Northern Ireland
WELCOME TO NORTHERN IRELAND
Geography and population
NI comprises 5461 square miles in the
northeast of the island of Ireland, and comprises 6 counties;
Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone.
It is approximately the size of Yorkshire,
with the greatest distance North to South being 95 miles, East to
West 111 miles, and is home to over 1.7 million people.
THE NORTHERN
IRELAND PUBLIC SECTOR:
The service industry is by far the biggest
employment sector in NI, with the public sector a major aspect of
such, though the structure and responsibilities of the NI public
sector remain significantly different to that of its counterparts
in the rest of the United Kingdom, not least due to the Local
Government (Northern Ireland) Act 1972, which attempted to address
claims of political bias in various areas of service provision. A
very brief summary of the NI public sector is as follows:
Housing:
Northern Ireland created the first
comprehensive housing authority in the United Kingdom with the
establishment of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) in
1971, which continues to this day, serviced by numerous district
offices and working closely with housing associations across
NI.
Situated within the Department for Social
Development (DSD) the Housing Executive plays a far greater role in
community and social development than just providing houses, and
continues to progress in meeting ever changing needs.
District Councils:
There are 26 District Councils in NI, as
depicted by the Local Government (NI) Act, though these actually
comprise a combination of City, Borough and District Councils, and
they vary greatly with regards to population and/or area size. The
smallest in area size is Carrickfergus at 81 km2, whilst
the largest is Fermanagh at 1875 km2. The smallest
population belongs to Moyle at 15,933, whilst the largest belongs
to Belfast at 277,391.
NI District Councils currently have no direct
responsibilities for housing, education, health and/or social
services. Their primary responsibilities comprise:
·
Waste Management and Refuse Collection
·
Leisure and Recreation facilities
·
Parks and Cemeteries
·
Building Control
·
Tourist amenities
In addition they have a consultative role in
the likes of planning, roads and housing, do nominate elected
members to the Education and Library Boards, and have increasingly
contributed to local economic development, community
development/relations, culture and the arts.
Health and Social
Services:
The Department for Health, Social Services and
Public Safety (DHSSPS) is responsible for health policy and
provision in NI. With over 1000 staff directly employed by the
department, over 2000 employed by the Fire Authority, and over
40,000 other staff employed across the health and social service
sector, it is one of NI’s largest employers. In addition the DHSSPS
annual budget of over £3 billion is by far the biggest of any
government department in NI!
The DHSSPS has three main areas of
responsibility:
·
Health and Personal Social Services: Including policy, finance and
legislation for hospitals, family practitioner services and
community health and social services
·
Public Health: Including policy, legislation and administrative
action to promote and protect the health of the population
·
Public Safety: Including responsibility for policy and legislation
for the Fire Services, Food Safety and Emergency Planning
The delivery and administration of healthcare
services across NI primarily falls to 4 regional Health and Social
Services Boards (North, East, West and South), who act as agents
for the department, and who effectively purchase healthcare
services from 19 Health Trusts, and from General Practitioner
centres at a local level.
Education and Library
Boards:
The Department of Education is responsible for
the central administration of education and related services
including, more recently, the funding of grant-aided schools in NI.
The structure includes nine non-departmental public bodies, which
although operating independently, work closely with the Department
of Education and are the ultimate responsibility of the Minister of
Education. These include The Education and Library Boards (ELBs),
The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, The NI Council for the
Curriculum Examinations and Assessments, The Staff Commission for
ELBs and The Youth Council for NI.
The five Education and Library Boards were
established as the local education and library authorities for
their respective areas with responsibility for the following:
·
Contribute towards the spiritual, moral, intellectual and physical
development of the community;
·
Ensure that there are sufficient schools for providing primary and
secondary education;
·
Secure special education provision;
·
Secure recreational, social, physical, cultural and youth service
activities; and
·
Provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.
There are several categories of school within
NI, including controlled, maintained, voluntary (maintained),
voluntary (non-maintained), grant maintained integrated, Irish
medium, and Independent schools.
THE REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
(RPA):
In recognition that the current public sector
systems and structures in NI are complex and costly a wide reaching
and radical review was initiated, known as the Review of Public
Administration (RPA), which has resulted in the most radical
proposal for changes to the NI public sector in over 30 years.
A summary of the key changes are listed below,
whilst more detail is available in the publication ‘Better
Government for Northern Ireland: Final Decisions
on the Review of Public Administration’ as published on 21
March 2006.
District Councils:
·
Local councils will be reduced from 26 to seven by 2009.
· An
independent Boundary Commissioner will decide the exact boundaries
of the new councils based on groupings of the existing
councils.
·
The new councils will have an increased range of powers including
local roads, planning, rural development, planning local bus
services, fire and rescue, future European programmes and some
housing related functions.
·
The councils will also have a statutory duty to lead a community
planning process, and there will be a statutory duty on all other
agencies to work with the councils.
·
Councils will have a power of well-being.
·
Each of the seven new councils will have approximately 60
councillors.
· A
system of statutory checks and balances will be developed to ensure
there is fair and transparent decision-making within the new
councils.
· A
new system of local government finance will be developed.
Education and Library Boards:
· A
new Education and Skills Authority will be established to focus on
the operational delivery of educational services. It will also be
involved in the strategic planning of the schools’ estate and
ensuring delivery of the 14 to 19 curriculum.
·
The Department of Education will continue to be responsible for
education policy and strategy, whilst some of the operational
functions currently performed by the Department of Education will
transfer to the new Authority.
·
The Authority will bring together all the direct support functions
currently undertaken by the Education and Library Boards, CCEA and
the Regional Training Unit. It will also have responsibility for
front-line and related functions currently undertaken by CCMS,
NICIE and CnaG.
·
The Authority will be the sole employing authority for teachers and
support staff which will result in greater coherence and
consistency.
· A
new Education Advisory Forum will be established which will provide
a direct link between education sectors and the Department.
Health and Social
Services:
· A
considerably smaller and strategically focused Government
Department.
· A
single Health and Social Services Authority replacing the existing
four Health and Social Services Boards to drive performance
management of the go-live date of April 2008.
·
Seven (7) Local Commissioning Groups (LCGs) within the Health and
Social Services Authority; these will map onto the new district
councils and will be demand led by patients and driven by GPs and
primary care professionals.
·
One Patient and Client Council replacing the existing four Health
and Social Services Councils.
· 18
HSS Trusts reduced to 5 (the Ambulance Service remains as a
separate Trust):
Quangos:
·
The remaining 81 public bodies are to be reduced to 54. This will
be achieved in the main by merging bodies or transferring complete
functions to local government or central government. Many of the
remaining bodies will have reduced responsibilities through some of
their functions transferring to local government. All of the bodies
that remain will be required to work with councils in the community
planning process.
·
All appointment to public bodies in Northern Ireland are to be made
on merit. For the future, all Board members will be appointed under
the guidelines laid down by the Commissioner for Public
Appointments.
Tribunals:
· To
secure greater independence and more streamlined administration,
responsibility for the administration of those Tribunals currently
sponsored by Departments will transfer to the Northern Ireland
Courts Service as part of the new Courts and Tribunal Service.
The RPA
clearly presents both significant threats and/or opportunities for
us all, ensuring we face both an exciting and challenging future,
particularly over the next 3 years.
The
ALARM(NI) regional group will
be challenged to assist regional members in developing the
necessary skills to manage the risks, whilst effectively
progressing the most radical changes to the public sector in NI for
over 30 years, a challenge we will strive to meet head
on!
ALARM(NORTHERN
IRELAND):
Regional Steering Group:
The regional steering group (as formed in
January 2006) comprises:
Pat McGuigan assumed the post of Interim
Regional Chair, which he will hold until the Annual General Meeting
(AGM) scheduled for November 2006.
Currently the Council, Health and Education
sectors are well represented, but an aspiration of the group is to
widen representation to include the blue light services, housing,
voluntary sector, etc.
Regional Activity:
The first 2006 event was held on the 3 May
2006, at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast, which commenced with a
presentation by Peter Andrews, ALARM National Chairman, on the
current and future developments for ALARM as an organisation,
before leading into the main feature, which was a presentation on
the DHSSPS approach to ‘Corporate Governance’, by Derek Anderson,
the DHSSPS Head of Internal Audit. Derek delivered an informal, but
very informative, presentation that was very open and honest, and
which was pitched with a refreshing sense of humour!
Over 40 delegates attended, most of whom
participated in an interesting Q&A session at the end of the
seminar, and the evaluations from the day indicated it had been a
great success.
The evaluations also included a relatively
short questionnaire in an attempt to identify what our regional
members did and/or did not want by way of regional activity,
topics, etc. the results of which has been used to plan two events
for 2006, one was held on the 13th September on the
Review of Public Administration, and the second is to be
held on the 15th November comprising a one day
regional risk management conference, that will cover a wide range
of risk management topics, that will include the regional AGM.
Concurrently the regional steering group
continues to meet, and communicate by e-mail, phone, etc. to plan,
progress and facilitate regional development and events, but will
always welcome and encourage input and/or assistance from any
regional members! Thus, if you have any ideas, comments,
complaints, etc. or better still want to play an active role, then
please contact a member of the steering group (e-mail addresses
above).
FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN 2008
|
March
|
Seminar
Details to be confirmed shortly.
|
For further information contact Mike Keating.
|
| June |
AGM
Details to be confitmed shortly.
|
For further information contact Mike Keating.
|
| October |
Seminar
Details to be confirmed shortly.
|
For further information contact Mike Keating.
|