Stephen Farry
North Down · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“Speaking for a party that has a longer pedigree in advocating a public inquiry than both the DUP and Sinn Féin, I nonetheless welcome this announcement, despite the torturous path that we have had and, indeed, the missed opportunities.”
“The first was a reform of the petition of concern to take it back to the original intent when it was designed in 1998. It was clear at that stage that Arlene Foster banged the table and said, "No, never. We are not doing that. That is a way whereby we are going to have to fold on equal marriage: it's not happening".”
“<BR /> <BR />The main points that I make concern the substance of the order. There are probably three aspects that the Minister needs to address properly before the Assembly, and they really relate to what other options he has.”
“That raises the question of why they want to go as far as 2022, especially when I am not sure — I would welcome any clarification to the contrary on it — that there has been formal Executive approval of this.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are three major substantive issues that I do not believe have been properly aired on this: VAT; European Commission infraction proceedings; and, most important, the opportunity foregone to revisit the classification of Northern Ireland Water and the ability, through a separate water charge, to allow it to borrow commerc…”
“While my party was supportive of the Good Friday Agreement back in 1998, at that time, we expressed some reservations around the very detailed nature of the proposals and how those could, in due course, destabilise Northern Ireland and prevent us from realising our full potential. We have been very much vindicated in that analysis.”
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“The issue of funding largely falls into the 2016-17 financial year. We are looking at the initial roll-out of the strategy over the coming months. There was a successful bid to the change fund by the Department for Social Development to commence one of the pilots. We will bid in the monitoring rounds for finance to enable work to commence on a number of strands this financial year. Bearing in mind that this is an Executive strategy and that we are very conscious right across all political parties of the need to ensure that we begin to address what is a major structural problem in our economy, I am encouraged about the prospects of the money coming forward this year, and then of a full budget line being provided not just to my Department but to others in the 2016-17 financial year.”
“Very much so. The economic inactivity strategy has identified that there is a considerable number of people with disabilities who have either ruled themselves out or have been ruled out of the labour market. However, we assess that a considerable number of them do have the capacity to engage in some degree of work, and many of them would benefit either from some direct support or incentives to encourage them back into the labour market. That pool is much bigger than the target group for the disability employment strategy directly, and that, in a sense, reflects the fact that a lot of disability can be hidden in society. It is no less challenging in terms of participation in the world of work, and, hopefully, a number of the new competitive pilots that we develop will try to address that particular issue.”
“This aims to cover the entire journey from full-time education through to paid employment for people with significant disability-related labour market barriers. The strategy will target people of all ages but will have a focus on young people who are participating in education, training and pre-employment programmes who require additional and longer-term support.”
“Project C will deliver and evaluate a control group pilot for people with work-limiting health conditions or disabilities. Project D will help to develop targeted support and incentives to encourage employers to hire and upskill people from the target groups. Project E will put in place new measures to promote the financial advantages of employment, raise awareness levels of transitional benefits protection and better communicate the rules on how to reclaim benefits to encourage transitions to the labour market. <BR /> <BR />The strategy will work alongside existing disability service provision, such as the job introduction scheme and the condition management programme, through my Department's disability employment service. In addition, the Department is finalising a new disability employment strategy for Northern Ireland.”
“One of the key groups that Enabling Success will seek to help is that of people with work-limiting health conditions or disabilities who, with appropriate support and accommodations from an employer, should be able to work. The strategy will directly seek to support this group towards and into the labour market through a series of voluntary interventions that will be delivered through the following projects. Project A will develop an outcomes framework through a co-design approach with key stakeholders to inform a competitive pilot testing process. Project B will develop a regime of competitive pilots to test the effectiveness of a number of small-scale initiatives in improving outcomes for people in the target groups.”
“As the Member will appreciate, an action plan is attached to the strategy as we roll it out over the next year to the full roll-out in September 2016. That issue about financing and incentives is one of the projects in that action plan.”
“Yes, very much so. By way of context, it is important to recognise that, in virtually every jurisdiction, we see a situation where it is disproportionately the bigger employers that are more actively engaged in the apprenticeship form of training. This is the case in many of the Germanic countries and Scandinavian countries, and, often, small and medium-sized enterprises see obstacles in their way or maybe do not see that they have the scale to support training. <BR /> <BR />I am very clear that, in all contexts, apprenticeship training is relevant to businesses and that everyone should consider it, but, given the need to encourage, in particular, SMEs to engage, we are looking at a number of different approaches, whether that is shared training or some degree of financial incentive. Work is under way in that regard.”
“I am happy to give the Member encouragement in that regard. The development of apprenticeships is to be driven by employers where skill vacancies exist. So, if there is a particular problem in fabrication engineering, through partnership with, for example, the South West College as far as the Member's constituency is concerned, we could see the emergence of that type of apprenticeship. Employers can feel free to approach South West College with a view to seeing whether higher-level apprenticeships can be developed in that particular area. I will certainly encourage those types of conversations to take place.”
“They have some very direct responsibilities for engaging with employers and seeing where emerging opportunities are developing. <BR /> <BR />So, between those two approaches, we are rolling out a considerable number of new opportunities. If anything, we have been really encouraged by the energy that is coming forward and the interest that we are seeing from all of the different stakeholders in what is a very new and innovative approach to providing skills for the local economy.”
“Essentially, there is a twin-track process in place around identifying new opportunities. At the heart of that lies the employer, because it is the employer that will shape where opportunities lie in the job market. Let us bear in mind that apprenticeships are jobs, albeit jobs where people are on a training contract. <BR /> <BR />We have a number of sectoral partnerships emerging under the strategy, and they are taking an almost top-down approach, working with colleges, employers and sector skills councils, where appropriate, to map out where new opportunities can arise. At the same time, a lot of our colleges and universities are voting with their feet and are going out and creating new opportunities from the bottom up.”
“<BR /> <BR />As part of my Department's successful change fund bid, we intend to take forward further higher-level apprenticeship pilots over the next 12 months. Officials from my Department have being working closely with colleagues from universities and further education (FE) colleges to raise the profile of higher-level apprenticeships and encourage the development of proposals for further pilots. I anticipate that approximately 400 new higher-level apprenticeship places will be available from September 2015, and I look forward to making further announcements regarding individual apprenticeship opportunities over the coming months.”
“In June 2014, I published, 'Securing our Success: The Northern Ireland Strategy on Apprenticeships'. The strategy provides an opportunity to facilitate economic and social progress and will be key in transforming our skills landscape and securing our economic success. <BR /> <BR />My Department is piloting higher-level apprenticeships across a number of sectors, with the aim of testing their effectiveness to meet the specific skills needs of local employers. Higher-level apprenticeship pilot projects are in progress in sectors including engineering, ICT, accountancy, life sciences and professional services. At present, 130 higher-level apprentices are employed across 46 companies. Employers involved in the higher-level apprenticeship pilot projects include PwC, Deloitte, Norbrook, Terex and Moy Park.”
“This is about more than simply providing the infrastructure to ensure that people with disabilities can flourish in the workplace; it is about tackling attitudes from employers. Instead of seeing a situation where the employment of someone with a disability is somehow an inconvenience or a burden, this is about ensuring that people understand that this is about equality in the workplace and recognising that people with disabilities are often more dedicated to their workplace and are more productive than many of their peers. We need to ensure that we can attract and draw upon the fullest pool of talent available to society.”
“Incentives and resourcing are features of some of our programmes, such as Access to Work and Workable. We are keen to ensure that those are being used as effectively as they can be.”
“I am happy to confirm that that is the case. Work undertaken to date on developing the new strategy has been informed by some international examples and best practice. We are keen to learn from how things are done in other societies. If you look at our work on apprenticeships and youth training, you will also see that type of approach in action.”
“The Department also provides funding to a number of organisations that support people who are blind, partially sighted or deaf, through a range of training and employment projects under the European social fund disability strand. <BR /> <BR />Officials have been working in partnership with local disability sector representatives on the development of a new employment and skills strategy for people with disabilities. A draft strategy, including a range of proposals, is due to be issued for public consultation over the coming months. The purpose of the strategy will be to improve the skills, employability, job prospects and careers of people with a full range of disabilities throughout Northern Ireland.”
“<BR /> <BR />With regard to specific employment interventions, my Department's disability employment service manages and delivers high-quality pre-employment and in-work support programmes that are helping more than 2,000 people with disabilities, including those who are blind or deaf, to find and sustain paid employment each year. Those programmes include Access to Work, Workable, Work Connect and the condition management programme. <BR /> <BR />The Department has a dedicated occupational psychology service that provides employment assessments for employers and disabled people, including those with sensory disabilities.”
“My Department provides a range of services that help to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities, including those with a sensory impairment or disability. Specialist advice and guidance is provided by careers advisers working with colleagues from the employment service to agree the most suitable provision that will help people to overcome their disability-related barriers to work. <BR /> <BR />My Department provides additional and specialist support, as well as significant funding, to enable access and participation in pre-employment programmes such as Training for Success and the further and higher education courses available throughout Northern Ireland.”
“<BR /> <BR />One reason we have the inter-ministerial group under the Executive's mental health and learning disability subgroup is to better map out the different interventions that Departments can bring to the table. My Department has major responsibilities in this regard. The Departments of Health, Education and Regional Development, among others, have key responsibilities as well, so we are looking for a partnership approach to address the issue. To be realistic, we are somewhat hampered by lack of resources, given the pressure on budgets. At this stage, probably most of the actions will be focused on better coordination and information to ensure that existing provision is fully utilised and that people are fully aware of the opportunities that exist.”
“First of all, I congratulate the Member on his election to Parliament last week. <BR /> <BR />The question the Member asked is perfectly reasonable and has not been entirely answered so far. There are concerns with the transition process; it is only realistic to say that that is the case. Lord Morrow and many others have highlighted it over this Assembly term. When people leave school, there is a perception that they fall off a cliff when they move from the security and certainty of the school environment to a much more uncertain world in which there is a mix of provision through day centres provided by health and social services, further education colleges, support from the community and voluntary sector resourced through the European social fund or, indeed, what are, in practice, gaps.”
“Obviously, the available resources that are put on the table will be a key factor in how far we can go in supporting different types of intervention for testing.”
“Certainly, the emerging economic inactivity strategy will be open to facilitating that type of intervention. At this time, I cannot give a guarantee that a particular type of project will occur in a particular area. We are looking at a series of competitive pilots to test different types of intervention, and then we will see how we can upscale those. Given the nature of that competitive piloting process, we will be looking for a number of small-scale and geographically focused interventions. What the Member suggests is certainly consistent with the strategy, but, once we go for open calls to the community and voluntary sector and others, we will see whether such projects can come forward, and then decisions will have to be made on which ones we will resource.”
“The provision, particularly with respect to disability issues, is shared between our colleges and the community and voluntary sector. Without jumping too far ahead, I will say that disability is a key aspect that is supported through the European social fund. Recently, we made announcements in that regard that included a considerable number of organisations working in the disability sector. Across both further education provision and what the community and voluntary sector does, albeit with a different focus and in different areas, we are looking to get strong coverage. However, it requires partnership, and it involves work beyond the statutory sector.”
“I certainly concur with the Member's sentiment that we should encourage all businesses and organisations, including the public sector, to open up work placements in that regard and to ensure that they are progressive employers that offer permanent positions. The Member may also be interested to know that we are close to finalising for public consultation a draft disability employment and skills strategy. That will cover all aspects of the work of my Department in supporting people with disabilities, with a particular focus on trying to ensure that we are able to facilitate people into work and to support people in work. People with learning disabilities are clearly a major client group within the existing disability employment service and will be very much at the heart of the emerging strategy.”
“One of the aspects that is receiving the particular attention of the inter-ministerial group is the work that we can do around transport issues, especially trying to highlight the opportunities that exist and providing support for people to ensure that they can access the courses that are available across the different campuses and colleges.”
“I am happy to say to the Member that that is our intention. Whether we will be able to achieve it in practice, I am a little less certain. One of the things that we have undertaken — the Member will be aware of it — is an audit of provision across the colleges. It is up to colleges to organise provision in their campuses and to ensure that there is an appropriate balance. We will not always have an equal distribution of courses, particularly in this very particular area, across all the colleges. In light of the constituency that the Member represents, he will be acutely aware that geography and distance come in to play. Often, young people will have to travel some distance to access their college, and that is why transport is of particular importance.”
“The group will discuss progress on the work undertaken by officials at its next meeting on 13 May 2015.”
“My Department's Careers Service has a partnership agreement in place with post-primary schools, including special schools, to support the schools' careers education programme. Careers advisers play an active role in the transition planning process of young people and adults by providing impartial careers guidance on the range of opportunities available to them, including further education. <BR /> <BR />Following concerns about transitions to adult provision for young people with severe learning disabilities, my Department undertook a range of actions aimed at improving our provision. I also raised the issue with the Bamford inter-ministerial group on mental health and learning disability, which agreed that my Department would lead a cross-departmental group of officials to consider current gaps in provision.”
“Colleges maintain close contact with local schools and related professionals to ensure that provision is relevant and appropriate to the needs of the potential students and to ensure that all students are aware of the opportunities available in further education. <BR /> <BR />My Department's Training for Success programme is also delivered in further education colleges. The programme offers participants the opportunity to gain relevant work experience and professional and technical skills, as well as the personal and behavioural skills required to progress into employment in their chosen field. Participants with learning difficulties or disabilities receive a range of additional support from colleges and external support suppliers contracted by my Department.”
“The fund was recently increased by £1 million per annum to ensure that all students with the ability to participate in further education provision received the additional support required to help them to do so. In 2013 and 2014, over 3,500 students were supported through the fund, of whom over 2,000 were aged 19 and over. <BR /> <BR />The aim of college provision and of the additional support fund is to enable access and provide support to students to help them to meet their individual goals through further education and progress towards employment or, in some cases, independent living.”
“Mr Speaker, with your permission, I wish to group questions 1 and 14 and request an additional minute for the answer. <BR /> <BR />In relation to provision for those with learning difficulties, many students are able to participate in the full range of mainstream provision, with additional support provided by colleges and assisted by my Department's additional support fund, which gives £2·5 million per annum to provide technical and personal support. The fund provides an additional £2 million per annum to help colleges to facilitate tailored, discrete programmes for students unable to access mainstream provision due to the nature or degree of their learning difficulty.”
“There will be ups and downs in the upcoming years; this will not be easy, but we know that it is inescapable. We cannot have an economy with an economic inactivity level of around 27%; it is simply not sustainable. We simply have to address the problem.”
“I have identified the monitoring rounds and, perhaps, on a more sustainable basis, the budget for the year after this one for mainstream delivery of the project. To be very clear: this is an Executive Programme for Government commitment; it is not a tick-box exercise of publishing a strategy to sit on a shelf. We are setting ourselves some very ambitious targets. Having done that, we have to ensure that we provide the resources that will enable us to meet those targets; otherwise we will leave ourselves exposed to criticism. <BR /> <BR />Today, however, let us acknowledge that we have taken the step of publishing the strategy. I stress again that this is the first time that this has occurred anywhere in these islands; this is a new departure and we are in unknown territory.”
“First, as we develop the different projects — as we have outlined, there are 10 different projects that will be taken forward by different lead Departments — they will have their own delivery targets. There will be senior responsible officers in the relevant Departments who will be responsible for the delivery of each of those projects. Again, they will be scrutinised through the various existing government scrutiny techniques to ensure that delivery is taking place. <BR /> <BR />We are not running away from the difficulties that exist in relation to resources. Nonetheless, it is important that we put the strategy in place. There are elements that we can begin to implement readily without a massive injection of resources. In due course, we will need to look for resources to be made available.”
“It is about empowering people to make choices for them that create better opportunities and self-esteem and produce better outcomes for our economy in terms of increased economic participation.”
“I and my colleagues are working on the basis that there are people in our society who want to work but who are being held back by various barriers or stigmas that prevent them from doing so. This strategy is quite clearly based around empowering people to go back into work. It is not about compulsion. <BR /> <BR />This is not linked to welfare reform. If welfare reform had not been devised by the outgoing coalition Government, we would still have regarded economic inactivity as a major structural problem within Northern Ireland's economy, and the Executive would have sought to address it. Welfare reform is obviously part of the landscape out there that the strategy will need to take into account when it is being delivered, but it stands on its own merits and is not based on compulsion.”
“I want to say a number of things to Mr Allister. He may wish to say that we have had devolution for eight years and that we are only now getting this. However, we have it, and this is the first time that any region in the UK has sought to undertake such an undertaking. I am not aware of any comments from Mr Allister over the intervening eight years demanding that the Executive should produce such a strategy. Indeed, Executive Ministers determined that it was a priority, and it was inserted into the Programme for Government to recognise its importance. <BR /> <BR />The second thing that I would say is that I do not think that it is helpful or accurate to use the term "work-shy" to refer to those who are economically inactive.”
“I know that he is very conscious of that and, in doing that, will want to be very mindful of the areas in Northern Ireland where economic inactivity is most acute. The Member mentioned the north-west, and a delegation from the Derry area had a meeting with a number of Ministers to make that point and to work up a detailed proposal. <BR /> <BR />There will need to be further co-design work with the relevant people to take that project forward, but it is my understanding that that initial control project should run from the autumn to March 2016. We will then see a mainstream competitive piloting process being taken forward during the 2016-17 financial year.”
“I thank the Member for his comments. Again, this is an Executive strategy that is a product of many hands. It has been taken forward by Minister Foster and me in partnership, and it is a classic example of how the Executive can work in a collaborative manner to produce outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland. Delivery now falls to a range of Departments, as well. <BR /> <BR />The project that the Member referred to is essentially our control project. That will be taken forward by the Department for Social Development, and it has been the subject of a successful bid to the Executive's part of the budget via the change fund. It is for Minister Storey to take forward that project in detail.”
“We have used them, most recently to tackle youth unemployment as part of the youth employment scheme, and they have been successful in getting young people between 18 and 24 into the world of work. An extension of that type of model to those who are economically inactive can be considered as part of the delivery of project D.”
“<BR /> <BR />In project D, which falls to my Department, there is a mix of interventions to encourage companies to take on people who are economically inactive. One potential means is to expand the use of social clauses into new territory. In the main, however, it will be a combination of investing in skills and financial incentives, and I suggest that one will not be successful without the other. Employers will not hire someone simply on the basis of a wage incentive; they have to know that the person has the skills and capacity to do the job. But employers are maybe prone not to take a risk with someone who is economically inactive, and that is where a wage subsidy becomes relevant. Obviously, wage subsidies carry a significant cost to the public purse.”
“I thank the Member for his comments. First of all, he is right that this is not about shifting people from one form of labour market classification to another but looking at the employment rate. To crystallise this, a lot of people criticise the Conservative Government in the 1980s, when they had huge difficulties with unemployment, for simply shifting people off the unemployment rolls into economic inactivity, as opposed to getting them back to work. In that way, the figures were perceived to have been somewhat rigged. It is clear that, as an Executive, we want to be straight with people. This is about the employment rate; that is the way we measure the success of the strategy. Simply moving people from unemployment to economic inactivity or from one category of exclusion from the labour market to another is not addressing the problem.”
“I will see what resource I can find in my existing budget to allow my DEL responsibilities to be taken forward during the year, and other Ministers may approach it in a similar light. Equally, we may need to look to monitoring round bids for specific programmes to allow us to begin implementation of the strategy. I suggest that the bigger pressure point will come in the next financial year, 2016-17. We will have to ensure as we strike the budget for that year that we mainstream the funds necessary. Ultimately, investment in this regard will create a return for individuals, society and the economy as a whole. It is a worthwhile investment.”
“The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, for example, has specific responsibilities, particularly for mental health and disability issues, but all of us can be champions in changing the attitudes both of the companies receiving the workers and of the workers themselves, so that they have the self-esteem and self-confidence that they are worthwhile and able to make a competitive contribution in the labour market. <BR /> <BR />The Member also makes reference to resources, which — I have to be straight with the Member — are an ongoing challenge. The Member, like others, is fully aware of the very tight public expenditure context in which we find ourselves. There has been a successful bid to the change fund, which is a central Executive pot of money managed by DSD, that will allow us to take forward the control project.”
“The Member is right to highlight the issue. Far too easily, we tend to write people off, whether they are older workers, people who have been made redundant in their late 40s or early 50s — we say, "Well, that's them" — or those with mental health issues. Many people, particularly those with a mental health condition or other disability, are not restricted from engaging in the world of work, particularly if the relevant support and interventions are put in place to allow that to happen. That is why the project is so important to seeking to address those barriers.”
“<BR /> <BR />The achievement of the objectives that we are setting in the strategy cannot be realised simply by going through the easier-to-reach groups and ticking boxes. If we are to make a lasting difference to people and communities, we have to ensure that the range of projects and interventions runs across the board and that we have particular sensitivity to ensuring that we reach the hardest-to-reach groups, who, at the same time, want to engage in the world of work.”
“The Member is right to stress two points, the first of which is the importance of ongoing scrutiny and management. A number of the projects are very much geared towards those objectives, including ongoing data collection to assess how we are doing. He is also right to make the point that there are significant variations in levels of economic inactivity across Northern Ireland, and that is immediately stark, even at district council or parliamentary constituency level. If you drill beneath that, the figures may well be even starker. There are pockets in Northern Ireland where, if you combine economic inactivity levels with levels of unemployment, approximately one in two adults is not part of the labour market. That is a really shocking reality that we have to address.”
“A lot of the different types of interventions will have to be devised in a community setting, and that is why the process of competitive piloting is so critical. In due course, we expect to see calls for bids coming in from different actors in Northern Ireland, and there will be opportunities for the community and voluntary sector to make bids as part of that process in order to take forward, on a pilot basis, different types of interventions to see what works and what does not. Government will then seek to upscale the types of interventions that have been proven to be most successful.”
“I thank the Member for her comments. Specifically on the community and voluntary sector, I can say that, particularly at this time, there is the impression that government and the community and voluntary sector are pushing and pulling in different directions, particularly on funding. Right across the Executive, that is not the message that we want to get out. The community and voluntary sector is a critical partner in the delivery of a range of services and in providing advice to government. I see a strong role for the community and voluntary sector, particularly in the delivery of the strategy. <BR /> <BR />The Member mentioned the strategic forum, which is one immediate opportunity.”
“This is not about compulsion. We are not trying to force people who have caring responsibilities into the world of work. We are trying to address a situation in which those with caring responsibilities who may feel trapped are empowered to engage in work. That may be part-time or full-time work, but such people can have a different balance if they choose so or if they feel that they are being impeded by artificial barriers elsewhere in our policies and practices that are holding them back.”