection and future inclusion of community and voluntary sector’s role in core mental health services.

However, detail is scarce on funding commitments under the action plan and it does not provide resource details for actions that will require additional funding. The plan does provide some specific costs associated with year one, an estimated cost of £2.8 million in total, however there is broad acknowledgement that some of these associated costs will rise substantially, annually.

“I welcome the publication of the plan as it focuses attention on the longneglected issue of mental health.

However, this is just a plan, setting out a list of actions. Delivering long-lasting positive change for mental health requires leadership, vision funding and investment,” said Heenan.

“A 10-year strategic plan with appropriate financial underpinning is required to address the systemic issues around mental health including education, evidence-based interventions, workforce planning and governance.

“Despite the relatively high rates of mental illness Northern Ireland remains the only region of the UK without a strategic plan to ensure good mental health. Time is of the essence urgent, bold, decisive action is needed to ensure that we do not let down another generation.”

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Covid Co-operation

At the outbreak of the pandemic both health departments in Ireland agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to underpin co-operation on the public health response to the virus, however, little cohesion has been evident in efforts to emerge from lockdown.

The MoU was seen as a significant step in efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic on the island of Ireland for a number of reasons. The first was that in the early days of the virus being present on the island, it appeared that Northern Ireland would align its lockdown measures with decisions being taken in Westminster. Such a move would have led to vastly different approaches on either side of the border, such as the closing and opening of schools, and been ignorant of the levels of crossborder activity that exist.

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The second significance was that the MoU was facilitated by Northern Ireland’s new Health Minister in the reformed Executive, Robin Swann.

Cross-border initiatives between north and south have been fragmented over the past two decades due to the obvious

political differences at Stormont. While health has been one of the areas whereby progress has been made on collaboration in specific areas, such as that of cancer, ambulance and congenital heart services, there remains a political tension around all-island approaches.

For these reasons, a unified response to tackling the virus was welcomed. The MoU, signed by both health ministers and by the Chief Medical Officers north and south, appeared to signal a common approach to both lockdown restrictions and also plans to ease these restrictions.

In reality, however, there has appeared to be little cohesion between the Executive and the Irish Government as they continue to roll out the easing of restrictions and roadmaps towards recovery.

The MoU set out clearly that its aspirations were a common understanding rather than the creation of legally binding rights or obligations for either side and the document does not constitute an international agreement.

“The Covid-19 pandemic does not respect borders, therefore there is a compelling case for strong cooperation including information-sharing and, where appropriate, a common approach to action in both jurisdictions,” the document states.

The MoW outlines a number of key areas where collaboration should exist. The first of which is modelling. “Participants are committed to working in partnership to predict the likely impact of COVID-19 and to enable evidence-based decisions on how best to respond across the

island of Ireland.” Also included was a common public health response, stating that the governments would work to develop evidence based public health measures in both jurisdictions, “including measures such as, but not limited to case detection, testing regimens and contact tracing”.

Similarly, Northern Ireland chose to initially follow the British Government’s lead on moving out of a “contain phase” and largely limiting testing to hospital admissions, all but ending contact tracing. In contrast, Ireland expanded testing and contact tracing through community facilities.

While it has been recognised that government approaches may have diverged as a result of varying transmission rates, comparisons are made difficult by the differing methods of case and death reporting. In Northern Ireland alone, the death rate differs between the Department of Health’s figures, which are mostly comprised of hospital deaths, and NISRA statistics, which record all fatalities where Covid-19 is mentioned on a death certificate. Ireland counts all deaths from the disease on a daily basis, with a recognition that additional deaths will be registered on top of the total at later dates.

A further element of the MoU is for common public messages, whereby governments should “build and reinforce core communications around handwashing, respiratory hygiene, no handshaking and other social distancing measures”. Again, some major discrepancies exist in this area. The Irish Government moved quicker than the Northern Ireland Executive to allow larger gatherings of people both outdoors and indoors. Similarly, messaging around advice for older and vulnerable people differed and most notably, both governments opted to change their “stay home” message at

different times. The Northern Ireland Executive changed its branded message to “stay safe; save lives”, while Ireland promoted a “Be responsible. Be safe” message.

Research and engagement work are thought to be progressing. As expected, the MoU set out that government agencies would explore cooperation and collaboration in identified priority research areas, clinical trials and the sharing of data samples.

However, plans to “work together in appropriate areas that may arise, such as procurement, to support the response to Covid-19, where it is of mutual benefit to do so,” appear to have been undermined early on in relation to an order for PPE. In April, Finance Minister Conor Murphy admitted that a cross-border initiative to order PPE from China, he’d originally announced, was “not fulfilled”. It’s believed that the Irish Government opted to move alone in the order because the joint order had not yet been agreed when competition from the likes of the USA and India increased. However, Ireland’s Health Minister Simon Harris has denied any knowledge of a joint order with Stormont being placed.

In the wake, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said that discussions between procurement teams are “ongoing and active” and stated an intention for continued co-operation.

The MoU states that it seeks to ensure consistency where possible, highlighting that “for justifiable reasons the public

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In reality, there has been little cohesion on these approaches. Difficulty in comparing the approaches of the two regimes stems from the earliest stages of the pandemic’s arrival on the island.

In the earliest weeks of March, the governments took different approaches to the likes of cancellations of mass gatherings, school closures and other lockdown measures, such as the introduction of a travel limit in the Republic of Ireland, which did not exist in Northern Ireland.

To date, little of the actions taken by either government have reflected a unified approach to tackling the pandemic that the MoU demonstrated might be the case. health approach and measures adopted in the respective jurisdictions may not always mirror each other in identical fashion”. In truth, little in the two approaches to lockdown or in the subsequent recovery plans have aligned.

In March, First Minister Arlene Foster complained publicly that the Executive had not been informed of the lockdown measures being implemented in Ireland, announced by then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. However, Varadkar made clear in announcing the lifting of some restrictions in June that he had spoken to the Executive.

To date, little of the actions taken by either government have reflected a unified approach to tackling the pandemic that the MoU demonstrated might be the case. The strength of the relationship will undoubtedly be tested further as restrictions continue to be lifted, especially in relation to travel.

Currently, the governments have yet to announce a single digital system in relation to contact tracing. Ireland looks set to launch its app in late July, whereas the Northern Ireland Executive has yet to announce any formal plans away from its current manual model of contact tracing.

As both internal and external travel increases, it could be expected that the governments will need to increase levels of co-operation in order to accurately record and control the spread of the virus. However, to what extent this will happen remains to be seen.

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Blood donation rule change

Amidst efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, a landmark decision was taken to alter Northern Ireland’s unique rules on blood donation.

From 1 June, Northern Ireland has officially relaxed its rules on blood donations for gay men, bringing it in line with the rest of the UK. Gay and bisexual men in Northern Ireland are now able to donate blood three months after their last sexual activity, in a move announced by Health Minister Robin Swann.

It is the second significant change to the rules on blood donation this decade. In 2016, then Health Michelle O’Neill took action to end a lifetime ban on gay men donating blood, which had stood since first introduced across the UK in the 1980s.

The ban was lifted in the rest of the UK and a one-year deferral system introduced in 2011 but not in Northern Ireland. In November 2017, the rest of the UK further reduced the wait period to three months but this again did not apply in Northern Ireland.

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Instead the Department of Health began preparatory work on the policy change but the absence of an Executive in Northern Ireland meant that the necessary ministerial sign-off could not be achieved.

The DUP’s Edwin Poots was Health Minister at the time when the rest of the UK reduced the waiting period to one year in 2011. Surveillance data from England, Scotland and Wales published in October 2015 confirmed that donated blood was safer four years after the oneyear deferral was introduced in 2011 than it was before the change in policy.

new policy on 1 June 2020, to allow

However, Poots opted to maintain the lifetime ban on the basis that it ensured public safety. In 2013, the High Court ruled that the ban by the then former health minister was irrational and showed apparent bias. Poots won his appeal against the ruling.

“As Minister for Health it is of utmost

The Court of Appeal also ruled that the maintenance of the ban was not disproportionate or contrary to EU law and that the issue was a devolved matter.

adequate preparation time.

He stated that his decision came after consideration of the expert advice provided by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) in their Donor Selection Criteria Report published in July 2017.

importance to me that we maintain the safety of blood and I’m confident that the new policy that I am announcing today will do that, while allowing more people to donate. My decision is based solely on the evidence regarding the safety of donated blood,” he said.

The Minister stressed the importance of donor compliance with the deferral rules.

That ruling was the basis for then Health Minister Michelle O’Neill’s decision to lift the lifetime ban, alongside evidence showing that the risk of contracting HIV from donated blood is lower with a oneyear deferral than with a lifetime ban.

“The safety of donated blood depends on

In April 2020, Minister Swann alerted the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service of his intention to introduce the

vitally important for every donor to

two things: donor selection and the testing of blood. Every blood donation is tested for HIV and a number of other organisms. Not even the most advanced tests are 100 per cent reliable, so it is comply with any deferral rules that apply to them.”

housing report

Interim Minister: Carál Ní Chuilín Following the temporary step down of Minister for Communities Deirdre Hargey on health grounds, the experienced Carál Ní Chuilín has taken up the brief on an interim basis. The former Housing Minister talks to agendaNi about progressing the Department’s ambitions in relation to housing and the challenges posed by Covid-19 for the sector.

What are your priorities upon taking up the role as interim Minister for Communities in regard to housing?

My priority is to continue to progress much of the important work that Deirdre Hargey had got underway in the

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Department. Housing is an area very close to my heart. It has many challenges but it is also such an enabler and so vital in building and sustaining communities.

The Housing Amendment Bill has been progressed in a bid to prevent a

reduction in social homes build. You’re on record calling for the reintroduction of policy which ringfences new build allocations to ensure social housing is delivered in areas most in need. Will

you seek to progress this in your time in office?

The Bill potentially creates an inequality between housing association and NIHE properties in relation to right to buy. Minister Hargey has stated her desire to examine the Housing Executive scheme. Is that something you’ll progress?

Protecting our housing supply is vitally important and the priority in the Housing Amendment Bill has been to do what is needed to secure the reversal of the classification of housing associations. We will consult separately on access to affordable homeownership which will include consideration of the future of the Housing Executive House Sales Scheme. This will aim to support people into homeownership as well as retaining the social housing stock wherever possible.

Has Covid-19 had an impact on the housing ambitions set out in New Decade, New Approach?

Undoubtedly we have felt the impact of Covid-19 right across society. It is a major public health emergency and the first priority for everyone has been to protect life.

But Covid-19 has not impacted on our ambition to enhance delivery of new homes. It has had an impact on the 2019/20 new build social housing

housing report

Minister Hargey has done great work in moving this important legislation forward. It is a complex piece of work but one which, if not addressed, was going to severely impact on the delivery of new social housing for those on the waiting list. Over the past four years, 5,910 new social homes have been delivered for people in need across our society, including families, young people and vulnerable adults including the elderly and people with disabilities. I think though we can all agree that more needs done in terms of quantity and in terms of directing new build at the areas of greatest housing need.

Officials are already working with the Housing Executive to explore how best this can be done and I hope to drive this work forward as much as I can in my time in office.

“While we missed last year’s target, it’s important to remember that a lot of progress was made before the end of year, so there is now a supply of land and approved schemes that stand ready to boost new build and economic recovery in the future.” target, which was to deliver 1,850 unit starts: the actual outturn was 761 unit starts. This is of course extremely disappointing. The majority of the new build social housing activity falls in the final quarter of the financial year, which this year coincided with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with housing associations understandably reluctant to enter in to contractual arrangements.

I know the housing sector as a whole

have been disappointed at this unavoidable situation.

I am committed to working with the sector to ensure we now redouble our efforts in ensuring we deliver homes for those who need them. While we missed last year’s target, it’s important to remember that a lot of progress was made before the end of year, so there is now a supply of land and approved

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“The investment challenge is substantial, and the cost will only increase if we do not soon build a consensus to reinvigorate it and enable investment in its homes.” schemes that stand ready to boost new build and economic recovery in the future; budget and the capacity of the construction industry permitting of course.

I welcome the priority afforded to housing in New Decade, New Approach.

There is still a persistent level of housing stress across our community and we all must work together to address it. There will be no one quick fix. It will require a collective effort across the Executive and I am committed to playing my part.

The Department aims to have an amended definition of ‘affordable housing’ in place by Autumn 2020.

What are the implications are for the change?

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The work my Department is taking forward on the definition of affordable housing is to ensure that we can look more widely at new measures and products outside of the traditional co-ownership scheme whether that is assisting people in to home ownership or developing new models of renting. As we look at the housing picture in its entirety, we have to look at all sectors, the role they play and how they interact with each other. This includes the planning system and the importance of a new definition in the context of the emerging local development plans.

Finally, could you outline any potential opportunities you see going forward for positive change in the housing sector?

2) Making the best use of our existing housing: The investment challenge is substantial, and the cost will only increase if we do not soon build a consensus to reinvigorate it and enable investment in its homes.

Additional to that challenge, I am considering the proposals for changes to social housing allocations that were consulted on in 2017, and I am keen to look at how we can make sure that routes into home ownership are the same for Housing Executive and housing association tenants. We have given a commitment to bring forward proposals on that as a priority. I particularly want to consider how we help people into home ownership, without reducing the social stock.

Supporting people to live in their homes is also critical; with this in mind, my Department is also updating its Fuel Poverty Strategy and ensuring alignment with the Energy Strategy and Climate Change Bill.

Housing is crucial to our health, wellbeing and to that of our families and our communities. My Department is working hard towards the goal that every household has access to a good quality, affordable and sustainable home that is appropriate for its needs. There are four main themes that I see as critical to achieving this.

3) Improving the private rented sector: I want to ensure that the private rented sector is the best that it can be for those who look to it as their preferred housing option. My Department will be looking closely at the recommendations which came out of the Review of the Private Rented Sector, and how to take this work forward. The recommendation to transfer landlord registration functions to local councils is one example of where detailed work has commenced.

1) Increasing housing supply and options across all tenures for those whose current housing circumstances do not meet their needs – my Department is working hard to look at increasing output from our new build social housing programme to deliver more social houses in the longer term. It is also looking at ways to increase the range of intermediate home options to help increase mixed tenure. There is a common set of issues affecting all of these (e.g. planning, construction skills, infrastructure, carbon reduction and ageing population) as well as the ongoing impact of the coronavirus crisis and work has already commenced to develop a long-term Housing Supply Strategy to underpin delivery of this ambition.

4) Improving housing for the most vulnerable: My Department is committed to Improving our response to homelessness. There is already significant interdepartmental work going on, in particular building on the response to the coronavirus emergency, including the production of a Chronic Homeless Action Plan.

I will also want to improve the Supporting People Programme.

I want to ensure ongoing protection of the budget, along with ensuring the programme is delivered as efficiently as possible by implementing the recommendations of the 2015 review. The programme needs a more strategic approach, and the Housing Executive is continuing its work to deliver that.

Construction sector capacity

A major boost for the construction sector expected as a result of plans for enhanced spending on infrastructure, including in housing, will be impacted by the ongoing impact of Covid-19, writes David Whelan.

The return of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in early 2020 brought with it fresh optimism for the construction sector in the form of various investment pledges in large infrastructure projects and the housing sector.

The volume of construction output has been on an upward trend in Northern Ireland since the last months of 2013.

However, it remains well below the sector’s highs of late 2006. Despite the upward trend overall, the latest statistics for the last months of 2019 show that overall output had decreased by 1.3 percent on the same period of the previous years.

Prior to the Executive’s resumption, growth prospects for the sector were moderate, with housing expected to be the driver of any uplift. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) predicted a 0.8 per cent increase in construction input from 2019 to 2023, driven by the demand for social housing and steady output streams in the private housing sector. To address even this modest growth, the prediction was that the construction sector would need to create 2,500 new jobs.

Hopes that the levels of growth could be exceeded were assisted by the roadmap for the return of devolved government in January 2020. The New Decade, New Approach deal set out a pledge to include housing as a specific priority in any upcoming Programme for Government and outlined the intention of the Executive to “enhance investment and agree a target for a new social and affordable home starts”, as well as tackling a maintenance backlog on properties owned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

Also included in the document were a number of pledges that should serve as an enabler of further housing development. For example, a move to reverse the ONS classification should facilitate housing associations to develop more social homes. Similarly, pledged investment in wastewater infrastructure could alleviate current restrictions on connecting new housing developments in over 100 towns in Northern Ireland.

The challenge for the construction industry has turned to one of skills capacity. Northern Ireland, like many countries, experienced a dramatic fall in

housing report

construction following the financial crash, with a large portion of the sector either repurposing or relocating. Housing, of course, was not the only infrastructure spend pledge prioritised in New Decade, New Approach and it is highly likely that various projects could be competing for the relevant construction skills, if progressed on similar delivery paths.

Coupled with this is the fact that the Republic of Ireland is more advanced in its 10-year roadmap for improved infrastructure, identifying early of the need to attract more skilled labour for construction. In March, the UK set out plans to invest £600 billion in infrastructure over the next five years.

Skills, therefore, will be in short supply.

Covid-19 However, the outbreak of Covid-19 will undoubtedly impact on planned infrastructure spending. While it is yet unclear how the economic impact of management of the virus will affect governments’ planned financial spend on infrastructure, in Northern Ireland the construction sector has been one of the hardest hit.

While an initial pause on construction work has now been lifted, it’s unlikely that the sector will be able to return to preCovid output quickly. Recent research by the Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre puts all three construction subsectors in the top 10 detailed sectors most impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and says that the impact on the sector in Northern Ireland has been disproportionate relative to its size. It estimated that while the sector accounts for 7 per cent of people in employment, it represents 12 per cent of those who are furloughed or laid off.

Economic analysis highlights that during lockdown, some 40 per cent of construction businesses had reduced working hours and that almost 60 per cent of firms in construction had laid off staff across the UK. As attention turns more to the economic cost of Covid-19, the delivery of housing and infrastructure will depend as much on the capacity of the construction sector to deliver as it will on government appetite to allocate the necessary funding.

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Partnership and planning key to tackling homelessness during Covid-19

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A Central Co-ordinating Group was established, supported by our senior management team and Board, to deliver our response. By mid-March, we had developed a surge plan for homelessness services which set out comprehensive contingency arrangements and escalation measures to support services to continue during the containment and surge phases of the outbreak.

Caroline Connor, Assistant Director.

Coronavirus presented huge challenges to us all. For the Housing Executive, a key focus was delivering services for some of the most vulnerable in our society and those most in need, those experiencing homelessness.

Caroline Connor is Assistant Director with responsibility for Homelessness at the strategic housing authority and she was tasked, with her team, with navigating a complex and critically essential role during a global pandemic. Here, she talks to agendaNi about the steps taken to protect those experiencing homelessness during Covid-19 and how partnership work, enshrined in the body’s Homelessness Strategy, Ending Homelessness Together, proved key.

During Covid-19, our aims from the outset have been to safeguard as many people experiencing homelessness as we can and to ensure that we could enable homelessness services to operate effectively and respond safely.

The scale of the challenge we faced and continue to face is unprecedented.

And we weren’t alone in facing that challenge. We’ve worked closely with local homelessness sector service providers, as well as our sponsoring department, the Department for Communities, along with the Department of Health and the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland to put our plans into action.

We quickly recognised that the pandemic could potentially impact on how we deliver our statutory duties in providing services to those experiencing homelessness and we put in place alternative working arrangements.

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Our initial priority was limiting the transmission of the virus among those experiencing homelessness. This started with a commitment that no-one, anywhere in Northern Ireland, would be left on the streets, including those with no recourse to public funds. This move was supported by our Board.

We worked with homelessness service providers to ensure social distancing guidelines were, and continue to be, applied. We looked at services where it was difficult for people to practice social distancing or self-isolation, such as night shelters and day centres and these organisations quickly took action to alter how they deliver services.

Accommodation and floating support services were also reconfigured to enable this to happen.

With the added challenge of the bulk of our staff working from home, to comply with social distancing protocols, this was all achieved. Although challenging, to date no services have ceased operations.

Planning for a pandemic In early March, the general public became alarmed when Europe’s major cities, like Milan and Madrid, started to lockdown. Our entire organisation moved quickly into contingency planning mode as we began preparing for a rapidly approaching time when Northern Ireland would face a similar situation.

This co-ordination, in conjunction with the Supporting People Programme and its providers, enabled contingency planning across the sector. It ensured delivery with other statutory bodies, including the Public Health Agency, and copperfastened communication and engagement with our key stakeholders.

Our arrangements had two basic aims: The first was safeguarding those experiencing homelessness from Covid19. The second was ensuring homelessness services continued to operate effectively and safely.

Information provision Our Supporting People team shared Public Health Agency (PHA) and Central Government Guidance with all service providers; to guide planning, preparation and coordination around Covid-19, including relevant guidance on social distancing and information allowing homeless people who had contracted Covid-19 to self-isolate.

While each service provider had responsibility for its own business continuity and safety measures during the Covid-19 outbreak, our advice and guidance was consistent.

Delivering our contingency plans

By Friday, 9 May, 2,884 households were in temporary accommodation placements across Northern Ireland.

It was hugely challenging to predict accurately where the impact on homelessness services would be greatest, given the unprecedented nature of Covid-19.

We quickly boosted the availability of temporary accommodation, despite many non-standard accommodation providers (those in the hotel and bed and breakfast sector) having closed their doors.

People without recourse to public funds were also given accommodation, to

maintain public health, and some of those who are the most hard to reach, those who rough sleep, accepted placements, when offered.

The reasons for people presenting to us for support are also changing.

We received £3.3 million additional funding from the Department for Communities, while our Minister recently announced a further £10 million for the Supporting People programme partners.

Assessments for homelessness continued, despite offices being closed, via emergency appointment or by telephone, including out-of-hours services for emergency accommodation.

Coping during the crisis Homelessness trends from the beginning of April appear to be changing, compared to previous years.

While the overall numbers of people presenting to us has reduced, the number of those requiring temporary accommodation has increased.

Year on Year comparisons for the month of April in both 2019 and 2020 are stark.

In Belfast, those accepting temporary accommodation more than doubled.

Figures show numbers jumped from 156 in April 2019 to 413 in April 2020.

In the West area, stretching across Derry/Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh, the picture was similar, rising from 56 in 2019 to 109 in 2020.

For the last five years the most common reason for homelessness has been linked to unreasonable accommodation.

During Covid-19, family sharing breakdown, domestic disputes or marital difficulties were the key reasons for people seeking assistance.

We now need to work to sustain these tenancies going forward.

While the numbers presenting due to neighbourhood harassment and domestic violence remained the same, the overall proportion of presentations due to these reasons is largely due to the overall drop in the numbers of homeless applications compared to April 2019.

Permanently changed environment We’re currently developing an Exit Strategy and contingency plans for a possible second wave of Covid-19.

This provides an insight into the stresses wider society is facing during lockdown.

75 per cent of those presenting came as single persons. 21 per cent were families with children. 69 per cent were male and 31 per cent were female. The numbers of females presenting to us has increased.

We want to reflect and build on some of the positive work that has come out of this challenging time.

We view this as an opportunity to ‘reset’ rather than ‘revert’ to old.

We have used a range of accommodation, both supported and unsupported, to meet needs.

We want to build on what we have learned to inform how we will operate in what we believe will be a permanently changed environment post Covid-19.

This includes single lets (a self-contained property like a house or flat, sourced via the private rented sector, where the household are sole occupants), voluntary hostels and Housing Executive hostels.

Our vision for our Homeless Strategy 2017-2022 was to end homelessness together, during these unprecedented times, we’ve proved what can be done collaboratively.

However, it was necessary to source accommodation through hotels and bed and breakfast providers to cope with demand and allow social distancing to be applied.

And it is collaboratively that we will plot the route through this changed environment to identify long term sustainable outcomes to the issue of homelessness.

HOMELESS PRESENTERS BY AREA OFFICE

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The impact was visible, there were no individuals reported as rough sleeping.

Positively, the number of those presenting after losing private rented accommodation has reduced significantly, an indication that measures such as the passing of the Private Tenancies (Coronavirus Modifications) Bill by the Northern Ireland Assembly has strengthened protection to private renters during the Covid-19 crisis.

TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION PLACEMENTS BY AREA

April 2019 compared with April 2020

April 2019 compared with April 2020 450

600

400 500 350 300

400

250 300 200 200

1 0 100

100 50 0

Presenters April 2019

Presenters April 2020

TA placements April 2019

South West Area

Ards & North Down

Mid Ulster

South Down

Causeway

South Area

South Antrim

Mid & East Antrim

West Area

Belfast HSST

South West Area

Mid Ulster

Causeway

South Down

South Antrim

Ards & North Down

South Area

Mid & East Antrim

West Area

Belfast HSST

0

TA placements April 2020

Housing Centre, 2 Adelaide Street, Belfast BT2 8PB Tel: 03448 920 900 For further information, click online at www.nihe.gov.uk

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Housing (Amendment) Bill fast-tracked A Bill being fast-tracked through the Assembly to try and reverse the decision to reclassify housing associations that would hamper their ability to address the housing shortage in Northern Ireland, needs to be in place for March 2021.

The then Department for Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey requested and was granted permission by the Assembly to use the accelerated passage for legislation on 1 June 2020.

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It is expected that a reversal of the decision could now be made by September, a full four years since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) took the decision to reclassify registered housing associations to the public sector and designate them as public, non-financial corporations.

The Housing (Amendment) Bill (Northern Ireland) 2020 aims to prevent ÂŁ1 billion of debt held by housing associations in Northern Ireland being scored against the budget, something that would hamper the ability to borrow for development. The Department believes a consequence could be the number of social homes built annually in Northern Ireland being halved.

The ONS decision was based on the levels of excessive public control of housing associations. England, Scotland and Wales all moved quickly to legislate

to deregulate enough for the ONS to reverse the decision. At the time of the decision this was also the ambition of the Northern Ireland Executive, however, the subsequent collapse and absence of government have prevented the steps being taken.

Instead, the UK Treasury allowed a derogation in relation to the accounting impacts of the ONS decision. The Northern Ireland Executive re-formed in January 2020 and quickly announced plans to bring forward a bill that would reduce state influence over housing

associations and remove the reclassification threat by summer.

However, following the outbreak of Covid-19, the Treasury agreed to extend the derogation further to March 2021.

Another reason outlined by the Minister for the need for haste in passing the Bill is around housing associations’ eligibility to access financial transaction capital (FTC). The derogation does not affect the classification to the public sector in this regard and the Department has until now used additional funding to support the co-ownership scheme. Failure to accelerate the Bill would come at multimillion pound cost to the Department and put the future of the co-ownership scheme at risk.

Right to buy A key element of the Bill is an ending to the compulsory House Sales Scheme for housing associations. The scheme allows eligible tenants to purchase their homes at a discount. The fact the scheme is compulsory for housing associations is unique to Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the UK. The Bill proposes ending the scheme for housing associations while introducing powers to enable the Department to support a voluntary scheme if associations wanted to develop a substitute one.

The scheme divides opinion. Some view it as a popular method for which people gain access on to the property ladder, while others recognise its contribution to the reduction of social housing stock to private ownership.

Criticism has been levelled at the decision to only do what is necessary to reverse the ONS decision, rather than progress wider reform. The House Sales Scheme will not end for the Housing Executive.

MLA Mark Durkan has pointed out that by retaining the mandatory right to buy for NIHE tenants, there is potential inequality in access to social housing and ownership. He also points to knockon implications for social housing waiting lists if the NIHE is deemed a more preferable landlord.

The Green Party’s Rachel Woods MLA has also raised the question whether the

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Importantly, the Treasury stipulated that the derogation extension was dependent on legislation being brought forward as quickly as possible to reverse the ONS decision, adding that it is highly unlikely that another derogation will be granted.

“More time to have better scrutinised it would have been beneficial, if only to draw on the expertise amongst the housing sector that could have helped inform us and helped us make sure that the Bill was watertight and as good as it could be.”

Colin McGrath MLA change could allow a route to home ownership for some tenants, and not others, depending on the landlord.

Under accelerated passage, a Bill can

In response, the Minister had said that she will bring forward a consultation in the coming months that will include consideration of the future of the Housing Executive’s House Sales Scheme.

committee stage, reducing the level of

pass all stages in as little as but no less than 10 days. The process skips the scrutiny, and requires cross-community support.

MLA Colin McGrath echoed many of those who chose to speak in the Assembly on the Bill by stating his

Other key elements of the Bill include the replacement of consent processes in relation to functions carried out by housing associations by notification processes and a change to the circumstances by which the housing regulator can launch an inquiry into the activities of an association. The Bill also removes the power of the Department to petition for the winding-up of an association, a power which has never been utilised.

support for the Bill but also highlighting concerns around the accelerated nature.

“The Bill has some imperfections, and the nature of it being accelerated concerns us. The Bill is not needed until 31 March next year. More time to have better scrutinised it would have been beneficial, if only to draw on the expertise amongst the housing sector that could have helped inform us and helped us make sure that the Bill was

While most MLAs agreed that urgency was a necessity in relation to the Bill, some outlined their discomfort at the reduction in scrutiny brought about by the fast-tracking of a Bill. The Minister said that the decision to request accelerated passage of the bill was “not a decision I take lightly”, but added that she made no apologies for bringing it (in this manner).

Adding: “because there is a financial consequence that means that there would be a consequence for the number of social houses that could be built and a consequence for co-ownership houses.”

watertight and as good as it could be,” he said.

Durkan questioned: “the legislation needs to be in place by 31 March 2021.

That is 31 March 2021. Are we saying that it is beyond our ability, that it is even beyond our ambition, to get the Bill through the normal legislative process by then?”

The second stage of the Bill was completed 1 June 2020 and it further consideration stage was completed on 23 June. The Bill passed final stage on 30 June.

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Housing market shift House sales in Northern Ireland may have reduced by some 80 per cent over the three months of lockdown.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), which helps compile the House Price Index, says that the Covid-19 pandemic had “essentially paused” the housing market from the last week of March at that it expected sales to be greatly reduced by as much as 80 per cent.

Such was the impact of the slowdown that a decision has been taken to suspend the publication of the House Price Index for the usual Q2 of AprilJune 2020. The housing market in Northern Ireland officially re-opened on 15 June, with the then Minister for Communities announcing a relaxation of strict measures on house moves.

However, in reopening the Department issued extensive guidance which outlined that the easing of restrictions did not represent a return to normality.

Instead, more of the housing market transactions will take place online, including initial virtual viewings, and there will be enhanced use of appointment systems and strict infection control.

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Northern Ireland was the UK’s second region to re-open its housing market after England, where initial reports are of record levels of activity. Those in Northern Ireland’s housing market have described a ‘pent up demand’ but it is not yet clear whether activity will return to pre-Covid levels or what impact the freeze will have on house prices.

In the weeks prior to the UK announcing lockdown measures on 23 March, the number of transactions in the housing market in Northern Ireland was 19.1 per cent higher than the figure for the same period the previous year. However, evidence of lockdown’s impact can be recognised in the number of sales recorded for the last week of March, almost 50 per cent lower than the initial number recorded for the same week in March 2019.

Prior to Covid-19, Northern Ireland’s house prices had been on a steady trend of increase since the lowest point in the last decade of Q1 2013. Then, the standardised house price was £97,428 compared to £140,580, the figure for the first quarter of 2020.

In the early part of the decade, annual decreases in house prices occurred year-on-year for almost four years. Q2 and Q3 of 2012 marked the largest decreases in terms of annual change with both quarters down 12.9 per cent on the same quarters of the previous years. By the end of 2013, this trend started to reverse and there has been a percentage increase in every quarter compared to the previous year ever since. The last months of 2014 marked the largest annual change to date.

Compared to Q4 of 2013, the annual percentage change was 8.7 per cent.

Between Q1 2019 and Q1 2020 the house price index increased by 3.8 per cent meaning that it is now over 26.7 per cent higher than Q1 2015 and 25.6 per cent higher than 2005.

Breaking the figures down into property type, the latest index highlights a percentage increase across all types over the year. Detached properties recognised the largest annual price increase, up over 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period for 2019. Terrace dwellings rose

Northern Ireland House Price Index (Q1 2010 – Q1 2020)

200.0

180.0

140.0

Quarter 1, 2020: 126.7

120.0

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NI House Price Index

160.0

100.0 Quarter 1, 2015 = 100

Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1 Quarter 4 Quarter 3 Quarter 2 Quarter 1

80.0

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019 2020

Quarter / Year

in price by 4 per cent on average, while semi-detached properties rose by almost 3 per cent. The smallest percentage increase was in apartments, where the increase was still almost 2 per cent.

Looking at the change over five years, detached properties are 25.2 per cent higher than the first quarter of 2015, semi-detached are currently 24.8 per cent higher than for the same period, terrace properties are 30.6 per cent

higher and apartments are 26.7 per cent higher.

prices of these two categories of properties over the last decade. From Q1 2005 to Q3 2007, the price index of new dwellings rose by 93.3 per cent and the price for pre-owned dwellings increased by 102.5 per cent for the same period. However, by 2013 both were at their lowest levels over the decade. Since then, the price of new dwellings has increased each quarter and is now 28.2 per cent higher than Q1 2015 and 33.4 per cent higher than Q1

There is a slight variation in the price increases between new dwellings and existing resold dwellings. The annual increase in the price of new dwellings was 3.2 per cent, while the price of existing resold dwellings increased by 3.9 per cent since Q1 2019.

A reflection of the shifts in housing prices is reflected in the changes in

4

Standardised house price index £160,000 £140,000 £120,000 £100,000

£

£80,000 £60,000 £40,000 £20,000 £0 2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Q1 2010-2020 Source: Department of Finance

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Verified residential property sales in Northern Ireland 2,000 1,800 1,600

Dwellings

1,400 1,200 1,000 800

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600 400 200 0 Detached

Semi-detached

Terra ce

Apartment

Q1 2018-2020 2018

Property type

Percentage change over 12 months

2020

Standardised price (Q1)

Detached

5.10%

£210,321

Semi-detached

2.90%

£136,312

4%

£98,555

Apartment

1.90%

£110,746

All

3.80%

£140,580

Terrace

2005. Similarly, the standardised price of

In terms of market activity, the average

resold dwellings is 28.2 per cent higher

annual number of sales has risen year-

than Q1 2015 and 33.4 per cent higher

on-year from 11,000 between 2010-2011

than Q1 2005.

to almost 25,000 sales in 2019. Since

Standardised price by local government district Q1 2020

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2019

2015, semidetached properties are the single largest type of properties sold in Northern Ireland.

Local Government Districts At a local level, process in all of Northern Ireland’s local council areas increased over the year but at varying degrees. The lowest increase (2.5 per cent) was in Mid and East Antrim and the highest increase (6 per cent) was in Causeway Coast and Glens.

The standardised price for Northern Ireland as a whole is £140,580 and ranges from £125,188 in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon to £165,294 in Lisburn and Castlereagh.

01

Sep

Date for your diary!

Housing Conference 2020 Tuesday 1st September 2020 ONLINE CONFERENCE Housing is an issue that often hits the headlines as a shortage of affordable and quality housing is having a major impact on the lives of many, not least those who are vulnerable. As of March 2019 there were 37,859 applicants on the social housing waiting list. Seven out of every 10 households waiting for a social home were deemed to be in priority need of housing – officially described as housing stress. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic will also have a huge impact on the sector. This year the Northern Ireland Housing Conference will be delivered online. Once again, it will bring together key stakeholders and look at how we can fulfil the need for safe, affordable housing both now and in the future.

A high level panel of expert speakers will examine key issues including: 4 Future housing policy outlook in Northern Ireland 4 The impact of welfare reform after March 2020 4 Delivering Supporting People services 4 The Housing First approach

4 Asset management post Grenfell 4 Collaboration for better results 4 Strategic sustainability in housing 4 Shared future communities 4 The future role of Housing Associations

To reserve a space: Online www.nihousing.agendaNi.com

By telephone +44 (0)28 9261 9933

By email registration@agendaNi.com

Supporting communities in challenging times housing report

During the last year, Apex Housing Association has secured its position as one of the leading socially responsible organisations in Northern Ireland.

Sheena McCallion, Apex’s Chief Executive.

Its long-standing commitment to investing in communities has helped change thousands of people’s lives for the better and was recognised by Business in the Community NI, Social Enterprise NI and the Chartered Institute of Housing at their most recent annual awards.

Apex is one of Northern Ireland’s biggest housing associations. Managed by a voluntary board, it currently owns and manages 6,000 homes, with plans to increase this to over 7,000 homes in the next three years.

Sustained housing growth is at the centre of Apex’s future plans which will be successfully delivered through its ambitious house-building programme, providing up to 500 new homes annually over the next three years. While the majority will be social housing for rent, the Apex Group will also increase its provision of affordable housing to assist those struggling to get on the property ladder.

Sheena McCallion, Apex’s Chief Executive, acknowledges that this is an enormous opportunity to help meet the current and future housing needs of families in housing stress. Moreover, these ambitious growth plans provide the platform to drive forward the wider community benefits Apex wants to deliver for its tenants, recognising the increasingly challenging environment within which it operates.

“Our innovative community investment strategy is assisting us in responding to 86

these challenges and enabling us to explore opportunities that will ensure we continue to deliver excellent services, support our tenants and build vibrant and thriving communities as we move forward.

“At this extraordinary time and as we respond to the daily challenges we face through the coronavirus pandemic, we are very much aware of the increasing need for vital wraparound services to support tenancies and tackle the financial stresses we see every day in many of our communities. We have already responded positively, seeking out innovative approaches and working in collaboration to deliver positive outcomes for our tenants and communities.”

Community Investment Strategy 2020 - 2023 Apex’s new three-year community investment strategy was launched in May 2020 and has been developed with the aim of supporting communities beyond its core landlord purpose. The common goals have been shaped by feedback from stakeholders including tenants, community groups and employees and target five pillars of activity:

Working beyond our core activities Ms McCallion explains the increasing need to support communities and how this will be achieved over the next three years: “We work across a range of vibrant and diverse communities throughout Northern Ireland. As a social landlord, we see on a daily basis the impact of welfare reform and the coronavirus pandemic on already vulnerable members of our communities.

We recognise the need to deliver a range of programmes and services that instigate positive change and make a fundamental difference to people’s lives, thereby making our communities a better place to live.

“Through investing in people, property and the environment, we aim to make a positive difference. To help achieve our aim, we work with a number of invaluable community partners to enable tenants and residents to access a range of initiatives including self-development programmes, advice on health and wellbeing, budgeting and employment opportunities.”

•

community empowerment and engagement;

Programmes and Initiatives

•

health and well-being;

•

financial well-being

•

work and learning; and

•

volunteering.

Welfare advice and financial inclusion: Our Welfare Advice Officers support tenants by providing benefits and budgeting advice and signposting to partner organisations.

Apex Community Supermarket: With support from the Department for Communities and local food businesses, Apex Community Supermarket supports families on their journey out of food insecurity towards food independence.

Training and employment opportunities: A wide range of training opportunities have been provided including good relations, first aid and essential business skills. This is supported by our volunteering opportunities and the learning opportunities provided through our excellent network of community hubs.

The Apex Luncheon Club: Our luncheon club provides 80 nutritious meals per week to older people whilst encouraging friendships and helping to combat social isolation and loneliness.

Apex with Children in Crossfire: With the dedication of staff and tenants, we have invested more than a quarter of a million pounds in two communities in Africa, transforming the lives and life chances of thousands of local people.

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Community allotments: Through our community allotments at Ballymagowan Park in Derry~Londonderry, allotment users are supported to grow their own fresh vegetables, learn new skills and develop new friendships.

Teresa McCloskey from Apex (second from right) is presented with the ‘Investing in your community’ award at the annual Business in the Community Awards.

What others say “Apex Community Supermarket is a unique service. People who are struggling financially are provided with high quality nutritious food; and the kitchen, which is the best I’ve seen in Ireland and built to MasterChef standards, provides an excellent space for fun cooking demonstrations. I have rarely seen a better standard.”

Brian McDermott, Celebrity Chef “During a stay in hospital, healthcare staff were worried about how I would look after myself when I got home as I don’t cook; and recommended the Apex Luncheon Club. The food is very good; the casseroles and stews are my favourite. But the main benefit is the company, it gets you out of the house and I’ve made many friends here. I get picked up by the Apex bus and left home too; you couldn’t ask for a better service.”

Kevin Doherty, Apex Luncheon Club member “Children in Crossfire have been working with Apex for almost 20 years now. Together we have delivered life-changing results for thousands of children in some of the most impoverished communities of the world. Right now, Apex is resourcing the construction of 13 classrooms in the Misungwi district of northern Tanzania. This will ensure hundreds of children have access to the education we believe every child deserves."

Richard Moore, CEO of Children in Crossfire “Over the past year, we have achieved much more by working in partnership with Apex.

Together we have been successful in sourcing funding to employ a worker to support the tenants in Skeoge. We are looking forward to occupying the purpose built, state of the art community building located within an Apex housing estate to help support local people.”

Ciara Ferguson, Manager of Greater Shantallow Area Partnership (Derry~Londonderry)

Supporting local charities to thrive: We have been successful in not only encouraging the set up and development of much needed new local charities, but also in supporting existing local charities to be the best they can be by providing resources, staff support and by building effective long-term partnerships.

Contact T: 028 7130 4800 E: info@apex.org.uk W: www.apex.org.uk Luncheon Club member Kevin Doherty pictured with Donna Matthewson, Director of Housing at Apex and Patricia McColgan, Head Cook.

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Affordable housing The Department for Communities aims to have an amended definition of affordable housing in place by Autumn 2020, a year after a consultation was closed.

The Department initially launched the consultation on proposed changes to the definition in June 2019, in the absence of ministerial decision-making in Northern Ireland.

In January 2020, the New Decade, New Approach deal spelled out the inclusion of housing as a “specific priority” in the Programme for Government (PfG), outlining that alongside enhanced investment, the Executive would agree a target for new social and affordable home starts.

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As of yet, no Programme for Government has been published by the newly reformed Executive, with the delay believed to be as a result of the Covid-

19 outbreak and the subsequent response.

It is unclear whether a proposed “multiyear Programme for Government, underpinned by a multi-year budget and legislative programme”, if published prior to Autumn 2020, will be able to incorporate any planned new definition of affordable housing.

The Department says that while officials have completed a review of responses, it is proposing some minor amendments to what was originally consulted upon, “in light of issues raised by consultees”.

A spokesperson added: “To test these proposals a period of further stakeholder engagement is planned over the coming

weeks. On completion of this and subject to appropriate approvals, the Department hopes to have an amended definition in place by Autumn 2020.”

The change looks to incorporate a wider range of intermediate housing products into the definition of affordable housing, which could then be applied consistently in legislation, policy, local plans and in practice.

A summary of the Department’s preliminary findings included: •

that an overarching non-product based definition of affordable housing would provide a framework for increasing housing supply and meeting changing demands;

•

•

government funded affordable housing should remain affordable or provision should be included for public funding to be repaid, or to be recycled to provide further affordable homes; and a potential to broaden the focus for intermediate housing to include groups such as active older people, those on low incomes and those with disabilities.

The resultant definition outlined by the Department, which it now says it is making minor amendments to is (see right).

Currently social housing in Northern Ireland works on the principle of universal access and the Department has stated that the new definition of affordable housing will not impact on access to social housing. However, it adds that the provision of a broader range of intermediate housing types should ultimately reduce pressure on social housing by providing lower income households with more housing options.

The four broad customer groupings for which intermediate homes products should be targeted towards includes: 1. First Time Buyers (FTBs)/Returnees to the Market: Recognising the challenges that persist for first time buyers to access the property ladder, including insufficient means to fund a home deposit. Also the significant size of the category of individuals requiring new accommodation because of family breakdown; 2. Active older people: Demographic change is expected to see an increase in demand and subsequent adaptations as more people live longer. Supports are necessary to help with the transition to more suitable homes; 3. People with disabilities: People living with disabilities are underrepresented in the housing market.

One reason behind this is wider social barriers limiting economic activity but another is that the current stock of suitably adapted properties is below current demand; 4. Lower income households: This group is viewed often as those who

Affordable housing is housing provided for sale or rent outside of the general market, for those whose needs are not met by the market. Affordable housing which is funded by Government must

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•

that development or access to affordable housing needs to be viewed as outside the mainstream market, particularly where public funding support is available;

remain affordable or, alternatively, there must be provision for the public subsidy to be repaid or recycled in the provision of new affordable housing. remain just out of touch of supports for housing needs. One example is those households who have low or no points on the social rented housing waiting list and therefore pay a more costly premium in the private rented sector, where tenancy is less secure.

Another important reasoning behind the Department’s move to amend the affordable housing definition is that councils in Northern Ireland are working

on new planning requirements that mean social and affordable housing will be built alongside private housing in new, larger developments.

However, housing campaigners have stressed the value of ensuring that affordability, which can be dependent on a range of factors, is central to any developments.

The Department proposes that the updated definition to affordable housing should be flexible, with the ability to accommodate different needs and situations. To that end, the definition should seek to operate within parameters that follow the objectives of: • to support and encourage an effective housing system; • to target resources on those households who need help to access suitable and affordable housing; • to deliver best value for the public purse in the context of our constrained spending environment; • to provide a framework for how government and housing providers think about and deliver affordable housing; • to improve the range of affordable housing options and in turn, the supply of new affordable housing properties; and • to provide clarity for the planning system particularly in the light of councils bringing forward their Local Development Plans which take account of their community plans.

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Risk in the social housing sector Brexit, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) classification and the introduction of Universal Credit were amongst some of the largest risks identified by registered housing associations (RHAs) as they entered 2020.

Compiled prior to the outbreak of Covid19, the NI Registered Housing Associations Risk Profile 2019 highlights the pre-existing common risks in the social housing sector.

The Risk Profile includes reviews of RHA’s risk registers and consultation with stakeholders such as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the Department around identified risks.

Housing regulations state that housing providers must adopt a robust approach to the assessment and management of risk and demonstrate informed and transparent decision-making processes.

The Department defines risk as “a chance of something happening that has an effect on the achievement of an organisation’s strategic objectives”. The effect can be both negative and positive, however, organisations should proactively manage risks by preparing for all outcomes.

The Risk Profile separates strategic risks into three broad categories of strategic risk, operational risk and financial risk.

Financial risk

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Increased costs have been identified as a financial risk to housing association’s operations and RHAs consider socioeconomic factors such as the impact of

Brexit to be the most likely source of cost increases. A key concern centres on the potential of cost pressures relating to access to labour, either for RHAs directly or for their development contractors.

Housing associations also recognised Brexit’s impact of devaluing sterling and therefore making the importation of goods and materials more expensive and ultimately increasing development and maintenance related costs.

Additionally, the prospect of increased interest rates, making the servicing of loans more expensive was noted, as was inflationary pressures on things like pensions and staff related costs.

in September 2019 and within the risk report some RHAs highlighted that they had already noticed increases in arrears as a result of the changes to benefits.

The most prominent reason was that of “technical arrears” such as delays to tenants receiving housing benefit.

The report notes the potential for the number of risk arrears to rise as more tenants move to Universal Credit because of rules around limitations on backdating claims and the inability to facilitate costs for overlapping tenancies in most instances.

Another identified financial risk by RHAs was that relating to increased levels of arrears and voids leading to a reduction in revenues. In particular, welfare reform/Universal Credit was pinpointed as a potential cause, as was inadequate tenant support, ineffective rent collection procedures and unsustainable services.

Housing associations had signalled concerns around the introduction of the bedroom tax, with mitigations expected to end by April 2020. While the Minister has now mitigated against the tax beyond that date, threat of future introduction still remains and RHAs believe that the tax could have an impact on the levels of voids, as some properties may become unsuitable for some groups of tenants.

In February, the then Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, announced plans to extend some welfare mitigations, particularly the bedroom tax, beyond the initial end date of 31 March 2020. However, Universal Credit was introduced in Northern Ireland on a phased geographical basis

Similar to an increase of costs, not surprisingly, financial loss was highlighted as a risk for RHAs. Reduced rental income was flagged as a concern and RHAs described a challenge in maintaining a balance between offering affordable rents but also ensuring adequate returns to service debts,

provide services and maintain their housing stock. To this end, other funding streams are important, and any loss of government funding was identified as a major risk.

Increase in development costs

Socio-economic costs/Brexit

Increase in maintenance costs

Increase in pension and salary costs

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In particular, RHAs flagged Supporting People funding and the Housing Association Grant (HAG) as streams where, if levels were reduced, considerable financial strain would be created. A reduction of Supporting People funding would affect those providing supported housing in their ability to maintain services, while a reduction in HAG would require RHAs to secure more private borrowing to fund development plans and deliver services.

Causes of financial risks due to increase in costs

Operational risk Although described as an operational risk, the financial implications associated with compliance in relation to information security, data protection and GDPR were major risks identified by RHAs. RHAs voiced their concerns around sensitive or financial information being destroyed, lost or stolen and the challenges avoiding this presents.

Failure to comply with GDPR requirements brings threats of potential fines, the maximum of which are £20 million or 4 per cent of an organisation’s annual turnover, whichever is highest.

Listed amongst other operational risks are those relating to government targets for development and challenges around attaining appropriate land for development and planning process delays.

RHAs recognise the risk associated with being unable to assume continued financial support from the Department at current levels, given the levels of increased pressure on public spending.

Long term-funding uncertainty is therefore a risk to RHAs, and this could have knock on effects in relation to the appetite for new build delivery and the ability to secure private finance.

To some extent, these risks are already being recognised. In 2018/19 the Social Housing Development Programme fell short of the 1,850 new social homes target with issues such as lack of land availability in areas of high social housing need, planning restrictions and capacity all being identified as key reasons for the shortfall.

Strategic risk Delivered prior to the reformation of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, a major risk outlined by RHAs was that of the ONS classification of 2016 which saw housing associations in Northern Ireland reclassified from the

Causes of financial risks due to reduction in revenue

Inadequate tenant support

Ineffective rent collection

Unsustainable services

Welfare reform

Source: NI Registered Housing Associations Risk Profile 2019.

private to public sector and designated as Public Non-Financial Corporations.

levels of scrutiny by regulators and the

The Executive has since moved to fasttrack a Bill that would reverse the decision following a further derogation

by HM Treasury to 2021. Until the relevant Bill achieves royal assent and the ONS subsequently agree to reverse the decision, concerns from housing associations that restrictions could come in to place on private borrowing for the development of new homes, remain in place.

Additionally, and pertinent following the

Finally, reputational risks were another potential area outlined by RHAs. The most prominent of these risks defined by housing associations related to health and safety measures and the potential threat to an organisation’s reputation.

The risk report suggests that a heightened level of awareness to this risk is perhaps fuelled by the greater

Undoubtedly, Covid-19’s societal and

public following the Grenfell Tower fire.

outbreak of Covid-19, housing associations recognised the threat to reputation of incidents in relation to the safeguarding of vulnerable residents. In particular, those RHAs providing care services to vulnerable residents rated the risk especially high in terms of the potential adverse impact on their reputation.

economic impact will now form a major part of housing associations in Northern Ireland’s thinking in relation to risk. Most notably the economic impact in relation to housing development but also on the government’s funding priorities and future budget allocations.

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Tower block future: Post-Grenfell Belfast skyline: Some of the over 30 tower blocks across Northern Ireland set for decommissioning.

A final report into the causes of the Grenfell fire, which will inform some of the decision-making around the future of tower blocks in Northern Ireland, is now likely to be delayed beyond an expected date of early 2021.

Martin Moore-Bick, the Chairman of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the public inquiry set up in June 2017 to examine circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire, said in March that the work of the inquiry to publish a phase two report will continue but announced that the inquiry would not host hearings for its first module following the outbreak of Covid-19.

The inquiry is undertaking a two-phase approach to its work. Phase one, the report of which was published in October 2019, examined the events of the night in June 2017, while phase two is expected to analyse the causes.

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The Housing Executive has over 30 tower blocks, most of which are located in the Greater Belfast Region. In 2015,

the organisation launched a review of their housing stock and was to consult on proposals to decommission many of the high-rise dwellings over time, recognising that some £300 million would be required to upgrade its existing tower blocks.

A draft action plan on how the tower blocks should be decommissioned was completed in May 2017 for consultation, however, following the Grenfell Tower fire it was agreed that completion should be delayed pending consideration of the potential regulatory implications of the incident.

At the same time the Housing Executive commissioned an independent reference group to assess safety in its over 30 high rises.

Although not its original intention, the Grenfell Inquiry in its phase one examination of events of the night of the fire subsequently highlighted a number of safety concerns in relation to the fire.

Most notably, it outlined that the cladding of the building was a principal reason for the fire’s rapid spread and that the external walls of the building, rather than resisting the spread, actively promoted it.

As well as “vigorous” progress in the slow rate of the removal of dangerous cladding, recommendations included improved communications and information sharing between owners and fire and rescue services; the development of personal evacuation plans for vulnerable residents; alarm

system, building plans and emergency services provision; urgent inspection of fire doors; improved fire signage and evacuation strategies, including the retrofitting of manual or smart alarms to alert residents.

It also made further recommendations, many of which the Housing Executive says it has already acted upon, such as issues relating to fire doors and proper ventilation. More extensive and costly recommendations included a suggestion for the Housing Executive to consider installing sprinklers in all towers.

“The interim report from the Grenfell inquiry outlined recommendations, some of which we were already putting in place, but we continue to monitor the situation and will do our utmost to be ahead of the curve in relation to tower block fire and safety issues,” the Housing Executive’s Chair Peter Roberts explained.

Further plans for potential cladding of other tower blocks have been put on hold until final recommendations of the inquiry are known.

The Housing Executive says that the safety of those living within tower blocks is its priority and it will act to put in place any further recommendations made by the final inquiry report, where possible.

In March 2019, the Housing Executive set out its action plan on its future proposals for the tower block portfolio which centres on a phased decommissioning programme with blocks identified for short, medium and long-term action.

Although the Housing Executive had already signalled its intention to decommission many of its tower blocks, the action plan highlights that the current and potential future findings of the Grenfell Inquiry have a bearing on the decision.

It states: “The retention of the blocks could possibly result in increased investment requirements should there be a necessity to undertake additional fire safety measures.

“A significant body of remedial work has

Short (1-5 years)

Medium (6-10 years)

Long (10+ years)

Latharna, Larne

Mount Vernon, Mt Vernon

Glencoole, Rathcoole

Finn, New Lodge

Carncoole, Rathcoole

Woodland, Rushpark Beechwood, Rushpark Monkscoole, Rathcoole Abbotscoole, Rathcoole

Fianna, New Lodge Ferndale, Dunmurry Parkdale, Dunmurry Riverdale, Dunmurry Belvoir, Belvoir

Cuchulainn, New Lodge Eithne, New Lodge Maeve, New Lodge

Ross, Mt Vernon

Grainne, New Lodge

Oisin, New Lodge

Divis, Lower Falls

Moylena, Finaghy

Whincroft, Braniel

Coolmoyne, Dunmurry

Carnet, Ardcarn

Rathmoyne, Dunmurry Breda, Belvoir Kilbroney, Cregagh

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At the time of the fire, four of the Housing Executive’s high rises either had just been newly cladded or were in the process of being clad. However, the independent report found that the material used in Northern Ireland was not the same as that in Grenfell and that the cladding was compliant with building regulations.

The Housing Executive’s Tower Blocks Action Plan has categorised planned decommissioning of tower blocks into three timeframe categories.

Moveen, Finaghy Willowbrook, Cregagh Woodstock, Cregagh

Clarawood, Clarawood Magowan, Portadown

already been carried out (or is underway) in the blocks following the Grenfell Tower tragedy (and the Coolmoyne House fire). However, fire safety requirements that may arise out of future regulatory changes… for example, for sprinklers and secondary staircases, would likely prove highly problematic or, indeed, impossible to deliver without radical and costly restructuring and work.”

While the document emphasises the Housing Executive’s commitment to ensuring safety through a comprehensive framework, it adds: “Nevertheless, by their very nature, the tower blocks will continue to be our stock with the greatest inherent fire safety risk.”

However, the action plan also acknowledges that the delivery of a decommissioning plan for the entire tower block portfolio is “currently not

considered possible in the short-tomedium term”. To this end, it has categorised its tower blocks for action across three phases: short (one to five years), medium (six to 10 years); and long (10 plus years).

Those in the medium-term category will have “holding investment” carried out, examples offered include health and safety works, structural repairs and the repair or replacement of internal components. For longer term properties the plan is for more extensive “full improvements” including the installation of sprinklers, the installation of cladding, new windows and new roofs and the upgrading of internal components.

A spokesperson for the Housing Executive confirmed that the organisation plans to incorporate final recommendations from the Grenfell Inquiry into its action plan where appropriate.

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Credit: Brian O’Neill

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Paula Bradley MLA: Chairperson of the Committee for Communities Following the resumption of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Chair of the Communities Committee Paula Bradley talks to agendaNi about the Committee’s work in relation to housing within a diverse portfolio.

With the committee resumed in January, could you outline the major issues that were in the in-tray of the Minister and subsequently the Committee in relation to housing?

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The Minister briefed the committee on her priorities in February, only a few weeks before the impact and significance of Covid-19 became increasingly apparent. At that time, housing was clearly a central part of her work programme, but it’s important to realise that within housing there are a number of inter-linked priorities. The

reclassification of registered housing associations to private organisations was an immediate priority, something which the Assembly has dealt with very recently. The future role of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) was also a key priority, and one that linked to several important issues relating to the social housing sector.

Regulation of the private rented sector was also an area of immediate concern that the committee was eager to look at.

The important point to make is that these issues must be considered in a strategic and comprehensive way.

Treating them in isolation runs the risk of

producing a disjointed approach to what must be a holistic approach to housing policy.

Communities is a vast brief, how much time is housing allocated in terms of the committee’s work? Would housing be better suited to a dedicated department?

The brief is incredibly diverse and the work of the department affects everyone in Northern Ireland, whether that’s through sport, the arts, the administration of benefits, the numerous

However, all members of the committee acknowledge that housing is likely to be the key priority of the committee’s work programme over the remainder of this Assembly mandate.

While the issues that we face in housing are multi-faceted, I don’t believe that a separate department is the answer.

That, in itself, wouldn’t ensure that funding is increased or delays in getting planning and other relevant consents are addressed.

The absence of ministerial decision-making was lamented by many across the previous three years but oversight and scrutiny are also important elements of how government works. Could you outline the value in having a Committee re-established in relation to the Communities portfolio, in particular housing?

The formal role of Assembly Statutory Committees is to “advise and assist” the Minister. The committee does this through its scrutiny of draft policy proposals, strategies and of course, legislation. In the relatively short time that the Assembly has been restored, the committee has worked collaboratively with the Minister to support her initiatives throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

Under ‘normal’ conditions we would be working very closely with stakeholders not only as a means to inform the committee on departmental proposals, but also to ensure the development of a partnership approach with the committee. The committee puts stakeholder engagement at the very heart of its scrutiny role, whether that’s to help inform its decision making on housing or any other issue.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has and will continue to alter much of what was once considered normal. However, thinking back prior to the outbreak would you give an assessment of how you viewed the housing sector in Northern Ireland, in particular, the delivery and management of social and affordable homes to date? What further challenges do you recognise arising as a result of the pandemic in regard to housing?

It’s worth remembering that housing is a priority action in the Programme for Government (PfG). There is a commitment that the PfG will have specific outcomes and indicators to ensure that every household here will have access to good quality, affordable and sustainable homes. That recognises the critical and central importance of housing in our lives, and is in itself a significant step forward.

Every member of the Assembly accepts that we need more housing, whether social, affordable or private. As someone who grew up in a social sector home, I

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strategies that fall within its remit such as the anti-poverty strategy, or housing.

Our engagement with the Department in the last three months has related almost solely to the impact of Covid-19 on many of these issues.

know the particular importance of this sector in giving people an opportunity to access a home, the stability that creates and the other opportunities that opens up that they wouldn’t otherwise have had. Housing doesn’t just provide a roof over your head. It can ensure a secure environment and a safe, personal space where people can learn, engage with others and develop confidence and selfesteem. Everyone in our society deserves that very basic opportunity.

Although we won’t know the full impact of Covid-19 on housing until later this year, the committee was informed that the new build overall requirements have been reduced from £162 million to £127 million, as this is the maximum that can now be delivered in 2020/21. But housing is a long-term policy issue. So, we need to look beyond the impact of the pandemic and develop multi-year capital funding for housing to facilitate long-term strategic planning with ambitious but realisable targets.

One result of the pandemic outbreak has been the use of accelerated passage of Bills by the Executive. Recently the Housing (Amendment) Bill was granted such passage and you supported the move.

However, some members raised concerns around the limitations of scrutiny in such instances. What are your thoughts on the use of accelerated passage as Committee Chair?

You won’t find any MLA who welcomes the use of accelerated passage. By definition, it excludes the Committee

4

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New Decade, New Approach also committed the Northern Ireland Executive to looking at options for writing off the historic debt of the NIHE and excluding it from having to pay Corporation Tax. Again, these will be important elements in the revitalisation of the NIHE and the social housing sector more broadly.

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Proposals in relation to the reform of the NIHE will form a key part of the committee’s work programme, in the overall context of a range of housing issues.

“All members of the committee acknowledge that housing is likely to be the key priority of the committee’s work programme over the remainder of this Assembly mandate.”

Stage and therefore scrutiny is obviously limited. The committee supported accelerated passage for the Housing (Amendment) Bill, but that decision recognised the importance of ensuring that the Office of National Statistics reversed its decision to classify registered housing associations as public bodies as soon as possible. Without this, the ability of housing associations to raise money to build social homes would likely cease and the Co-Ownership Housing Association would be unable to access financial transactions capital which would ultimately cost the department £3 million per month to fund.

So, in this particular instance it was very much a question of evaluating the pros and cons and, on balance, we thought it the right decision to support accelerated passage, but it’s never a decision that the committee takes lightly.

What do you view as the main challenges and opportunities in addressing Northern Ireland’s social housing shortage?

In relation to challenges the key issue is funding, both public and private. But in addition, the availability of land in areas of housing need has also been a perennial problem, as has the time taken to get all the relevant consents, particularly the approval for planning applications.

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I think the Northern Ireland Executive’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has

shown us that when the political parties work collaboratively with civic society, the focus can switch to implementing solutions that we previously thought were unachievable. Maintaining that mind set is key if we are to overcome the recurrent problems we face in relation to housing.

The Housing Executive celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Recently it has discussed the possibility of having to de-invest in a large chunk of its portfolio and signalled its desire to be allowed to build social homes.

What is your outlook on the necessary reforms that ensure the Housing Executive stays fit for purpose?

Potentially, the NIHE is a key element in the future development of social housing. At the heart of this is whether or not the organisation can be reconstituted in a way that allows it to raise necessary funding and to build social homes. That could be a game changer in terms of new build as well as tackling the maintenance backlog in its current stock. This will require a clear vision for the NIHE and the collective political will to implement it. The Committee looks forward to engaging with the department on this issue in the autumn.

Are there any specific targets or outcomes in relation to housing you would like to see included in the Programme for Government?

I will leave the specifics to the economists but I’d like to see the inclusion of outcomes that lead to a balanced, sustainable and affordable housing market over the course of this, and the next Assembly mandate.

Outline the future challenges and opportunities you see in regard to the committee’s work on housing?

The Committee is determined that housing and the myriad strategy and policy issues that stem from it will be the key priority for the remainder of this Assembly mandate. Covid-19 has brought a number of unforeseen challenges, but we are ready and willing to work with the Minister and her department to seek the necessary solutions.

We also look forward to more engagement with our stakeholders, by working together we have enormous opportunities to pool the expertise, resources and the knowledge required to create impetus and to stimulate and reinvigorate a partnership approach to housing in the future.

The budgetary challenges as we emerge from Covid-19 are potentially immense but there are strong arguments that housing could, and should, be a central part of the economic recovery. The direct creation of new jobs and apprenticeships in the construction industry, as well as the positive impact on the supply chain coupled with delivering on a key aspect of social policy, are hard to ignore. But we need to win the argument about the many tangible and intangible effects of good housing on society as a whole. The Committee is up for that challenge.

Children and young people report

children and young people report

Children and Young People’s Strategy progress ‘set aside’ Plans to advance a Children and Young People’s Strategy, which has been required by law since 2015, have been further delayed and could take months to be re-tabled.

In December 2019, the Department of Education’s Permanent Secretary Derek Baker took the unprecedented step of publishing a strategy which had not been signed off by a minister because of the three-year long collapse of the Executive.

The Children’s Services Co-operation Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 requires the Northern Ireland Executive to adopt a strategy for improving the wellbeing of children and young people. Attempts to draw up a strategy in 2016 were halted by the failure to form an Executive following the 2017 elections. A draft strategy had been issued for consultation but no Executive existed to give final approval.

By late 2019, the Department of Education took the decision to publish the cross departmental Children and Young People’s Strategy, with the intention to set out a framework for progressing children’s issues until an 98

Executive was in place.

On announcing its publication, the Department of Education’s website stated that: “The strategy will remain in place until a Northern Ireland Executive Children and Young People’s Strategy is published”.

Less than a month after the strategy was published, the Executive was reformed and the Children and Young People’s Strategy was one of an extensive list of strategies namechecked in the New Decade, New Approach document to potentially underpin an envisaged new Programme for Government.

However, government response to the outbreak of Covid-19 looks set to delay many of these ambitions, including a Children and Young People’s Strategy.

The draft Children and Young People’s Strategy was scheduled to go to the Education Committee for an oral briefing session on 25 March, in advance of

going to the Executive for consideration before the summer recess.

A spokesperson for the Department confirmed that the timeline “has had to be set aside due to the outbreak of Covid-19”.

On whether plans had been put in place to reschedule progression of the strategy, the Department added: “It is likely to be re-tabled within the coming months (Covid priorities permitting). As part of this process, consideration will be given to what changes might be required.”

Changes to the draft strategy are predicted to be minimal and any future strategy by the Executive is expected to follow closely that which has already been set out by officials. The draft strategy builds on the 12 strategic outcomes set out in the draft Programme for Government, one of which states that “we give our children the best start in

life” and has produced eight outcomes that mirror the outcomes of the Programme for Government.

Yet to be published, however, is a delivery plan, setting out the necessary actions to be taken to achieve the outcomes and a list of indicators from which progress can be assessed against the outcomes.

Draft strategy

The strategy identifies areas of need and groups of children and young people requiring the greatest attention. These include infants and early years, recognising late pregnancy to two years of age as “a critical period of growth”.

Positive development in this timeframe is assessed to be essential to minimise risks of later conduct disorders. By way of highlighting the importance of a focus in this area, the strategy highlights that children with conduct disorders are at higher risk in the future of poor school achievement, social exclusion, long-term unemployment, juvenile delinquency and crime.

It’s estimated that 60 per cent of threeyear-olds with behavioural problems still exhibit these problems at aged eight and that by aged 28, the cost to services for individuals with conduct disorders are 10 times greater than those with no problems.

Another area of focus is on children and young people’s mental health and emotional well-being. The strategy states that the best way to improve children and young people’s mental health and emotional well-being is by “building resilience and promoting awareness of positive mental health for all children while providing specialist help and support for those who need it”.

A third focus is on children and young people with a disability and/or complex health needs, including life limiting conditions. “Extra effort is required to ensure that children and young people with a disability and with complex health

• Children and young people are physically and mentally healthy • Children and young people enjoy play and leisure • Children and young people learn and achieve • Children and young people live in safety and with stability

children and young people report

Close to a quarter (24.6 per cent) of Northern Ireland’s population are classified as children and young people (0-18 years). The strategy identifies the need to adapt the relevant public services to changing demographics. It is predicted that the proportion of children and young people aged 11 and over is to increase and the proportion under the age of 11 to decrease in the 10-year lifespan of the strategy.

Draft Children and Young People’s Strategy outcomes:

• Children and young people experience economic and environmental wellbeing • Children and young people make a positive contribution to society • Children and young people live in a society which respects their rights • Children and young people live in a society in which equality of opportunity and good relations are promoted

“This Strategy seeks to build on the many positive outcomes children and young people already experience whilst also focusing on those areas of concern where outcomes are poorer or specific groups of children and young people face particular barriers to achieving positive outcomes.” care needs and/or life limiting conditions, and their families and carers, receive support which is tailored to their individual needs and allows the child or young person to develop to their full potential,” the strategy states.

“By the age of three years children from

Finally, the strategy highlights the need for greater attention on children and young people living in areas of deprivation. The strategy recognises that outcomes for children and young people are significantly affected by where they live and whether their family is experiencing disadvantage and poverty.

Strikingly, the evidence suggests that children and young people born into areas of deprivation have a lower life expectancy at birth, higher rates of mental ill health and are more likely to suffer from drug and alcohol related problems than those living in affluent areas.

highlights.

low income families have heard on average 30 million fewer words than children in high income families and have half the vocabulary of children in higher income families,” the strategy

The strategy is extensive, covering a broad range of outcomes and areas of increased focus. However, it noticeably lacks direct actions, detail on finance allocation and identified indicators of progress. It’s likely that the Executive, when considering the strategy, will seek to align its outcomes with a proposed new Programme for Government, which has also not been given a concrete timeline for delivery. The impact of the strategy will largely depend on the availability of resources and the creation of specific targeted actions.

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Getting real about recovery

In March 2020 things changed for everyone across the UK as we entered the “delay” phase in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.

We were told that “we were all in this together” but it soon became clear that the pandemic amplified inequalities and our experience was very different depending on income, ethnicity and age, writes Celine McStravick, Director of the National Children’s Bureau.

In Northern Ireland the hospital admission rate for COVID-19 in the 10 per cent most deprived areas was almost double the rate in the 10 per cent least deprived areas. Even before the onset of the crisis, 24 per cent of children were living in poverty, school budgets were under pressure, children with special educational needs faced constant challenges with an inadequate and poorly-planned support system and 100

waiting lists for children and young people’s mental health services were unacceptably long.

All children have the right to thrive and the global pandemic has shone a light on deeply entrenched inequalities.

The pandemic has also shown us how our public services can respond quickly and with flexible solutions when required.

Within the first three weeks of lockdown the Department for Communities distributed over 30,000 food parcels and, according to the Education and Training Inspectorate, a scheme to provide pupils with laptops had seen demand outstrip supply.

As we plan for recovery, this is the time to hold tight to those innovative policies that responded to identified need and reimagine what life should be like for all children in Northern Ireland irrespective of income or circumstance. Why do we aspire for a return to ‘normal’ when that ‘normal’ did not fulfil children’s rights and only served to bolster inequalities rather than addressing them?

The Government, understandably, has so far focused on the immediate health and economic consequences of Covid-19 but now we need to see real long term investment in a better future for children focussing on the following areas.

Poverty We know that poverty holds children back in so many areas of their lives, harming health and learning and is preventing them from reaching their full potential. The Minister for Communities reported an “unprecedented demand in terms of new claims for Universal Credit” during Covid-19 lockdown, so child poverty will increase further. The Education Minister’s decision for payments to be made directly to families

where children were eligible for free school meals was welcome, but this is piecemeal and we need a strategic longterm approach to alleviate the effects of child poverty. The child poverty strategy needs to be re-energised and implemented immediately.

Education and inequalities

When schools reopen we must plan from the outset how to reclaim an education system that supports the long term wellbeing of every child. Children thrive when they are safe and supported and teachers have told us that they want to develop trauma informed and responsive environments for children; that’s the priority and any talk of catching up is adding pressure. It’s now time to develop and implement a wellbeing framework for schools and a long-term solution to our unequal education system. Children and parents and carers should inform that solution, for this is about more than bricks and mortar, it’s about focusing on what we value most and building better long-term outcomes for children.

Long-term ambition for education, employment and training In 2020 some of our young people will be leaving school seeking employment in a particularly challenging economic climate. The economic damage of the Covid-19 crisis could hit young workers hardest, with some researchers predicting a spike in youth unemployment from 8 per cent to 26 per cent in Autumn 2020. We need to see a commitment to supporting these young people, providing guaranteed jobs and training.

Mental health and wellbeing Childhood emotional wellbeing is the number one predictor of adult life satisfaction. If we want happy, satisfied adults then we need to have children who are emotionally well. We don’t know what long-term impact Covid-19 will have on children. We do know that some children may have enjoyed the break from peers and school, some will have struggled, and many have been at risk of

when that ‘normal’ did not fulfil children’s rights and only served to bolster inequalities rather than addressing them?” abuse or neglect in homes where families were already finding it hard to cope before the pandemic. We should acknowledge these different experiences and invest in strategic and accessible mental health support for children, allowing them to express their fears, anxieties and memories of this unprecedented time.

citizens including children and young

We should also prioritise improving our understanding of how children’s wellbeing and mental health has been affected.

Specialists in psychology, mental health and neuroscience have highlighted the mental health risk of lockdown to school children. Over 5,000 new babies were born during lockdown and our analysis of research and policy relating to the mental health of under-fives predicts that Covid19 is likely to increase the strain on babies, infants and their parents, and that now is the moment to make their emotional wellbeing a priority. The Northern Ireland mental health action plan is only a first step: we need to see the 10-year mental health strategy developed in earnest with long-term investment in this area.

January 2020. The New Decade, New

The online world

deserve an unprecedented response.

We know that children and young people use the online world to meet with peers, to learn and enjoy life. Screen time has increased exponentially with lockdown and that also leaves children more at risk of unsafe behaviour. The Northern Ireland Executive commissioned an online safety strategy for children many years ago and its release and implementation is long overdue. Our children should feel empowered and safe online and parents need help to understand the risks and rewards of the internet. If blended learning in schools is going to increase then we must take responsibility for our children’s online safety seriously.

The National Children’s Bureau brings

Progressing the Programme for Government A long-term recovery plan must be based on the outcomes we need and developed in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, private sector and

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Some schools have remained open throughout the pandemic for vulnerable children, but only about 1 per cent of those places were taken up. The online world became the classroom for the majority of children who had access to laptops. Other children had to share resources or cope without any while the digital divide grew.

“Why do we aspire for a return to ‘normal’

people. The plan should be co-ordinated across government and backed by significant investment. But we can start by implementing our Programme for Government that was promised an update when the Executive was established after a three-year break in Approach agreement has been side-lined to focus on the immediate crisis but in the long-term this needs to be implemented. The 10-year Children and Young People’s strategy has been released but without any action plan for delivery. This should be the start of a rescue, recovery and rebuild plan designed to support and enable our children and young people to thrive.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been widespread, affecting the lives of every baby, child and young person in the country. This generation of children face unprecedented threats to their childhoods and life chances. They

people and organisations together to bring about the best for children. In the wake of the pandemic, ensuring every child is safe, secure and supported will mean reimagining childhood rather than reassembling the support and services that were in place before it struck.

Why settle for trying to get back to normal? Let’s be ambitious in reimagining what life could be like for our children and young people and making Northern Ireland the best place for them to grow up.

Celine McStravick Director, National Children’s Bureau T: 07808 507 678 / 028 9087 5006 E: cmcstravick@ncb.org.uk W: www.ncb.org.uk 101

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Summer food scheme given funding The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed to extend the free school meals scheme over the school summer holidays at a cost of £12 million.

News that the Northern Ireland Executive was to consider extending the free school meals scheme over the summer months came just days after the UK Government were forced into an embarrassing U-turn to extend the scheme in England.

The Conservative Government had originally stated that it would not award vouchers in England outside of term-time but signalled a change in their decision just hours before an opposition day debate in the House of Commons.

In the days following, Education Minister Peter Weir revealed that the Executive had agreed to a summer food scheme in Northern Ireland for July and August.

Wales and Scotland had already signalled their intent to do so.

The summer food scheme is separate from, but similar to, the Free School Meals direct payment scheme which 102

operated between 23 March and 30 June.

which would support a new Programme for Government.

However, a disagreement in the Executive Office threatened the availability of finances for the extension.

Ministers did not initially agree to sign-off a broader funding package, made available from in-year surpluses from various departments, which included the £12 million for free school meals as an agreement could not be reached on funding a victims' pension scheme.

Just under 97,000 children in Northern Ireland are entitled to free school meals and the summer food scheme will mean that families of those eligible will receive £2.70 per child per day.

The prospect of the scheme not getting the finances necessary has given renewed vigour to calls for a focus on renewing Northern Ireland’s Child Poverty Strategy, published in 2016. It has also injected emphasis on a pledge within the New Decade, New Approach agreement, which saw the resumption of powersharing in Northern Ireland, to “develop and implement an Anti-poverty Strategy”,

“These payments will help ensure that those children most in need do not go hungry during the summer months.”

Announcing the funding, Education Minister Peter Weir said that the issues of “holiday hunger” had been a real concern.

He also announced that the Education Authority’s Eat Well Live Well programme will also be extended for July and August.

The scheme provides lunches and breakfasts to more than 3,000 vulnerable young people.

Action for Children: 20 years of support Action for Children celebrates 20 years in Northern Ireland

Where we work

this month. Recently appointed National Director NI, Lorna Ballard, outlines the impact the organisation has had.

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Sure Starts in Ballymena, Antrim, Ballymote and Waterside;

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Tackling homelessness in floating support, supported accommodation and supported lodgings;

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Fostering;

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Family Support Hubs;

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Choices Family Support and Early Intervention Support Services;

Early Help for Families in Clooney Family Centre, Ballymote Family Project and Early Intervention Family Support Services;

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Support for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers; and

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The Blues Programmes supports young people with mental health issues.

We want every child and young person to have a safe and happy childhood and the foundations they need to thrive. The lives of so many children and families have been turned upside down by the pandemic, many who were already struggling to make ends meet.

We know that the pandemic, lockdown and financial consequences have put enormous pressure on children and families. The impact on mental health and wellbeing has the potential to be severe, with many children and young people having adverse and traumatic experiences. In these uncertain times, children need us more than ever to work together.

contact hasn’t been possible, and grateful for the generous donations from the public that have provided food and other basic essentials to 167 vulnerable children and families via our emergency appeal.

children and young people report

In 2019/2020 we reached 15,589 children, young people and family members in communities across all five trusts via services including:

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Looking to the future, we will be campaigning in collaboration with our partners to bring lasting positive change to the lives of children and families in Northern Ireland.

T: 028 9046 0500 W: www.actionforchildren.org.uk @Actn4ChildrenNI www.facebook.com/actionforchildren northernireland

I’m proud of our dedicated and passionate staff who are supporting children virtually where face-to-face

Sadly, there are children who are unable to live with their families, even with substantial support. Action for Children’s fostering service operates across Northern Ireland with a strong track record in providing stable, long-term homes for children and young people.

The number of children in care has increased over the years and we anticipate an even greater need as a result of the pandemic. We are always on the lookout for people who would like to start their fostering journey with Action for Children, whether it’s providing a long- or short-term placement, or supporting a parent and child together. We also have opportunities for volunteers to provide additional support children and fostering families.

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Towards a Childcare Strategy Education Minister Peter Weir has published a Childcare Sector Recovery Plan in a bid to restore the sector to preCovid-19 levels as quickly and safely as possible but the fundamental issues challenging parents and providers remain, writes David Whelan.

Covid-19 has heaped new pressures on top of existing ones in relation to parents and childcare providers.

However, it has also served to highlight the importance of affordability and the capacity for childcare provision in Northern Ireland as key infrastructure for the economy.

Northern Ireland remains the only region of the UK without a Childcare Strategy and the hopes of achieving one have now been long-standing for over a decade. In that time, failure to target 104

investment in the childcare sector has meant not only rising costs for parents but also for childcare providers.

It’s estimated that the cost of a single full-time childcare place has risen by 11 per cent in the past 10 years, while at the same time childcare providers are reporting year-on-year increases in their expenditure, above any increase in incomes.

In recent years, ambitions for economic recovery in Northern Ireland have given

fresh impetus to the need for a dedicated investment plan in the childcare sector. In late 2019, an AllParty Working Group on early education and childcare was established in the absence of an Executive and the Assembly. This was swiftly followed by key pledges in relation to childcare being listed within the deal that would see the return of devolved government.

The decision to include a Childcare Strategy within the immediate priorities for the restored Executive within the

New Decade, New Approach agreement was greeted with optimism. The deal stated that the Executive “will publish a Childcare Strategy and identify resources to deliver extended, affordable and high-quality provision of early education and care initiatives for families with children aged three to four”.

Like many sectors, the childcare sector was largely paused, almost on an immediate basis, when lockdown restrictions were introduced. That childcare is a vital enabler of the economy was highlighted further as many parents attempted to juggle working from home, childcare and home schooling.

While the Government moved quickly to outline supports for childcare providers, it’s expected that the impact of lockdown, coupled with limitations on capacity, as measures continue to lift, will mean an overall reduction in available childcare places as some providers struggle to reopen.

The Department of Education expects that, subject to medical and scientific advice, day care and school-age childcare settings will be working to full capacity from September 2020 but recognises that this will be subject to parental demand.

The Department’s roadmap to returning the sector to full capacity includes eight key actions aimed at enabling more providers to re-open and more parents to access registered and informal childcare.

The biggest shift in policy restrictions was the move away from the provision of care for only key workers, aligning the childcare sector with the lifting of restrictions in the wider economy. To aide providers in re-opening, the Department says that it streamlined the process of varying registration. This essentially means that submissions to reopen were fast-tracked by local health and social care trust early years team.

In terms of operations, the Department

did not impose operating restrictions around numbers of children day care and school-age childcare settings can provide for, but stressed that guidance issues in early June will continue to apply, while being kept under review.

Those restrictions require the use of pods, keeping children and designated staff members together and not mixing with other pods within a single setting.

The Department has decided to uphold standards in relation to staff ratios and space requirements, however, it has outlined that the mixing of age groups is permitted and, as was the case during care provision for key workers during lockdown, the requirement to have a separate room for children under the age of two continues to be suspended.

Relaxing of restrictions on day care facilities has been coupled with similar measures for childminders.

Childminders have been granted permission to provide childcare for four families in their homes at any one time.

This number is expected to rise to five in August, with the Department stating that it expects childminders to be working “to full capacity” from September 2020.

The roadmap highlights the importance of childcare in underpinning the restart of schools, stating that it will “be important to ensure that there is alignment between school restart plans and childcare provision to ensure that the impact on working parents from

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It also stated that the Executive would publish a timetable for development and delivery of a range of strategies, including childcare, within three months.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has delayed the production of that timetable, with resources diverted to respond to the crisis.

“Northern Ireland remains the only region of the UK without a Childcare Strategy and the hopes of achieving one have now been long-standing for over a decade.”

September 2020 is kept to a minimum”.

It adds: “If a child is not at school, then the availability of childcare may be essential in some cases.”

Worrying for some providers is a lack of certainty around the financial supports that may be available to the sector. The Department ended the Covid-19 Childcare Sector Support Scheme on 30 June. In the roadmap, released just days before the cut off date, it stated that it intends to provide further financial support to the sector to assist it to reopen but, the details of the scheme are being finalised.

For childcare providers, the transition to full capacity could have wide-ranging financial implications. Levels of demand are uncertain, as society adapts to the lifting of restrictions and providers will recognise increase costs in implementing safety measures, while also potentially feeling a reduction in income.

Challenges for the childcare sector are both short- and long-term. The priority now is on establishing business as usual as quickly and safely as possible.

However, it must also be recognised that business as usual, prior to Covid19, was not sufficient. Increased focus on the childcare sector and its critical role in underpinning the wider economy should serve to drive dedicated policy and investment to improve the sector’s sustainability.

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Delivering an e-safety strategy An e-Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland aimed at keeping children and young people safe online has yet to be signed off by the Executive.

Technology and its role in both enabling and endangering children and young people have been thrown into sharp focus as the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions introduced to manage its spread restricted many people to their homes.

Technology’s role as an enabler was greatly enhanced as new learning and communication methods for children were sought away from the classroom setting. On the other hand, there was also cause for concern as inevitably more children and young people were exposed to the safety and wellbeing risks that come with online access.

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In January 2015, the then Executive, in recognition of growing concerns about the safety of children and young people online, agreed to bring forward an eSafety strategy in Northern Ireland and commissioned the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) to develop an e-Safety strategy and an accompanying action plan on its behalf.

A draft strategy and three-year action plan was published and put out for consultation in March 2019 but a final strategy has yet to be published.

Digital natives, the name given to the current generation to whom the internet has become an integral part of everyday

life, are now more than ever exposed to themes such as cyber-bullying, grooming and exploitation.

In a bid to define e-safety, the strategy sets out that e-safety relates to “using electronic devices in a safe, responsible and respectful way. It means safeguarding children and young people in the digital world and educating them to keep themselves safe online.�

It's estimated that, in Northern Ireland, 75 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have a social media profile, a figure which drops to 25 per cent for eight to 11-yearolds. Harmful content, uninvited contact, poor conduct and commercialism have

all been identified as risks by the UK Safer Internet Centre. This strategy emphasises “the need to deliver a strong and consistent level of knowledge for all children and young people by developing a core set of esafety messages to help protect them from these risks”.

However, the strategy identifies a lack of evidence on the impact the internet and digital technology is having on much younger users, both positive and negative, and on the correlation between increasing usage and health and wellbeing indicators. It therefore outlines a need for “greater emphasis” on empowering children and young people to “navigate the digital world confidently, appropriately and safely, rather than restricting their opportunities”.

The strategy also acknowledges the pivotal role of parents and carers, as well as schools, colleges and youth services.

The primary outcomes for the strategy is that all children and young people are safe and secure online, with secondary outcomes including that all parents and carers are supporting their children to stay safe online; all those working with children and young people are supporting them to stay safe online; and the general public are supporting children and young people to stay safe online.

On this basis the core principles of the draft e-safety strategy are that all children and young people have the right to access and make use of online knowledge, provided it doesn’t cause harm to themselves or others, that children and young people must be supported to stay safe online and that children and young people must be educated and empowered to access the online world safely.

The strategy takes an outcomes-based focus. However, it also lacks any binding targets. Instead, many of the commitments are open-ended, for instance, the strategy commits to recognise the need for a prevention and early intervention approach to e-safety throughout service development and

Creating a sustainable e-safety Creating a sustainable e-safety infrastructure for Northern Ireland infrastructure for Northern Ireland • strengthening of links between NI and wider UK e-safety • strengthening of links between NI and wider UK e-safety structures; structures; • developing an e-safety coordination role via SBNI; • developing an e-safety coordination role via SBNI; • developing a central repository of e-safety information and • developing a central repository of e-safety information and signposting; signposting; • provision of a baseline level of filtering for Wi-Fi in public • provision of a baseline level of filtering for Wi-Fi in public areas; and areas; and • developing a consistent approach to e-safety in schools • developing a consistent approach to e-safety in schools through strong Departmental direction and enhanced through strong Departmental direction and enhanced education for schools on technical provision.

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The type and levels of risks vary depending on a number of factors, namely: gender; age; physical or learning; mental health; sexual orientation; looked after children; young people attending education other than at school; black and minority ethnic groups and political opinion.

Three key pillars for actions:

Educating our children and young people their parents and those who work with them • developing a consistent approach to e-safety messages for children, young people, parents, carers and practitioners; • embedding a culture of e-safety within schools, colleges and children and youth services and organisations; and • skilling up practitioners who work with children, young people and families.

Developing evidence-informed quality standards for e-safety • understanding the scale of the problem; • strengthening self-assessment processes for e-safety; • reviewing current legislation in line with emerging e-safety trends and revision where required; and • developing a charter mark scheme for e-safety training.

delivery and make use of innovative

period of 2019-2022. If the Executive

new tools and methods provided by the

moves to adopt the strategy, it’s likely

online world in order to disseminate

that a review will now be necessary to

information.

ensure that it aligns with and recognises

The three-year action plan was

any future outcomes of the proposed

originally designed for the three-year

Programme for Government.

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children and young people report

Children in need Over 5 per cent of children in Northern Ireland are known to social services as a ‘child in need’ and there is little evidence to suggest that efforts to reduce this figure are working.

Latest figures show that as of March 2019, 24,289 children in Northern Ireland were known to social services as a child in need, 5.5 per cent of the known number of children living in Northern Ireland. The number of children in need rose by 3 per cent over the year. A total of 34,578 children were referred to social services during 2018/19, a 4 per cent drop on the previous year.

Little progress has been made on reducing the number of children in need in the past five years. In 2013/14 there were 25,988 children in need compared to 24,289 in 2018/19. Additional to the children in need figure is a further 2,211 children on the Child Protection Register and 3,281 children in care of the HSC 108

Trusts (a looked after child).

Greater analysis of the figures show that for every 10,000 children in Northern Ireland, an average of 554 were estimated to be in need. When this figure is broken down in to five health and social care (HSC) trusts across Northern Ireland, the Western Trust (837) had the highest rate of children in need per 10,000 child population and the South Eastern Trust had the lowest (441.8).

Of the 24,2898 children in need in Northern Ireland, 18 per cent were recorded as having a disability. Just under half of these had a learning disability.

Over a third of the over 24,000 children

in need were Catholic (27 per cent), the largest identified grouping in relation to religion. This compared to 7 per cent for Church of Ireland and 8 per cent Presbyterian. A further 12 per cent were recorded in ‘other’ Christian faiths.

Religious affiliation was not recorded for 30 per cent of all children in need.

Child protection

By March 2019, 2,211 children were listed on the Child Protection Register, the majority in relation to neglect of physical abuse. The 6 per cent increase in the number of children on the register occurred despite an 8 per cent drop in referrals by the HSC Trusts. The Northern Ireland rate of children on the register per 10,000 of the child

population has risen from 44 in 2014 to 50 in 2019.

1200 1000 800 600 400

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Northern Ireland currently has the highest rate of children on the child protection register per 10,000 children when compared to England Scotland and Wales. Child protection figures show that Northern Ireland has not followed similar trends recognisable in the other regions. Following a steep increase up to 2009, Northern Ireland’s figures had been largely declining, however, since 2014 the numbers have been increasing again.

Rate per 10,000 child population March 2019

per 10,000 child population

Since 2016 a decline in the rates of children on the register in the Belfast, South Eastern and Northern HSC Trusts has coincided with a steep rise in the rates of children on the register in the Southern and Western HSC Trusts.

200 0 Belfast HSC Trust

Northern HSC Tru st

Children in need

South Eastern HSC Trust

Child Protection Register

Southern HSC Tru st

We stern HSC Tru st

Looked after children

Source: Delegated Statutory Functions / Corporate Parenting Returns Mid-Year Estimate 2018 (NISRA 2019)

Children in care

Over the year from 2018 to 2019 the number of children in care rose by 6 per cent and the number of children admitted to care rose by 4 per cent. The number of looked after children in Northern Ireland has risen by 33 per cent in the last decade.

Changes in the number of looked after children in the HSC Trusts between 2017/18 and 2018/19 ranged from an increase of 18 per cent in the South Eastern HSC Trust to a decrease of 1 per cent in the Northern HSC Trust.

The rate of looked after children in Northern Ireland has been steadily rising since 2011. Northern Ireland has higher rates of children in care per 10,000 children but lower rates than Scotland and Wales. A noticeable gap has opened up between the two jurisdiction on the island of Ireland in recent years. Since 2015, the Republic of Ireland has recorded a steady decrease in its numbers, where as Northern Ireland has recorded a general increase.

Information taken from the Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2018/19.

Rate of children on the Child Protection Register per 10,000 population under 18 by HSC Trust 80 Children per 10,000 population under 18 years

A total of 3,281 children were in care in Northern Ireland at 31 March 2019, the highest figure on record since the introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The majority of these children were in foster care placements (79 per cent), 11 per cent had been placed with parents, 6 per cent were in residential care and 4 per cent were in other placements.

Belfast HSC Trust 60

Northern HSC Trust

40

South Eastern HSC Trust Southern HSC Trust Western HSC Trust

20

Northern Ireland 0 2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Source: Children order return CPR1 2017 Mid-year population estimates (NISRA 2018)

Children in need 2018/19

24,289 34,578 2,211 83%

children in need

3,281

children in care

children in need referrals on the Child Protection Register on the register because of physical abuse and/or neglect

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people agenda

Jerome Quinn: Guardian of grassroots Gaelic games coverage Once the voice and indeed the face of GAA coverage in the North, Jerome Quinn’s acrimonious split with his BBC employers cut short almost two decades of service. In the aftermath, he took a risk, setting off across Ireland and far beyond as a web video journalist. Ciarán Galway speaks with Quinn about his now ubiquitous contribution to grassroots Gaelic games coverage.

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Upon joining the BBC in Belfast in 1989, Omagh-native Jerome Quinn worked as a radio producer, becoming the first Catholic in production and presentation.

Contextualising his initial foray into broadcasting, the ‘web video man’ recalls: “At that time, [the BBC] was a Protestant-dominated and unionist-bydefault place of employment. When it came to sports coverage Gaelic sports were simply avoided unless absolutely necessary.”

Following a brief stint with the BBC in the UK, Quinn’s by then award-winning career was on an upward trajectory. A personal highlight for him was covering the ‘All-Ulster Final’ in 2003 when reigning champions Armagh played Tyrone in the All-Ireland Men’s Senior Football Championship Final.

“Everything was good,” he recounts.

Acknowledging that he “had a lot of difficulties there”, Quinn is keen to emphasise the constructive efforts in the early 1990s by then head of sport, Jim Neilly who introduced a ‘Match of the Day’ style programme every Sunday night called ‘The Championship’.

Suddenly, the Tyrone man found himself

In the end, however, relations collapsed under a new head of sport and this was compounded by Quinn’s public criticism of his employer’s perceived lack of dedication to GAA coverage. Speaking of his subsequent split from the BBC, Quinn admits: “For a long time, I held onto a lingering resentment. It’s not that

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“incredibly useful” and The Championship became an institution to rival The Sunday Game.

I was egotistical or that I’ve ever missed being on TV, but rather how things unravelled. There were people who did things that I don’t think they should be proud of.”

Origins However, the former broadcast journalist is adamant in his assertion that the end of his tenure with the BBC was not a setback, rather an opportunity. “I had wanted to get out of the BBC for years.

In fact, when I did leave, I simply put my head down, knocked on doors and agitated for work. I went to the Ulster Council [one of the GAA’s four provincial councils] which was very sympathetic. I also went to the Ulster Schools GAA and GAA Higher Education.” Although, at the same time, Quinn willingly concedes:

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“While I was keen to get out, it was not the way I wanted to go.”

In 2011, the origins of Jerome Quinn Media were humble. Armed with a basic laptop and a camera, he set out to film some footage for his own club – County Down’s Bredagh GAC – at Cherryvale, off south Belfast’s Ravenhill Road.

“On that day, I realised the potential in filming and editing footage, before posting the refined content online where people anywhere in the world could see it. If I filmed in Belfast, people could see it in Australia. Then I had a thought: If I went to Australia, then people at home could see it.

“Although it wasn’t that long ago and it seems a bit obvious now, in this media obsessed world it was a lifetime ago.

When I look back on some of the footage, while a bit raw, it was innovative for that era.”

Eager to run with his moment of inspiration, Quinn visited a travel agent and priced a return flight from Ireland to Australia. “In those days, I simply didn’t know the price – for me it was like going to the moon. I was told that it would cost around 1,100 quid. In other words, a real gamble for a freelancer,” he says.

In the end, he took the leap and alongside his son Mark, travelled to Melbourne where he captured footage before posting the first videos online.

“Before I knew it, I was getting messages from people in Sydney who asked when I would come and film them.

So, the following Sunday I did. After that I went to Brisbane. In total, I travelled for three weeks in Australia, filming and creating content.

“On the back of that, Joe Trolan from Ballinascreen, County Derry but now based in Seoul, South Korea – the then chairperson of the GAA’s Asia County Board – told me he had watched those posts and decided to invite me out. As a result, I’ve covered the annual Asian Gaelic Games event for seven years in a row and have become a regular out there,” he describes.

Building upon this, Quinn dug in, sought out niches and discovered the grassroots across each of the Gaelic sporting codes. “I found, as you do if you understand the GAA or LGFA, that

Jerome and Mark Quinn.

“People often imagine that the GAA runs right through my blood. If I still lived in Tyrone it would probably be inescapable. In reality though, it’s my job and I’m passionate about it, but I can also step back from it.” this is as important if not more so than the élite level. It is certainly more rewarding because you can amplify the stories of local ‘heroes’ and Gaels all over the world will love it, because they identify with it. That is exceptionally rewarding.

“To me, there is magic around the St Paul’s tournament [the Ulster Minor Club Football Championship] at Christmas.

There is a magic to the Sigerson Cup [the foremost higher education Gaelic football championship]. I mean, where else would you find elite athletes, like Donegal’s Michael Murphy back in 2012, the then All-Ireland winning captain, playing on a student pitch six months later? He kicked this outrageous point and afterwards, I drove back to DCU to edit the footage and post it online. RTÉ used that clip the next night. It’s very gratifying when you capture something like that,” he asserts.

Balance Quinn, however, concedes that he is probably not exactly the person he is

perceived to be. “People often imagine that the GAA runs right through my blood. If I still lived in Tyrone it would probably be inescapable. In reality though, it’s my job and I’m passionate about it, but I can also step back from it.

That’s probably good from the perspective of a journalist because it allows me to contextualise it,” he reflects.

“At the end of the day, you have to have balance in your life. I realised that when I went freelance. I worked three years without breathing and then I took a step back and thought, ‘yes, it’s very nice travelling to Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, but then you come back home and you don’t know anybody’. I’ve worked hard over the last four or five years to have a life outside of work.”

Significance While avoiding hackneyed clichés, the web video journalist characterises Gaelic games as holding unique value, particularly at community level and continues to help out with his local club

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where possible. Conversely and almost paradoxically, Quinn also maintains that the top flight of the GAA is of little interest to him anymore.

“For years we were broadcasting senior matches and at that time it was everything to me. I couldn’t imagine not being at an Ulster Championship match, but that was then. Now, I don’t know the last time I was at one. Senior men’s football at intercounty level and even at club level is deadly boring. It leaves me cold. Besides, it has also become ‘big business’. The top level can take care of itself,” he asserts.

Where the GAA continues to thrive, he suggests, is at grassroots level. “The GAA is still very pure at [community] level. It lives off passion, family and community. That’s what I enjoy most.

When you find people who still want to volunteer their time to make things happen, without any financial incentive.

It’s just sheer enthusiasm.

“Even if you took away the corporate side, the sponsors and the Croke Park administration, [the GAA] would continue unhindered at a local level. People would still make games happen, host tournaments and exhibit hunger from underage level upwards. The GAA is not an overnight phenomenon after all.”

Overseas Indeed, perhaps the most significant contribution that Quinn has made in the freelance era of his career has been to Gaelic games within myriad Irish communities dispersed beyond Ireland, from Sydney to San Francisco and from Kuala Lumpur to Kuwait.

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They want to shout about what they’re achieving and showcase their professionalism,” he contends.

The exposure afforded by Quinn’s work demonstrates the skills of the games and the slight adjustments to rules required to play in different climates. It also exposes people to trends that they might not otherwise see. For example, footage of the Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur may be watched by people in Dubai who then incorporate some of the ideas on display.

“It helps the whole overseas GAA community to adopt new ideas and evolve. In San Diego, I first covered the West Coast Sevens tournament five years ago. I’ve been back five times since and it has grown every year. Last year, the tournament was held in the Olympic Park with teams from all North America and Ireland taking part. The media coverage has helped it grow, but the real credit goes to the people on the ground making it happen – in this case an American lady who latched on and is still driving it forward,” he emphasises.

Gold dust Describing the stories he unearths on his travels as being “like gold dust”, Quinn evokes one such encounter from 2019.

“At the Continental Youth Championships [an annual weekend Gaelic games tournament] in the US, there are 2,200 kids all playing Gaelic sports. Some families might drive for a week in order to take part and on every pitch you go to there’s a story. Each Irish person abroad has their own story.

“GAA communities outside of Ireland value the coverage because it showcases what they do and it puts them on the map. Gaels abroad appreciate this because they’re not really getting the publicity anywhere else.

“Last year, I met Conall Harvey from the Delaware County Gaels club in Philadelphia. Conall has lost his legs and four fingers on one hand after being diagnosed with leukaemia via septic shock. Now, however, he plays football on metal legs. This kid is playing Gaelic football.

“Overall, the areas that I’ve been best received aren’t even necessarily traditional centres of Irish migration, such as Boston or New York. Across newer destinations, such as San Diego and Houston in the US, or in South East Asia and the Middle East – where more recent waves of Irish people have been drawn – they have a great appreciation.

“I recorded it and was completely astonished. What was absolutely beautiful was the manner in which his teammates, managers, referee and opponents treated him. The referee would blow for a free and the manager would indicate that Conall should take it.

It says so much about the GAA and the wider community. What a story.”

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Over the last decade, largely due to the economic collapse and the Great Recession, the GAA abroad has evolved beyond anything before. Many young people left Ireland with expertise and brought a professionalism to the organisational structure of Gaelic games in their new homeland. “Irish people have become much more imaginative in their new communities. The standard of competition and skill has also improved.

The GAA World Games is an example of that. I’ve been there along the way to magnify the positive stories,” says Quinn.

While the video journalist regularly stumbles across “absolute gems”, it is still necessary to possess creativity.

“Personally, I’ve had the opportunity to go to some amazing places. There are times I’ve been invited and then there are times I’ve invited myself. I remember going on a trip to Atlanta and then contacting a friend who lived in the Cayman Islands about a Gaelic tournament there. There are a lot of young Irish guys out there working in finance and so I got in touch and went to watch a training session.

“Then I had a spark of inspiration and decided to get them out of the gym and onto the beach. The following day, a

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handful of them came along in their business suits with an O’Neills ball. I had them barefooted, walking along the water’s edge with county jerseys over the their shirts, just popping the ball back and forward, first two, then four and then all seven in the shot. A simple enough idea that with a bit of imagination went global. The stories are almost waiting to fall into your lap if you go out and seek them,” he quips.

Female coverage At the same time, ladies’ football and camogie, home and away, constitutes a substantial portion of Quinn’s work.

Comparing the sense of excitement correlating with the resurgence of ladies’ football and subsequent coverage as being akin to that of the early days of The Championship on the BBC. “It’s new, vibrant and everyone is enthusiastic because it hasn’t been attempted to this extent before. With ladies’ football, it has been a pleasure because they are so appreciative. I feel now that if I went to Croke Park, or grounds across the country and abroad to cover ladies’ football, I am welcomed

with open arms,” he states.

Ladies’ football has undergone something of a transformation in the previous and the game, augmented by increased coverage, is growing. For Quinn, who has closely followed and indeed contributed to this growth, Ladies’ football conjures to mind the central values of Gaelic games. “While the LGFA is distinct from the GAA, it encapsulates the genuine hard work, passion and enthusiasm which typifies what Gaelic games are about. The LGFA, which isn’t even based in Croke Park, is a small team led by Helen O’Rourke and does an incredible job.

“It sends a tingle down my spine when I reflect on the journey that ladies’ football and female sporting participation has made. I covered an All-Ireland Senior Ladies’ Football Championship Final in 2012 when Kerry lost out to Cork in front of a crowd of 17,000. At the most recent final, in 2019, 56,000 people attended Croke Park to see Dublin defeat Galway in adverse weather conditions “It’s absolutely huge now and entirely possible that we will see a day when 82,300 people fill Croke Park for the

ladies’ final. It would send such a message out across this island and beyond.”

Negative to positive Reflecting on his own journey, Quinn is resolute in his belief that personal adversity is something to be faced down.

“You have to turn every negative into a positive,” he argues, adding: “I could look back on my time in the BBC and be negative, but in reality, I was very lucky to learn a significant amount about broadcasting, identifying a good story and putting content together. That has stood to me because I’m going abroad now with that knowledge. When I see a story, I know how to tell it.

“If I was starting from scratch 10 years ago there would have been no way that I could have come this far. It provided me with a head start on everyone else.”

Simultaneously though, the freelance journalist details the process of retraining necessary to ensure the continued success of Jerome Quinn Media. “It’s not journalism as I knew it.

The old style journalists who trained me on a postgraduate course which was conceived 50 years ago would cringe now at what has happened.

“I have to stay cognisant of what is going to interest people. My son Mark has now come on board with me full time and we made a deal that if I invested in a drone, he would learn to fly it. Now he’s the expert and it really adds to the coverage. Other times we might use a GoPro camera in the goalmouth and capture several angles.

Filming the TG4 All Stars.

“GAA communities outside of Ireland value the coverage because it showcases what they do and it puts them on the map. Gaels abroad appreciate this because they’re not really getting the publicity anywhere else.”

“We’re always looking to stay one step ahead. Although, having been in this game for so long, I’m not hugely ambitious and have got to the stage whereby I’m willing to accept whatever happens. You never know what’s around the corner. Over the years people have advised me to go down the corporate route where there’s more money, but it doesn’t inspire me and you have to go with what inspires you. I think I’ll always follow the excitement, among the grassroots and the places that don’t receive the coverage they deserve. I don’t have any grandiose plans. I’ll just keep doing the best I can,” he concludes.

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A meeting of minds Bernadette McAliskey and David Puttnam reunited at the MAC Belfast.

In 1972 a fresh-faced film producer travelled from England, camera in tow, to meet the then youngest MP, determined to bring the civil rights campaign in Ireland to the highest levels of Government. Almost 50 years later David Puttnam joined Bernadette McAliskey on stage at the MAC in a fascinating conversation to look back at their encounter and the different pathways that events of the time set them on.

Puttnam would go on to be a renowned, award-winning film producer with a vast portfolio that included not least the Academy Award-winning Chariots of Fire, but amidst his feature films he produced a number of documentarytype films.

as speaker at an anti-internment march at Magilligan Strand in Derry where violence erupted, including the use of rubber bullets and CS gas by the British Army. John Hume accused the soldiers of “beating, brutalising and terrorising the demonstrators”.

how did no one logically understand the inevitable permutations and combination of the consequences that were being played out in front of us. If we had been able to step back an analyse those events, we would have known they were going to kill us on Bloody Sunday.”

One of those films was his documentary short ‘Bringing It All Back Home’, which featured the 21-year-old MP for Mid Ulster Bernadette McAliskey (née Devlin) and her efforts to bring the campaign for civil rights, raging in Ireland, to the doorstep of the then British Government.

Not known by many at the time, the event and the violent suppression of protest by the British Army that day would serve as a pre-cursor to the Troubles. The following weekend was Bloody Sunday.

The film also has a broader look at the efforts to bring the civil rights campaign to the streets in England. Puttnam, now a peer in the House of Lords, admits to having joined some of the antiinternment marches in his home country.

McAliskey, having re-watched the film, quite poignantly states: “Looking back,

Setting out his reasoning for attending the marches and for ultimately making

The film’s main focus is McAliskey’s role

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the film, Puttnam outlines how a raid on the offices of his friend, Tony Elliot, founder of the then little known publication ‘Time Out’ by Special Branch, horrified him. The incident coincided with a fairly recent realisation

by Puttnam that cinema and film were much more than the entertainment media that he had grown up loving.

“In the mid to late 1960s I saw a film in the National Film Theatre called the Battle of Algiers which changed me and something about the conversation I had with Tony echoed that film. We’d been through the Vietnam marches and the marches against apartheid in South Africa, so the concept of mass mobilisation wasn’t new to me. But what was new to me was that in my own country things were going on that I had marched against in respect to other countries.

“I was an active unionist at the time and it (police efforts to supress antiinternment marches) was a shock.

That’s what led us to bundle together and to fly out and engage with Bernadette.”

Puttnam, now a resident to Skibbereen in County Cork, has wore many hats in his various roles from film producer to educator, to environmentalist and even as a digital champion, all the time seeking to correct injustice. Although maybe not obvious at first, parallels can be drawn with McAliskey, who has also furthered her role as an educator and continues to campaign against injustices, including migrant rights.

Interestingly, they shared a complementary outlook on the need for critical and complex thinking from government to find solutions – neither held high hopes for the current generation of political classes.

McAliskey points to the treatment of the Irish ‘problem’ by the British Government as systematic to how migrants are currently being treated, believing that lessons not learned about the cultural differences in Ireland have prevented any progress on antiimmigrant sentiment.

“Why do people in power and authority not recognises the obvious necessity for

systemic and systematic change? The answer has to be they don’t want to,” she says.

McAliskey points to an “appalling vista” at what the Tory Government did to prevent radical social change on these islands and believes that little progress has been made in recognising the flaws in their approach to more recent demands for social change. “You can say ‘for the many, not the few’ as much as you like and will get as far as Jeremy Corbyn,” she states.

Puttnam has also recognised a lack of desire to address the need for change.

“Currently we’re in a place where, what is going to be required to navigate through the climate change crisis, through global shifts like Brexit and through migratory issues is an understanding of complexity and a level of subtlety but we are stuck at the moment with a Prime Minister who is emotionally incapable of dealing with complexity and who will immediately look for simple answers.”

He points to the Thatcher era as a starting point for a succession of Prime Ministers who have looked for simple answers, believing the UK has now reached its nadir in this regard with Boris Johnson, who he says “literally despises complexity”. “And yet, the issues we are dealing with are maybe more complex than they have ever been,” he adds.

Focussing specifically on Ireland, he

says: “The current political circumstances on the island of Ireland are immensely complex and require extraordinary levels of subtlety, which I get no sense of from the current administration.”

Resonating with McAliskey’s view that there is a lack of will to understand such complexities, Puttnam adds: “Something that struck me throughout the Brexit debates in the House of Lords, which got quite bitter, was the almost wilful level of ignorance that exists in parliament towards the complexities that exist in Ireland.

“It’s as if they can’t, or don’t want to, go there because it requires an ambiguity of thought that is simply beyond this present generation of politicians. How do you change that? The only way is by Irish people collectively saying, ‘the solutions you are proposing do not work for us, therefore, we are going to have our own’.

“I personally think the reunification of Ireland is a historical inevitability, but the issue is how do you get there and how do you get there by injecting enough comfort for everyone.”

Modern activism The pair also share a similar outlook on the need for greater precision in modern activism. “It's not enough to be relevant, you have to be precise,” says McAliskey, addressing the use of mass

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interesting outlook for a filmmaker utilising both fact and fiction.

The producer suggests that both fact and fiction can be useful tools in storytelling. “I teach a seminar on the very topic of fact or fiction and what I try to get across is that fact can inform fiction and vice versa. The example I tend to use is that of The Killing Fields film. In a particular scene the character enters his apartment and on the TV is the real showing of Nixon talking about policy in Cambodia. The deliberate scene was crucial to the film because it destroyed the argument that the film was polemical. Here was Nixon, out of his own mouth, validating the movie. So, it’s a slightly false division and sometimes you have to take liberties.”

action in the modern era. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast and so if you want to affect sustainable change then there must be a greater solidarity than picking a date, calling a demonstration and calling on all hands to turn up. Unless we can establish a discipline around what we are doing, how we agree to do it and what the parameters of our shared action is, then we are doomed on the progressive and left movement to jump from issue to issue like people who have ideological attention span disorder.”

Puttnam has a similar outlook: “Political capital is rare,” he states, “you need timing and political capital to affect change. It’s okay to prioritise issues of personal importance and for that not to be minimising the importance of something else. Each individual only has a certain amount of headspace and political capital to use.”

McAliskey succinctly condenses the train of thought to say: “We don’t all need to concentrate on the same thing.

We spend so much time checking our progress on the sliding scale of serious socialism that we don’t get any work done and we can’t get to the point of solidarity.”

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peer in the House of Lords in 1997 and went on to chair the joint scrutiny committee on the Communications Bill.

He was successful in informally amending the legislation over concerns around the influence of large media ownership across multiple platforms.

In 2012, he was named Ireland’s Digital Champion by then Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte. However, his current passion is in his role as Chair of the special House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee, set up to investigate the impact of digital technologies on democracy.

Following extensive evidence gathering, the Committee recently released a report urging the UK Government to act immediately to deal with a “pandemic of misinformation”, which it argues “poses an existential threat to our democracy and way of life”.

Puttnam himself said that the UK was “living through a time when trust is collapsing”.

David Puttnam

“People no longer have faith that they can rely on the information they receive or believe what they are told. That is absolutely corrosive for democracy. Part of the reason for the decline in trust is the unchecked power of digital platforms.”

Puttnam’s career and influence has evolved far beyond those early days of filmmaking. Following an extensive career in film, he was appointed as a life

Puttnam wants to improve the education of younger people to ensure that they can comprehensively assess the origin and validity of information online, an

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Elaborating, he says: “If you are a purist and documentarian then all facts matter but if you’re making a feature film and the overall point you are making about human behaviour or human nature still rings true, then it doesn’t.”

Puttnam accepts that in presenting complex issues on screen, the use of simplification can sometimes be accused of falsification but believes the use of simplification comes down to an individual’s ethical basis.

A good example he recites is a scene in Chariots of Fire where Eric Liddell discovers while boarding the boat to the Olympics that his heat will be on a Sunday, the Sabbath day his Christian beliefs prevent him from running on. In reality, he had received the news in advance of his departure. “Factually it’s false but we needed it to be a moment for the purpose of the film,” explains Puttnam.

Ensuring an understanding of the difference between simplification and falsification is undoubtedly a key element of Puttnam’s interest in digital technologies influence of younger generations.

“I’m most interested in young people having the discipline to check their sources. Instead of just accepting what is easily spoon feed to them. If Wikipedia becomes your encyclopaedia, at some stage you’re going to make a horrible misjudgement about something.”

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The all-Ireland Green Party quarter of the northern membership.

Votes within the party require a twothirds majority in order to pass.

In the lead up to the vote, the party’s two MLAs and eight northern councillors were quiet on their views on the deal, with none publicly backing the deal and GPNI leader Clare Bailey MLA abstaining from a parliamentary party vote on the programme, saying that she had not yet fully read the document. A special eighthour long online party convention was held to discuss the deal, during which Belfast City Councillor Anthony Flynn became the first northern representative to make his position clear when he urged the party’s members to reject the deal, criticising it as “not good enough” on austerity, housing or animal rights.

One of the major talking points regarding the Programme for Government negotiations in the Republic of Ireland was the vote of the Green Party’s membership, which, included the Green Party in Northern Ireland (GPNI).

Founded as the Northern Ireland Ecology Party in 1983, GPNI changed its name in 1985, in line with the Ecology Parties of Britain and Ireland. This east-west and north-south tandem action has been central to GPNI’s ethos since its inception, but the party became a full regional section of the Green Party in Ireland in 2006. Since this move, northern Greens have been fully fledged members of the Irish Green Party, meaning that their votes carry equal weight in party votes, which operate under the one man, one vote system.

Despite their status as an all-Ireland party, the party designates as other in Northern Ireland’s institutions and does not advocate republican positions north

or south, with former leader Steven Agnew having said that the status quo should remain “until the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise”. The two regions within the Green Party of Ireland are rarely, if ever, to be seen commenting on the other jurisdiction, which possibly explains the surprise in some quarters when it was revealed that the party vote on the Programme for Government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would include northern members.

Overall, the Green Party of Ireland has 3,200 members, 800 of them GPNI members. In total, 1,904 party members registered to vote on the motion of the Programme for Government, 195 of them being northern Greens, less than a

Days later, Bailey was one of eight signatories of a statement from Green Party elected representatives that rejected the deal that they said would lead to the “most fiscally conservative arrangement in a generation” and said that a “better deal was possible” and that voting against the deal would be “a step towards securing that better deal”.

The statement was signed by Bailey, along with party chair and now Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, deputies Francis Duffy, Patrick Costello and Neasa Hourigan, Cork City Councillor Lorna Bogue and general election candidates Seán McCabe and Saoirse McHugh. In response to the statement, party leader Eamon Ryan said that there was no “wriggle room” to renegotiate the programme.

The Green Party were the last of the three parties involved to report the result of their vote, after the memberships of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had approved the deal, and reported a 76 per cent yes vote, with the majority of the 195 northern Greens who voted believed to have rejected the deal. Afterwards, Bailey said that she had opposed the deal as it would not “fulfil the Green Party’s commitment to social justice” but that she accepted “the democratic decision of the membership”.

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Bill explainer: Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill As a Private Member’s Bill, the Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is one of just two bills since the return of the Executive and Assembly not to be given accelerated passage.

Brought forward by Traditional Unionist Voice MLA Jim Allister, it seeks to address issues of governance highlighted by the RHI scandal.

Jim Allister’s Bill seeks to amend sections seven and eight of the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2013 and Article 3 of the Civil Service Commissioners (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 in relation to the role of special advisers (SPADs) in the Civil Service, to repeal the Civil Service Commissioners (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2016, amend section 17 of the Assembly Members (Independent Financial Review and Standards) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, 118

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and to make “additional provision” for the functioning of government.

Overall, the Bill has 14 objectives, the most notable of which is a halving of the number of SPADs in the Executive Office, from eight to four. Primarily focused on curbing the power of SPADs, which was such a central part of the RHI scandal, the Bill also seeks to nullify any SPAD appointment that does not comply with the Stormont code of conduct for appointments, to make SPADs subject to

the disciplinary code and processes of the Civil Service, to restrict SPAD pay so that it cannot be higher than Grade 5 of the Civil Service pay band and to create a register of interests for ministers and special advisers.

The Bill also seeks to enshrine two criminal offences into law: if passed, it would be a crime for a minister, civil servant or SPAD to use a personal account for the purpose of electronic communication with regard to

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government business and also an offence for any minister or SPAD to communicate confidential government information to a third party. Its passage would also require the First Minister and deputy First Minister to act to improve governance and to report biennially on the functioning of government.

In the explanatory and financial memorandum for the Bill, Allister says that “controversy about the number, cost and disciplinary regime applicable to special advisers” caused him to investigate how SPAD arrangements work in the devolved institutions of Scotland and Wales. Seven SPADs are employed full time by the Welsh Parliament, with a further two employed part time, and 14 are employed by the Scottish Parliament, compared to the 16 of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The last full year of data for SPAD costs (2015/16) shows that the overall cost to the Assembly was £2,027,835.05, while the latest figures for Scotland (2017/18) and Wales (2018/19) show costs of £1,045,486 and £814,009 (plus a further £119,636 in severance payments) respectively. The memorandum says that it is “also notable” that half of Scottish SPADs are paid on the lowest Civil Service pay band.

The memorandum specifically cites the Redsky affair when mentioning disciplinary measures. Noting that a minister was able to cancel advised disciplinary action against their SPAD, it says that this raised for Allister the “adequacy” of current procedures. The controversial appointment of David Gordon as Executive Press Secretary is also singled out within, with it referred to as an “unpublicised exercise of prerogative powers” that “provoked controversy and unease” in 2016. Allister also says that the passage of the Bill would bring forward the last motion passed without division before the Executive collapsed in 2017, where the Assembly endorsed the expansion of the Standards Commissioner’s powers to include breaches of the Ministerial Code.

Relating to the RHI affair, Allister alleges that the inquiry into the matter “exposed a number of matters directly relevant to the positions and conduct of special advisers and the functioning of

“Minister for Finance Conor Murphy has proposed a new code for how SPADs are appointed, but Allister has repeatedly insisted that it is only through legislation that effective change will be arrived at.” government”. These include: appointments of SPADs in breach of the code for appointments; failure to accept ministerial responsibility for SPAD behaviour; lack of record keeping within the Civil Service with regard to ministerial decisions; evidence of attempted deliberate circumvention of the arrangements governing the control of SPADs; use of non-governmental email systems; unwarranted passing of information to third parties; and the direction of SPADs across departments under a hierarchy of SPADs. As an attempt to answer the outcry regarding SPAD behaviour following the revelations of the RHI inquiry, Minister for Finance Conor Murphy has proposed a new code for how SPADs are appointed, but Allister has repeatedly insisted that it is only through legislation that effective change will be arrived at. The Head of the Civil Service, David Sterling, has previously told two Stormont committees that the First Minister and deputy First Minister believe that the issues Allister seeks to address with his Bill would be better dealt with through these new nonstatutory codes of conduct.

In June, Allister told the Executive Office Committee of the “inadequacy of simply relying on codes” and said that RHI had exposed a “lamentable failure,

demonstratable failure of codes”. “Why put your faith in them again?” he asked.

“What is there to fear from legislation?”

Doubts have been cast over the Bill’s likelihood to pass, with neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP expected to support it. Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan has argued that the governance of Stormont is “unique” due to its history of division and the delicacy of power sharing. He referred to Allister’s Bill as a “nuclear button”. Also speaking at the Executive Office Committee, former Alliance Party Chairman and now independent MLA Trevor Lunn said that there were “undercurrents” suggesting the Bill will not pass through the Assembly.

The Executive initially appointed six SPADs, two shy of the maximum allowed, however, following the resignation of Kim Ashton in early May, it operated with five for much of the Covid19 pandemic, a fact that Allister has repeatedly used to argue against the necessity of the number of SPADs available to the office. Concerns have been raised about the criminalisation of sharing information with third parties within the Bill as RHI was only exposed by the kind of whistleblowing that would be outlawed should the Bill pass, but the likelihood of that currently seems remote.

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Disremembering: Remembering to forget

The Battle of Ballynahinch, 13 June 1798, as depicted by Thomas Robinson. The original hangs in the State Drawing Room at Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin.

The contribution of revolutionary Ulster Presbyterians to the Society of United Irishmen and subsequent 1798 Rebellion is an important and often neglected aspect of our recent past. Guy Beiner, a historian from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel explores the culture of social forgetting.

The poet W.R. ‘Bertie’ Rodgers, originally a Presbyterian minister, commented in verse on the muted culture of orality in Ulster, where “the word is still a fighting word” and the people “bristle into reticence at the sound of the round gift of the gab in Southern mouths”. Seamus Heaney, though a Catholic, concurred, and, in his aptly-named poem Whatever you say, say nothing, wrote of “Northern reticence, the tight gag of place”, which he decried as a “land of password, handgrip, wink and nod”. Taciturnity cultivated traditions of social forgetting, in which subdued memories of discomfiting events were obscured behind a façade of oblivion.

The term ‘disremembering’ was once commonly used around Antrim and Down as a colloquial reference to forgetting. A Glossary of Ulster Speech, compiled in the early-twentieth century reveals that it also had more subtle

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meanings and could signify “pretend to forget” and “be unwilling or inclined not to remember”. A telling case of such deceptively ambiguous disremembering can be found in the oblique ways through which Ulster-Scot communities recalled the mass participation of Presbyterians in the United Irish rebellion of 1798.

The northern insurrection that took place over the course of a week in June 1798 was a bloody affair. While the Crown forces secured Belfast in advance, widescale violence erupted throughout counties Antrim, Down and adjacent parts of Derry, with significant battles in Antrim town, Saintfield and Ballynahinch.

Inspired by the revolutions in America and France, ‘dissenters’, as they were called at the time, were prominent among the founders of the secret society of the United Irishmen. It was at McArt’s fort on Cave Hill, overlooking Belfast, that Theobald Wolfe Tone, a Dublin Anglican, met with Samuel Neilson, Robert Simms, Henry Joy McCracken and Thomas Russell and together they took an oath “never to desist in our efforts, until we have subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted her independence”.

Yet, in the aftermath of the events, and in particular following the passing of the Act of Union in 1800, Presbyterian communities seemed to realign their political allegiances, moving from radicalism to loyalism, unionism and Orangeism, and were accordingly obliged to repress recollections of their involvement in republican insurgency alongside Catholics.

Samuel McSkimin, a loyalist antiquarian living in Carrickfergus, noted one of several euphemisms through which this historical episode was recalled: “In

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“When it was no longer expedient to recall former disloyalty, portrayals of reluctant rebels both evoked and masked the memory of the thousands who had ardently rallied to the United Irish cause.” speaking of this insurrection it is very rarely called a rebellion, but commonly ‘the Turnout’; the call used at the time, to those who appeared tardy to come forth to the ranks.”

When it was no longer expedient to recall former disloyalty, portrayals of reluctant rebels both evoked and masked the memory of the thousands who had ardently rallied to the United Irish cause. Under the surface, memories persevered. At places like the home of Mary Ann McCracken, devoted sister of the executed Henry Joy McCracken, former ‘Croppy’ rebels, such as James ‘Jemmie’ Hope, gathered to memorialise behind closed doors their loved ones. Towards the end of their lives, anxious that their secrets would be buried with them, they shared their reminiscences with the sympathetic historian Richard Robert Madden.

Traditions of covert remembrance were passed on to subsequent generations, to be collected by such enthusiasts as the fin de siècle Belfast antiquarian Francis Joseph Bigger, who wrote biographies of the northern leaders of the United Irishmen which remained unpublished. In 1885, the Newtownards journalist W. G. Lyttle serialised in the North Down Herald his ‘tale of ’98’ Betsy Gray; or, Hearts of Down, which was largely based on local folk history.

Repeatedly republished, it became a regional best-seller and, according to the former curator of Ulster Folk Museum Aiken McClelland, “was a standard book in almost every County Down home”.

Impassioned readers were so taken by the romanticised account of how ruthless yeomen killed the heroine Betsy Gray, who fled the battlefield of Ballynahinch alongside her brother and lover, that a subscription was

undertaken to fundraise for a monument in advance of the centennial year.

However, in Ulster’s volatile sectarian politics, the centenary of Ninety-Eight proved to be an extremely controversial event. Commemoration of the United Irishmen by nationalist Catholics was opposed by unionist Protestants, resulting in violent riots and the introduction of martial law in Belfast. The recently-erected memorial to Betsy Gray outside Ballynahinch was smashed to pieces by an Orange crowd in protest of it being visited by Belfast nationalists, who arrived by train on Sundays – in violation of the Sabbath – and brazenly “decorated the grave with seditious emblems and mottoes”.

Rather than disowning memory, this was in effect a zealous competition over the possession of memory. Seventy years later, a local eye-witness recalled how “they didn’t like those people claiming Betsy”.

In a culture of social forgetting, the breaking of taboos, whereby embarrassing events are not spoken about openly in public, can provoke violent responses. Commemoration was often met with decommemoration. When the bones of the local hero Roddy McCorley were supposedly discovered in Toome in 1859, Orangemen objected to their reinternment in the nearby

graveyard. A graveside memorial erected by Francis Joseph Bigger in 1909 was smashed, repaired and broken again. A Celtic cross monument to McCorley, unveiled in Toome in 1954, was destroyed in January 1969, on the eve of the Troubles. In 1971, the Celtic cross tombstone in Mallusk of Bigger, recognised as a Protestant dedicated to memorialising the United Irishmen, was targeted by explosives.

Against the backdrop of the breakthrough in the peace process and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion was widely commemorated by Presbyterian communities, in what seemed to promise an end to a long history of disremembering. But the culture of social forgetting proves to be tenacious. In subsequent years, acts of remembrance have sparked occasional reactions of decommemoration, as in the 2012 rioting in Belfast in opposition to a dissident republican parade to commemorate Henry Joy McCracken. In another display of iconoclasm, a blue plaque erected at the graveyard in Mallusk in memory of Jemmy Hope was smashed shortly after it was unveiled in 2014.

While the case of disremembering ‘the Turnout’ in Ulster may seem unique, social forgetting is more prevalent than meets the eye and, with a bit of digging, can be found in many other instances throughout Ireland, both north and south. As the recent furore in the Republic over an initiative to commemorate the dead of the Royal Irish Constabulary revealed, even during a decade of commemorations there are hidden histories of disremembering waiting to be uncovered when dealing with the troubled past.

PROFILE

Guy Beiner Guy Beiner is professor of modern history in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and the visiting Burns Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College. His book Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press) has won multiple awards.

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Facial recognition technology: A human rights perspective St Mary’s University College Belfast Senior Lecturer in Politics, Dr Birgit Schippers speaks to agendaNi about the hot topic of law enforcement, facial recognition technology, and the debate it has sparked, from its profiling of minority communities to fears around the sharing of biometric data between public bodies and private corporations.

“Facial recognition technology (FRT) is a biometric technology that records and analyses our facial images. It uses biometric data, our faces, in a wide variety of contexts,” Schippers explains.

“For example, our faces can work like a password: we have phones that can be unlocked with facial recognition technology. It is used in the home and increasingly in businesses such as shopping centres, bars, and leisure centres. It is also used in the provision of public services or in policing and border control. But while a password can be changed fairly easily, our biometric data is highly personal and sensitive. That’s what makes this issue so pertinent.”

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which, as Schippers contends, is a problem. FRT also works with historical images that are held for example by private corporations or state agencies.

Once these images have been captured and processed, they can be used to match individuals against an image database, such as passport or driving license pictures, police watchlists, or even against images scraped from our social media accounts.

These days, FRT is rarely out of the news. For example, attempts have been made recently to introduce FRT into schools. Already prevalent in the Chinese education system and increasingly widespread in the United States, schools in France and Sweden have sought to introduce the technology. A secondary school in Kilkenny was forced to scrap a

scheme intending to use FRT to monitor attendance when it was informed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties that such a scheme may be in breach of European data protection regulations.

The analysis of facial expressions can also be used for emotion recognition.

“Technology that claims to establish our emotional states from our facial expression is becoming popular in China and its deployment is deeply worrying,” Schippers says.

It is in the human rights arena, and FRT’s impact on human rights, that Schippers’s work focuses. “Human rights are interrelated and interdependent. This makes it impossible to identify a single right that is not affected by the deployment of FRT,” she says. “The debate has focused on the right to

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privacy, but this technology impacts across the whole spectrum of civil, political, social and economic rights. For example, there are persistent concerns over its accuracy rates, which are lower when analysing darker-skinned and female faces. This gender and racial bias stems from the predominantly white, Asian, and male images that populate the data training sets used to develop FRT.” Worries over the gender and racial bias of FRT are compounded if public agencies, especially those working in sensitive areas such as the police, are unduly influenced by this technology.

This is contrary to the right to human review over decisions that affect our lives and not to be subjected to algorithmic decision-making systems. “It would be hasty and ill-considered for any police force to use a technology that produces biased outcomes, and whose efficacy and accuracy remains an issue of concern,” Schippers argues. “The discriminatory effects of FRT could undermine trust in the fairness of policing, and will leave the police vulnerable to accusations of bias and discrimination.”

The invasive impact of FRT remains a key worry. “Deployed in public spaces, FRT leads us on a path towards automated blanket surveillance, very often without our knowledge. It is a blunt instrument that violates the principles of necessity and proportionality; as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has argued, the collection and processing of data with FRT must be targeted, specific, intelligence-led, and timelimited. Also, the use of live FRT by the police in spaces frequented by the public denies citizens the opportunity to give informed consent to the recording and analysing of their images.”

The capacity for mass surveillance also threatens our democratic right to freedom of expression and assembly, Schippers says. “FRT has a chilling effect on our democratic culture and on our rights as citizens in a democratic society. Blanket surveillance facilitated

by FRT can deter individuals from attending public events, and it can stifle participation in political protests and campaigns for social change. We already have evidence that suggests that

“Deployed in public spaces, FRT leads us on a path towards automated blanket surveillance, very often without our knowledge. It is a blunt instrument that violates the principles of necessity and proportionality.” citizens, especially people from Black and ethnic minority background, and younger people, are reluctant to participate in public protests if their faces are recorded and analysed by FRT,” she says.

While FRT enables mass surveillance, it can also be used selectively. FRToperated police body cameras and handheld mobile devices with a FRT app are one example Schippers cites to illustrate how biometric data “can be used to target specific communities, very often ethnic minority communities who are already over-policed and whose relationship with the police is already fraught. I do not see FRT as a useful tool for policing, quite the opposite,” she says. “It raises the spectre of enhanced racial profiling at the street level.”

There are additional fears over data security and data breaches, but a particular concern relates to the sharing of our facial images between public agencies and private corporations. “We simply don’t know what happens to our images, where they are stored, for how long, and why, or who has access to them,” Schippers says. “But there are also worries over the sharing of sensitive biometric data between public bodies and private corporations. Evidence from the United States attests to the close relationship between the business interests of private corporations that develop and sell FRT, and its use by state agencies, such as the controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The sharing of biometric data happens on this side of the Atlantic, too. “Last summer, the Metropolitan Police admitted that it gave images to the privately owned, but publicly accessible King’s Cross Estate between 2016 and 2018.”

However, opposition to the use of FRT

by police forces, especially in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, is gathering momentum, and this trend is shaping the decisions of big tech corporations. IBM has just announced its departure from the FRT business; Microsoft has halted the sale of its FRT to police forces, and Amazon has introduced a one-year moratorium on the sale of FRT to the police.

The Scottish Parliament Justice SubCommittee on Policing has recently rejected plans to invest in live FRT, a decision that Schippers welcomes. “FRT is often presented as a useful policing tool, but I do not think that it is particularly helpful to the police. I have serious concerns that it will undermine relationships between the police and the communities it is meant to serve.”

Human rights and civil liberties activists are warning that the development and deployment of FRT should be halted until its compliance with national and international human rights law can be fully ascertained. As Schippers explains, there is a growing movement calling for a moratorium on the use of FRT. For example, a UK Private Members’ Bill, which seeks to prohibit the use of automated FRT in public places, is currently debated in Westminster. A similar bill, which aims to prohibit biometic surveillance by federal government, has been introduced in the United States Congress. Schippers also says that there is a need for a “much wider ranging public conversation and debate” on the topic than there currently is. “What we need is sufficient and independently verifiable evidence that this technology is fully compliant with national and international human rights and equality obligations and standards,” she concludes.

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No going back It is amazing what human beings can get used to, and very quickly when we have to, writes the ICTU’s John O’Farrell.

By the end of the first week of June, NISRA figures had recorded 779 fatalities in which coronavirus was recorded on the death certificate. To make a comparison with recent history, the worst year for Troubles-related deaths was in 1972, with 476.

If you add up the grim abacus of murders between 1980 and 1988, or nine years from the first hunger strike to Gibraltar and Milltown Cemetery, you reach a total of 774 grieving and traumatised networks of family and friends. Apart from a couple of cases, the public know very little of those who have died during the pandemic and those left behind, unable to grieve properly.

Almost every fatality has ‘occurred’ (that most apologetic and passive of verbs) behind screens and walls, under plastic and tubes and beeping machines and the sterile narcosis of an intensive care ward.

This is some weird stuff to get used to, and as we negotiate a return to ‘normal’, we seem to notice just how strange this is as we try and unpick the tangle of precautions which have, let’s remember, kept thousands alive. The lockdown was imposed belatedly after our leaders 124

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figured out the human costs of even a 1 per cent fatality rate of 66 million UK citizens, and the dangerous chatter of ‘herd immunity’ was shut up.

Two lessons, then. Whatever way we plan to end the lockdown, things will not be the same. The other lesson is that we are resilient and kind and humane and can make sacrifices for the common good, and for less fortunate people than ourselves, regardless of the prominence in public life of minds who can concoct a term such as ‘herd immunity’.

We can take this ‘re-opening’ as an opportunity for an improved society, one that is as resilient and kind and humane as most of its citizens. The crisis has created the space and the opportunity for us to reset, to consider how we want our society and economy to change and improve, as we emerge from lockdown and come out the other end of the pandemic in due course.

We have also seen just who the essential workers are in our economy and society in recent times, and the harsh reality is that many of these essential workers both in the public and private sector have been under-valued both socially and economically. It is instructive that after the ‘essential-ness’ of health

workers and cleaners was recognised as we slid into lockdown, we are now realising the critical role of childcare providers after years as a Cinderella service. As this column noted a while ago, childcare is infrastructure.

There can be no going back to our under resourced public services and long health waiting lists; no going back to cuts in education; no going back to insecure work and precarious work whereby Northern Ireland has the awful stigma of having the highest proportion of workers in all UK regions on low pay.

There can be no going back to another lost decade of austerity. It is neither socially acceptable nor economically necessary. The UK Chancellor rightly, at the behest of the trade union movement and others, introduced the Job Retention Scheme. It was a grudging acknowledgement by the UK Government that the current social security system is not fit for purpose and is one that punishes people rather than protecting them.

The reality is the State has become the income backer of last resort and rightly so. We must avoid a cliff edge in October 2020 and some jobs will require state support beyond the autumn. The businesses and jobs that were viable four months ago have to be protected.

This is not like a traditional recession.

Quite rightly we have commentators making the point that the economy and our society needs a stimulus and now is not the time to cut, suggesting that the time to cut is in 12 months or so. We completely disagree with this conservative, narrow thinking. Now is the time for bold action.

It is essential the Government adopts a whatever it takes approach and must

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borrow big and take advantage of the historically low interest rates and provide industry and the workers with a stimulus.

Now is the time for reform.

Low levels of public spending compared to European norms (Public spending excluding debt interest per person 2019)

No going back Our policy paper launched in May entitled ‘No Going Back – A New Deal towards a Safe and Secure Future for All’ highlighted a glaring tax inequity. We know the UK has one of the lowest levels of public spending when compared with similar wealthy EU countries. We also know that employers pay less than half of their wealthy EU counterparts when it comes to taxes on social contributions, at 41 per cent of the EU peer country average. The gap, and it’s a significant gap, is approximately £121 billion. In a Northern Ireland context this equates to £3.5 billion.

Think of the things the Northern Ireland Executive could do with an additional £3.5 billion a year: a fully funded and integrated health and social care system; a first class and properly resourced education system; a green new deal; and an end to low pay and precarious work.

We advocate this change should be phased in over a five-to-10-year period, but employers must pay their share. The State stepped in and supported business at its time of crisis. This was the correct thing to do, but the State needs to be resourced and we believe bringing employers contributions on labour tax up to the EU norm is not a radical idea but fair, just and timely.

We also need to properly tackle the larcenous scandal of tax havens, not only in sunny Belize or Bermuda, but in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Irish Financial Services Centre.

Finally, something the Northern Ireland Executive could do which would not cost any money is to promote collective bargaining between unions and employers as employment rights is a devolved matter. The OECD and others have commented that collective bargaining is a key driver for improving productivity and we need to do this in Northern Ireland. We also need to

United Kingdom

£12,911

Ireland

£14,707

Germany

£16,214

Netherlands

£17,087

France

£17,139

Comparator Average

£17,782

Belgium

£18,336

Austria

£18,615

Sweden

£19,943

Finland

£20,144

Switzerland

£22,418

Denmark

£23,305

Norway

£29,849

Source: European Commission AMECO database, author calculations

Labour tax receipts from employers and employees Comparator

Employee payments

Employer payments

UK

£2,792

£1,260

High-income Western Europe

£4,148

£3,077

67.30%

41.00%

£1,356

£1,816

UK as a % of Average UK ‘under-taxation’

address the scourge of low pay and the Nevin Economic Research Institute published a paper recently which showed that workers in Northern Ireland who have access to collective bargaining have a 13 per cent pay premium.

participation in society, while all workers

We should recognise the vital role that workers in essential services played during this crisis by ending the scourge of low pay and precarious work that pervades these sectors in particular. We should no longer tolerate bogus selfemployment and precarious work practices. We need to think of a welfare system which provides social security, and not punishment for being poor or sick. There should be an automatic presumption of employee status. All households should have a minimum and sufficient level of income that enables full

participation in national industrial

should be paid at least a living wage.

All business support measures should be linked to trade union access and recognition and full and active relations machinery in both jurisdictions.

We must vindicate the rights of workers across the island of Ireland by ensuring their voice is heard through access to collective bargaining.

Our society and community has come together during this Covid-19 crisis. We need to harness that resilience and kindness and humanity as building blocks for progress and not barriers to infection.

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Political Platform Sinead McLaughlin MLA The SDLP’s Sinead McLaughlin was selected in January 2020 as MLA for Foyle following the election of party leader Colum Eastwood to Westminster. The former Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce in Derry has taken up the role as Deputy Chair of the Committee for the Economy. McLaughlin was a key figure in the Remain campaign in Northern Ireland prior to the Brexit referendum.

What has been your career to date?

I have had an extensive career, predominately, but not only, within the private sector. I have also worked in the NHS, the social economy sector and the emergency services. Before going into politics, I spent eight years as Chief Executive of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

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What inspired you to get into politics?

While working as the CEO of the Londonderry Chamber I was engaged in various city and region development plans and also in the campaign to grow and develop our higher education provision. That is essential to support the economic development of the North West region. When the UK Government called a referendum on UK membership

of the EU, I was acutely aware that the decision to leave would have a disproportionately detrimental impact on the business community, economy and workforce in Northern Ireland. It would have particular economic and social impact on the border region in the North West. I became heavily involved in the remain campaign in Northern Ireland.

So in many ways, I became involved in political activism as a result of Brexit.

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“I have been a critical friend to the party for many years and when I decided to pursue a political career it was my natural home.”

But as CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, I became frustrated with political inaction at the level of the Executive and ministers. In particular, I was angry at the lack of delivery for Derry. I feel passionately that more should be invested in our region, we needed better roads and rail connections, a full-sized university in the North West and a better system of skills training that meets the needs of employers and employees.

What are your key priorities for your constituency?

I want to be at the heart of the decisions where I can make a difference, making this a better place to live for everyone.

Derry has an unacceptably high level of unemployment and also the hidden unemployment of economic inactivity.

We have to put that right, despite it having been a problem for decades. The solutions to that include better infrastructure, including road, rail, broadband, electricity grid and water supply, they are all factors that drive commercial investment decisions. But above all, we need to get the skills base in the local labour market improved. We hear lots of praise for the grammar schools that provide the entry to university education, which is great for

those who benefit, though many of those leave and never come back. But we need to give much more attention to the lives of those pupils who leave school without basic skills and struggle after that to have good jobs and decent wages.

Who do you admire in politics or public life?

Global politics at the moment is toxic. I am horrified at the leadership of the United States and the UK’s hands-off response. The failures of the leaders in both countries to deal properly with the coronavirus says it all. But there are politicians I admire. Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister, is a breath of fresh air. I take my hat off to Angela Merkel, she is always the smartest person in the room. The current Tánaiste, Simon Coveney, has played a leading role in protecting the Good Friday Agreement and was instrumental in supporting the re-establishment of the Assembly. Closer to home I admire Claire Sugden, Rachel Woods and Naomi Long. And what can I say about our own Nichola Mallon, she is smart, genuine, honest and hardworking. I have no idea how she does the job she does and also be a hands-on mum to three small children.

What drew you to the SDLP? I am a social democrat and very much centre left. The SDLP has been my political home most of my adult life. I have been a critical friend to the party for many years and when I decided to pursue a political career it was my natural home. Brexit and Covid-19 are two terrible disasters that have been mishandled by the British Government. It is a time to look at the island of Ireland and start building a new union that is home to all.

What are your interests outside work?

I am a reader. It is my escape. I also like walking and during lockdown, like many others, I got back on my bike. To be honest, political life is very unhealthy.

There are lots of early starts, travelling for over three hours per day, plus hours sitting in the Assembly. It is very difficult to get time to exercise, or to eat at regular times, so now my priority is to get at least some exercise every day.

My passion and love in life is my hubby Peter: he has been my rock and our two daughters, Aoife (27) and Clare (25), are two self-reliant, socially aware adults and I am proud of them.

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Sticking plaster solutions not adequate The recently published Framework for Rebuilding Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland is not the necessary roadmap needed for long-term transformation of services, writes Ulster University’s Deirdre Heenan.

At the beginning of June, the Health Minister Robin Swann launched his Framework for Rebuilding Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.

Acknowledging that the health and social care system was in very serious difficulties long before the pandemic, he stressed that the virus had multiplied the challenges and pressures.

Disappointingly though, this document is not a roadmap nor a detailed strategy for reconfiguring health and social care and creating a modern sustainable service.

The title of this document is a misnomer and perhaps ‘An Interim Plan for the Next Phase of Coronavirus’ would more closely reflect the content and ambition of this publication. It is not strategic and does not address the fundamental issues including waiting lists, workforce planning, social care reform, technological advancements and the need to focus on prevention.

Prior to the pandemic, the health and social care system was in an all too familiar state of turmoil, stretched to its limits, struggling to cope with record levels of demand, including soaring costs, worst ever performance figures and missed targets for A&E care, operations and cancer treatment.

The Health Minister has conceded that these are just the tip of the iceberg and the July figures reflecting the impact of Covid-19 will be ‘even more depressing’.

Waiting lists this long result in increased disease, poor mental health and preventable deaths. To date though, there has been no strategic response to

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the staggering differences in waiting times in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Whilst real term spending on health and social care across the UK has stagnated since 2010, spending in Northern Ireland is still higher than the UK average. A sustained focus on this issue is required which includes a detailed strategy addressing issues of capacity, the scaling-up of elective care centres and the outsourcing of care to the private sector.

This would be accompanied by indictive timescales, monitoring frameworks, performance metrics, data analysis and expected outcomes. Disgracefully also, we are no nearer to addressing the significant issues with social care which were brought into sharp relief by the virus. How will they be dealt with? We can only guess.

The response to the pandemic has shown that the health and care system can be agile, responsive and collaboration can address silos and fragmented service delivery. Decisions were taken at pace and entire hospitals were reconfigured. Undoubtedly, lessons have been learned and the Framework acknowledges that good practice and innovations such as increased use of virtual clinics and telephone triages should be embedded into primary and secondary care.

However, in the grand scheme of transformation, whilst these changes are welcome, they are simply tinkering at the margins.

The Framework sets out a proposed new management board to oversee the rebuilding of the health and social care system. However, it is difficult to see how this new board will add value and not be simply another bureaucratic layer

in an already over-administered, complex system. The proposed membership largely consists of those who are already in managerial and official positions in healthcare, and as such, it seems unlikely to deliver the much-needed transformation which is so long overdue. Despite an oft repeated commitment to the principle of coproduction, service users are not specifically included in this board. It is also notable, notwithstanding the crucial role that they played throughout the pandemic, there is no representation from frontline workers. In a recent Health Committee, Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw referred to the proposed membership as a “cabal”.

Realistically, in the aftermath of the pandemic rebuilding any health system will be incredibly onerous, let alone one with problems as deep-seated as Northern Ireland. Infection control measures will greatly slow productivity and impede progress and it may not be realistic to expect significant improvements in 2020.

We cannot tolerate any return to a system in perpetual crises with shortterm sticking plaster solutions. Wringing our hands and repeatedly outlining the difficulties is not a sufficient response.

The global healthcare emergency witnessed an unprecedented outpouring of public support and goodwill towards the NHS. It is crucial to ensure that this goodwill is converted into the momentum and political will to make the required seismic changes. The challenges are gargantuan. Post-virus we desperately need a roadmap, a much better plan to address the fundamental issues and deliver a safe and sustainable system.

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