A wish list for the new Assembly and executive

Seamus McAlevey, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, Les Allamby, Director of Law Centre (NI), Derek Alcorn, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice and Bob Stronge Director of Advice NI look forward to working with the new devolved administration for the benefit of the sector and of society as a whole.

NICVA - So, devolution is back

Seamus McAlevey argues that devolution is an opportunity for the sector to be heard and hopes voluntary and community organisations will be up to the challenge

A lot of people in Northern Ireland became bored with the ‘will we, won’t we have devolution?’ debate. Quite a few thought it might never happen as it did not look like the key parties could agree. Some people in voluntary and community organisations thought the relationship with the Labour government is a good one; they were picking up many of our issues, why would we want to risk these positive advances on a shaky devolved administration which was likely to collapse as soon as the next crisis appeared.

The answer is fairly simple – to get Northern Ireland out of the political, social and economic doldrums requires more democratic accountability. We need the link between the electorate and those who govern us. Ministers need to worry about what their constituents might think about the decisions which they make. The people have to have the chance to hire or fire the politicians who become Ministers. If Ministers are not answerable to the people, then they are only answerable to themselves and there is no mechanism to correct bad decision-making. The system of public administration needs the challenge that only locally elected Ministers can bring to it. There has to be an argument over how public resources are deployed. There has to be a fight over priorities. If not, then we simply drift along doing what we always did and not achieving the region’s true potential.

On a practical level, devolution means one Minister, one job, one department. Direct rule Ministers were juggling two or three departments and a whole variety of ministerial responsibilities, and that did not work. From our sector’s point of view, we can now focus on Ministers looking to effect policy change and who are completely focused on their departments. To help them, the Assembly has committees which will focus on the work of departments and the policies which Ministers take forward and carry through the Assembly. Scrutiny and challenge are good things which will help produce better policy. Voluntary and community groups will find many MLAs who will be eager and willing allies to the variety of causes which organisations embrace. When NICVA published the voluntary and community sector’s Policy Manifesto in January 2007, we found that all the parties were willing to engage on the issues and in many cases they translated those issues into their own manifestos with commitments as to what they would advance in government. The parties in the Northern Ireland Executive are keen to make an impact and to bring about positive change in our social and economic circumstances.

But what has really taken us all by surprise is how far and how quickly the parties have come in their negotiations to form the Executive itself. As First Minister Ian Paisley put it, 'it’s not a love in’, but Sinn Féin and the DUP are going to do business to achieve their political objectives. The Executive does not look like a fragile enterprise but has the aura of the serious government that expects to run its full term. It looks like it will bring a period of real political stability to Northern Ireland which in itself is a foundation for development and change.

So, what should voluntary and community groups be thinking about? At its most simple, be clear about your demands. Do you know what would make a difference? Can you make your cause a priority? Do you have evidence to back up what you are saying and, most importantly, can you offer politicians possible solutions to addressing those problems? If this is a Northern Ireland Executive which is up to the task, and I think it is, then voluntary and community groups have to be up to theirs. We need to be able to identify the problems and the issues, articulate them well and make recommendations to Ministers. We need to lobby committees and individual MLAs to get additional support for the ideas, working collaboratively on the solutions. Where the cause or issue may be an unpopular one, voluntary and community groups need to think about how they educate and persuade public opinion to understand and be more sympathetic to the issue. Good politicians are good at understanding public opinion.

People in voluntary and community organisations are optimistic by nature and motivated to getting things done. We now have cause to be optimistic – the opportunity is there but only for those who gear themselves for the struggle.

Advice NI - Support for advice services

Bob Stronge asks the devolved administration to keep momentum for the advice services strategy.

Advice NI very much welcomes the new devolved administration and wishes it every success in delivering programmes and services that will make a real and tangible difference to the lives of citizens in Northern Ireland. We look forward to engaging with Ministers and Committees on their key priorities and in particular those which address issues of poverty, inequality and social exclusion.

Advice NI’s mission is to develop an independent advice sector that provides the best possible advice to those who need it most. Our members make a vital contribution to tackling problems that affect people’s day to day lives. In particular, advice services target deprivation and need as it exists within local areas and within particular social groups.

Official statistics provide stark reading and clearly demonstrate the need for advice:

• ‘There remain around 327,000 people, including 102,000 children and 54,000 pensioners, living in poverty across Northern Ireland.’
• ‘In 2004/05, approximately half of children living in NI were in households with incomes in the bottom two quintiles of the income distribution … Lone parent families were particularly at risk.’
• ‘In Northern Ireland, men and women living in the most deprived areas can expect to have a shorter life expectancy, 5.3 years for men and 3.7 years for women.’
• ‘Pension Credit take up: between 51% and 67% by caseload; between 64% and 80% by expenditure.’
• ‘Housing is a key determinant of risk of poverty and social exclusion. Individuals living in NIHE or private rented properties were more likely to be in low income than those who owned their homes.’
• ‘Children living in families with at least one disabled adult or child were more likely to experience low-income.’
• Only 37% of school leavers from the most deprived areas leave school with five or more GCSEs, the average across Northern Ireland is 61%.
• ‘Poverty and multiple deprivation tend to be concentrated in urban areas.’
• ‘Pressures on the agricultural sector, demographic change and the physical isolation leave many in rural communities in or at serious risk of poverty and social exclusion.’

Advice NI members dealt with over 237,000 enquiries during 2005-06 on a range of issues. Some interesting facts from our previous membership profile report:

• 2005 / 6 income generated for clients: £13, 301, 024;
• 53% of enquiries were social security benefit related;
• representation provided for clients at 558 tribunals;
• 56% of clients accessed services at the centre: either by drop in or appointment;
• 50 organisations provided a service open more than 30 hours per week;
• staffing: 221 paid staff and 38 volunteers;
• experience: 84% of staff in post for over two years;
• all members adhered to Advice NI membership criteria;
• 28 members had achieved or were working towards Investors in People status.

Advice NI supports the new DSD Advice and Information Strategy. We believe the strategy will help sustain the sector. It should harness the extensive knowledge and expertise which already exist to build a collaborative, vibrant network of providers. In particular we wish to see the strategy embrace the following:

• development of advice services which are accessible to those people that need them most. A complementary generalist and specialist advice service is required to ensure that those with special circumstances or needs are catered for and that diversity and choice are available. This is particularly important in the context of section 75 equality duties;
• development of advice services that are complementary to existing government strategies which have a particular emphasis on targeting poverty and inequality. This is important in the context of the Lifetime Opportunities strategy;
• a sustainable, adequately resourced advice sector capable of providing the full range of services required by the public. In contractual arrangements, government departments and their agencies should embrace full cost recovery. Additional funding is required to support the implementation of the DSD Advice and Information Strategy;
• a career development strategy should be developed and implemented to ensure adequate recruitment and retention of staff in the sector. Consideration should be given to the development of a modern apprenticeship in advice and guidance. Training and Skills development should be central to this;
• promotion of greater advice sector collaboration in service delivery. This will become increasingly important in the context of contracting for services.

Citizens Advice - Innovative policies

Derek Alcorn of Citizens Advice urges the Assembly to be a driving force for change and modernisation.

Citizens Advice warmly welcomes the new Assembly and hopes that it will restore the psychology of helping ourselves, rather than looking to everyone else - Britain, America, the EU - to provide subsidies and handouts, while we gaze with increasing fascination and anxiety at the scale of economic prosperity and infrastructure investment in the Republic of Ireland.

For the past ten years with EU Peace funding, Citizens Advice has developed cross border advice with the Dublin based agency Comhairle and its network of Citizens Information Centres. We have used the web to share information databases with trained advisers in the legislation of both jurisdictions, and deployed them on a cross border basis.

From the case records of this project, we know what every MP, MLA, and councillor in a border constituency knows - that there is a huge area of everyday information and advice needed which arises from people moving back and forward across the border to live, work, seek medical help, move money and to purchase goods and services. With the development of an all island market for electricity, and the recent paper by both governments on an all island economy, it is clear that much economic development and many jobs can flow from the Assembly and a rational everyday approach to cross border economic development and trade.

We need the Assembly to begin to forge local policies on the economy, the environment and transport. It should be possible to step on a fast modern train in L’Derry and step off an hour later in Belfast, yet our transport policies are still based on the 1960s view of cars and the quaint idea that a traffic jam is a sign of economic growth and prosperity. We need an Environmental Protection Agency. We need the public accounts committee to deal with the stream of reports from the NI Audit Office detailing the mismanagement of public money. We need the self respect of beginning to manage our own affairs, and we need to use the powers of a local Assembly to create innovative policies on for example the care of older people and education fees as the Scottish Assembly has done.

There are intelligent hard working people in all of the political parties. We need them now to provide the kind of leadership which will create a more tolerant pluralist society in which racism and sectarianism have no place, in which everyone feels that their culture is valued and recognised, and in which families whose relatives are murdered can get justice.

Law Centre (NI) - Redistribution of wealth

Les Allamby advocates proofing policies against their impact on poverty and social exclusion.

I welcome the return of devolved government with the principle of local accountability and closure of the democratic deficit.

Reading the Sinn Fein and DUP manifestos leaves you wondering about the common ground on economic, social and moral issues. Yet the two parties are committed to making the new Assembly work. Therein lies the rub. We will be treated to a series of reviews over the next twelve months into rating values, free personal care for older people in residential care, paying for water, introduction of free prescriptions etc. These will attempt to tease out the costs of populist measures against how much is actually in the kitty. With no tax raising powers, the need for cross party support and complex rules governing what can be spent and what can be saved means there are some difficult decisions and broken promises ahead.

A template should be placed against policy initiatives to examine their impact on economic and structural inequality. Ten years of a Labour government have failed to cut the gap between rich and poor. Our equality debate has focused on freedom from discrimination and equality of opportunity. These are important strands yet neither tackle redistribution of wealth, from which issues of choice, participation, influence and most importantly power tend to flow.

Using redistribution as a template, the review of rating values will get rid of the cap on property values. The cap on charging for properties valued at above half a million pounds helps the cash and asset rich not the asset rich and cash poor. The three million pound cost of this financial cap could be better spent elsewhere on public services. Free prescriptions costing around £15 million a year have no preventative health value and offer limited assistance to those on low incomes. Once again, the same money could be used more effectively on health prevention and support that affects people on the lowest incomes. Free personal care for older people and no water charges raise less straightforward redistribution issues and have the support of campaigns motivated by other progressive concerns. Nonetheless, a redistribution of income audit would raise interesting questions.

To complement work on financial redistribution, the Assembly could address three issues. First, cutting child poverty in half by 2010 and ending it by 2020 has been the Labour government’s most radical pledge. A work and social security agenda is being advanced throughout the United Kingdom to meet the target but this alone will not work. Specific Northern Ireland initiatives around child care, free school meals, support for families not in work, effective early learning and education policies and enhanced public services for families could help meet the target. These are all areas within the control of the Assembly.

Second, the lack of social protection for migrant workers and others coming from abroad could now be tackled to an extent through local initiatives. A look towards Scotland and its work on housing and other provision would be an important start in recognising that responsibilities are vested in governments as well as individuals.

Third, mental health legislation and mental health and learning disability services that match the ambition and scale of the Bamford review would showcase the real impact that local accountability can make in practice. Interestingly, if an economic equality audit was conducted on these three initiatives, there would be a positive outcome and a tangible impact on poverty and social exclusion that would bring real meaning to targeting social need.

The constant around any changes will be the need for independent advice therefore a strategy for advice service which provides for well resourced, stable and effective advice in local areas supported by appropriate specialist and regional organisations would be particularly welcome.