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 Department's programmes and services aim to meet the needs of individual clients, with additional support, including extended eligibility criteria and additional funding, offered to people with significant barriers, such as a learning disability. A key aim is to ensure that people with special needs or disabilities are identified and, as appropriate, provided with personalised support. The Department's delivery of those services contributes to the overarching OFMDFM disability strategy. <BR /> <BR />My Department offers a wide range of services to students leaving special schools, from job searches to training programmes to more formal education.”
“I am committed to the development of a highly skilled, flexible and innovative workforce that will contribute towards social inclusion and economic success.”
“<BR /> <BR />As regards the transition planning process, it is important that any decision on post-school provision should involve a number of statutory bodies in conjunction with parents and carers and the young people themselves. Leaving full-time education and the stability that it provides is a major step in any young person’s life. However, for these young people and their families, it is in many cases made all the more difficult as the young person, due to their disability, finds it difficult to cope with change. <BR /> <BR />My Department’s services are provided on a pan-disability approach. The key aim is to ensure that the needs of all people with special needs or disabilities are individually identified and addressed in the most effective way.”
“<BR /> <BR />I also wish to say to the Committee and to all Members that, given the cross-cutting nature of the report, I propose to circulate the recommendations to my Executive colleagues and will ask that the Committee report be tabled at the next meeting of the Bamford subcommittee, where colleagues will have the opportunity to further discuss the recommendations. The report is cross-cutting and, whilst the Employment and Learning Committee has, quite rightly, spearheaded this inquiry and taken on the mantle on behalf of many others, there is a collective responsibility on all Departments to provide services for young people that are fit for purpose.”
“Given that the Committee has put so much work into the report, I believe that it deserves, where applicable, a formal response to each of its recommendations from the Department as well as some indication of where we stand and the potential way forward on each of them. That is not an indication that we will accept all of them, as there may be issues that we want to highlight. However, it is important that we give a formal response and that there is a formal handover to my successor, who will have direct responsibility for employment and learning in the new Department for the Economy.”
“<BR /> <BR />Before I make some more detailed comments, I want to assure Members that I will ensure that my Department continues to work in partnership with others to deliver, where possible and with the resources available, the best service that we can to meet the needs of people with a learning disability or learning difficulties. In particular, I want to give Members the commitment that, before its meeting on 16 March, I will respond formally to the Committee with my Department's initial position on each of the report's recommendations. I am very conscious that we are coming to the end of the mandate, and I do not want to leave the issue hanging.”
“Parents are rightly focused on what is in the best interests of their children; they do not distinguish between which Department is responsible for what programme or which Minister is accountable for which service. Parents see their children as having particular needs and government as having a moral, as well as a formal, obligation to provide whatever support is necessary. Indeed, it is not only government but society in general that has an obligation to those young people. We should not underestimate the role that the community and voluntary sector plays in helping the statutory sector to deliver specialist programmes and services. Often, the community and voluntary sector is much better placed than either government or the statutory bodies to understand, support and generate meaningful progress in disadvantaged sections of our society.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I welcome the report, which brings the Committee’s inquiry to a conclusion. I commend the Committee for this substantial piece of work, in which it has been engaged for the best part of the past two years. Through it, the Committee has listened to the views of many individuals and organisations and has collected and assessed the evidence provided. I wish to pass on my congratulations to the members and staff of the Committee for their endeavours. I also appreciated the opportunity afforded to my Department to brief the Committee and to attend stakeholder events during the very wide-ranging inquiry, which cut across a number of Departments. <BR /> <BR />The Committee will agree that these issues are very complex and affect some of the most vulnerable young people in our society.”
“We also had an independent panel, chaired by Brian Ambrose from Belfast City Airport, which brought business and educationalists together to produce recommendations. We are trying to service the needs of individuals, to provide them with informed and impartial careers advice and to ensure that companies are confident that we are investing in the foundation stone of the economy and that they get advice in areas that are relevant to their emerging needs.”
“As the Member will be aware, the Minister of Education and I launched 'Preparing for Success 2015-2020', which is the joint careers strategy between our Departments. It is the culmination of quite a lot of work over the past number of years. I recognise the Member's contribution as a member of the Committee and that of the entire Committee to the inquiry that it took forward as part of that policy development piece, right through to the Employment Bill, which passed its Final Stage this morning. We have seen the evidence that that inquiry produced, not least in the new statutory duty on the Department around careers advice.”
“<BR /> <BR />As a full supporter of a lower level of corporation tax, believing that it can transform our economy for the future, it is nonetheless important that we have a proper plan in place to make sure that it will be a success. It will not be a success without that plan. That means investing in infrastructure and in the right level of skills, and that requires us to ensure that we are investing in our colleges and universities and in apprenticeships in sufficient volume to meet the expectations of potential employers, either inward investors or those from Northern Ireland who wish to grow right here in their domestic economy.”
“There is an issue for us, particularly around immigration. We need to look to flexibilities in the existing immigration policies that pertain in Scotland but not currently in Northern Ireland. We are very much driven by the needs and the definition of the economy in the south-east of England rather than the needs of Northern Ireland. We will meet our skills requirements through people coming to Northern Ireland from elsewhere. In many ways, that is a positive sign that we are open to the rest of the world and attractive for people to come to, and we can take encouragement from that. We also have to ensure that we are developing the local skills base.”
“<BR /> <BR />In particular at this time, as we are seeing a lot of fear and division emerge across the world, including in Europe, it is important that Northern Ireland say with a loud and progressive voice that we want to welcome refugees to our shores, that we will very much value them and that we want to see them play an active role in our society.”
“I thank the Member for his comments. As the Assembly will appreciate, a number of people have come to Northern Ireland either to seek asylum or as refugees. The refugee population, although not exclusively, has people from Syria. We need to see a cross-departmental response, and I believe that the Northern Ireland Executive are very much seized of that. It is important that all Departments play their part. Our commitment to free English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes is very much part and parcel of that. That applies to all asylum seekers and all refugees, irrespective of where they have come from, and, hopefully, we will make that commitment.”
“That comes at a price, however. The money is not being spent in England on those, so we do not get the Barnett consequentials coming across. We therefore have to find those resources out of our own budgets. There is always an ongoing challenge to ensure that we are directing the necessary investment to our different institutions. We have fallen short in that regard over the past number of years, and I have deep concerns about the sustainability of our higher education system as a result. Some very difficult decisions will have to be taken, and it looks likely that the most viable political route for the Executive is to ensure that we are channelling sufficient resources into the system more directly, as Scotland has sought to do. That will be a challenge, and it has to be an immediate priority for the incoming Executive in May.”
“What we are proposing for part-time and master's degree study is additional to the existing student support regime. We hope to access loans from the Treasury through annually managed expenditure. We are waiting for a sign-off on that before we proceed with any formal announcement on supporting postgraduate study. <BR /> <BR />There is a much wider issue with student support and its sustainability. I think that there is a broad consensus in the Assembly that we want to facilitate students as best we can and that we do not want to tinker with the student support system, whether for tuition fee loans or maintenance grants.”
“<BR /> <BR />We have consulted on one very particular issue that faces us all in the UK on how we encourage more people to do taught master's degrees and, subject to receiving Treasury approval within the next couple of weeks, it is my intention to make a similar announcement to the one that we made about part-time study in relation to master's degree study.”
“I thank the Member for his comments. We have already discussed part-time study, but there is also a need for us to encourage more people to engage in postgraduate study. Already a number of studentships are awarded through the universities to support people, primarily to do PhDs. That is important. We have seen major developments, over the past number of years, in where Northern Ireland stands in the knowledge index, which creates the number of PhDs per capita across the 12 regions of the UK.”
“So it is important that we do everything that we can to ensure that we have the skills base. Invest NI shares that aspiration, and my officials are working very closely with it to address the situation with Bombardier. We have a number of ideas that we want to put to it tomorrow morning, and I will get in touch with the Member afterwards to outline where the matter falls.”
“The Member will know what I am talking about. <BR /> <BR />Moving on to a very serious point, I am absolutely committed to working with the company to ensure that we do everything that we can to get that pipeline of young people coming through. It is important that we have a critical mass of trained apprentices for the aerospace sector. <BR /> <BR />My Department and Invest NI will work very closely with Bombardier on the current situation, and we hope that we will turn the situation around. We have already had assurances that Bombardier will have a long-term future in Northern Ireland. However, beyond Bombardier, we have a much wider supply chain and we also have the potential to grow the sector over the next 10 to15 years, with the potential for a billion-pound industry to emerge in Northern Ireland.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am very impressed by the way in which the Member has embraced the arts in the last number of years. As someone who was historically viewed, by his own definition, as a bit of a philistine, he has now, no doubt through his role on the Committee, reached the dizzy heights of being a connoisseur of the arts.”
“So there are issues that we want to put to the company over the coming days, and I am more than happy to write to the Member after the meeting to give him a more detailed read-out as to the direction in which things will be moving.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have also had a meeting with the trade unions about this, and they are obviously concerned as well about the loss of the apprenticeship programme with the current suspension and what it means for refreshing and replenishing the workforce.”
“I thank the Member for the question. As the Assembly will know, Bombardier has historically been one of the flagship companies for apprenticeship training in Northern Ireland for many years, and it has very regrettably taken the decision to suspend its apprenticeship programme. <BR /> <BR />By coincidence, I am meeting representatives of Bombardier tomorrow morning to discuss some of those issues, including what can be done with training opportunities. We do not want to lose that route of bringing more young people into the aerospace sector, which is so important to the future of our economy.”
“That is not exclusive to either gender, depending on which occupation we are looking at. Construction fits into that just as much as anything else.”
“Absolutely. Indeed, gender and some other equality issues are key features within the apprenticeship and youth training strategies. We want to ensure that we are open to people from all different backgrounds, and, in particular, are trying to break down some of the stereotypes that revolve around some jobs. <BR /> <BR />To put it into a wider context, today I was at the Titanic building for the launch of National ICT Day as part of the Bring IT On campaign, as we are trying to encourage more schoolchildren to consider careers in the IT sector. That is another area where the sector has been very heavily male dominated historically. If we want to truly compete in the global marketplace, we need to make sure that we are fully bringing through the local marketplace of talent.”
“The Member will be aware that there is a strong infrastructure in place through the Construction Industry Training Board, for example, and through different groups that lobby on behalf of the sector. That will push well for the development of new frameworks in those areas. <BR /> <BR />As demands change in key sectors, employers are incentivised to respond to ensure that we meet their particular demands. The infrastructure will be in place to facilitate that.”
“Starting from the general first, we have new strategies in place for apprenticeships that will run from level 3 through to level 8 and for traineeships at level 2. Those will be fully operational from September 2017, and we are in the pilot phase for different aspects of those. <BR /> <BR />At present, we have the outgoing ApprenticeshipNI and Training for Success contracts. Those are very deliberately designed to ensure that we are providing opportunities for young people and the skills required by employers. We expect that employers will now be in the driving seat in determining where training will occur. <BR />We are working to put a sectoral partnership in place that will relate particularly to the needs of the construction sector.”
“<BR /> <BR />There is also a major development advancing in Enniskillen, we have recently concluded an investment in Bangor and there are potential plans for the North West Regional College's campuses in the north-west. A lot of capital projects are building up in the works, which is good in many respects because we are investing in a modern estate, but, being realistic, I do not see Newry advancing to the front of that queue. There is a lot of backlog in the system to work through already. But, by all means, the college can keep making the case.”
“I certainly understand the logic and rationale for seeking further investment in the FE estate in Newry, and I would not discourage the college, in any shape or form, from making representations. However, to be realistic, we have a fixed amount of capital coming down the tracks. At present, the amount of potential investment in the FE estate is probably going to exceed any likely future capital allocation to the new Department for the Economy. <BR /> <BR />To put this into context, in addition to the three campuses in the Southern Regional College area alone — Banbridge, Armagh and the new one in Craigavon, which replaces the colleges in Lurgan and Portadown — we have recently approved a business case for the Northern Regional College, which has not had any major investment for quite some time.”
“Over the next four years, my Department will provide funding for major construction projects in four of the colleges. In addition, the Department allocates capital funding to colleges to carry out minor works across their estates. Colleges are able to set their own priorities for minor works, providing their statutory and legal requirements in relation to health and safety and other areas are met.”
“At this time, my Department has no immediate plans for major capital investment in the Newry campus of the Southern Regional College. However, my Department is currently providing £91 million of funding for the college to develop new campuses in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon. In developing the outline business case for the project, the college decided that its estate in Newry should not be included within the scope of the business case as it had received previous investment and was in a condition to meet the needs of the college. <BR /> <BR />The Department has limited capital funding available to meet the needs of all six FE colleges, and funding is allocated to projects on the basis of need, as evidenced by approved business cases.”
“That has been very much hardwired into the strategy and will be a key focal point for implementation over the years ahead.”
“The Member will appreciate that we have a range of interventions in that regard. For example, there are flexibilities in the current Training for Success programme for young people with a range of disabilities and those with caring responsibilities. Beyond Training for Success, those flexibilities are also reflected in how FE colleges and universities respond to the particular needs of young people. <BR /> <BR />In the new system, a very heavy focus is being placed on meeting the individual needs of young people, and there will be a much stronger focus on pastoral support. The very particular issues or barriers that young people face will be factored into the approach that will be taken by employers and, indeed, the various training providers.”
“Through the new model, employers and participants will be in the lead, having the choice of which provider to use, supported by impartial advice from my Department's Careers Service to ensure that the young people make informed choices. <BR /> <BR />The content of traineeships will also be guided by employers. We have already set up employer groups to help us develop a new training system through a series of sectoral partnerships and an overarching interim strategic advisory forum. Future traineeships will be available via a web portal that will allow employers to advertise, and participants to find, suitable opportunities. I have assigned a £15 million budget for the next financial year to drive the continued development of the new systems of apprenticeships and youth training through 2016 and beyond.”
“The new youth training pathway offers great opportunities for participants to gain the skills they need to enter the workplace and provide a strong foundation for long-term employment and education. In September, 16 traineeship pilots were launched across a range of occupational areas, including engineering, ICT, construction, health and social care, business administration, and hairdressing. Approximately 250 young people are taking part in the pilots. Initial feedback has been extremely positive. <BR /> <BR />Implementing the strategy will establish a high-quality network of providers capable of delivering the off-the-job training associated with traineeships. Further education (FE) colleges, employer providers and other high-quality non-FE providers who meet our quality standards can be part of that network.”
“I am pleased to report that my Department has made significant progress in implementing the new system of youth training and apprenticeships.”
“The second aspect is the question of whether there are circumstances where the requirement for the teaching qualification is not making any sense. We are talking about, for example, some very narrow recreational activities or some health and safety aspects. We are potentially looking at that, and those are some of the issues that we are reviewing with a view to having an outcome before the end of March.”
“I thank the Member for his comment and question. We are fully alert to the comments that we have received from a range of stakeholders around the teaching requirement. This has been put in place not out of any notion of creating an unfair or high bar but to ensure that people right across the training and education landscape are trained by people who are suitably qualified. That said, we are conscious, probably in two different directions, of the need to consider potential flexibilities. One is around the timescale in which people can avail themselves of the need to get qualifications and the capacity of the system to respond to that, although I am assured that the capacity is there nonetheless.”
“My officials are working with ESF providers to develop a policy paper to examine where any justifiable flexibilities may lie in relation to the teaching qualification requirement. They are working to conclude this exercise before the end of March. However, it is important that the rationale for the introduction of this requirement is clearly understood.”
“I am confident that this combination of short-term measures has gone a significant way to addressing the backlog of claims and will soon bring the managing authority to a position where it can efficiently vouch each individual claim as and when it arrives. <BR /> <BR />My Department’s key priority in developing any element under the current programme is to ensure that the participants receive the best possible training and education available to them. The primary rationale is to ensure quality throughout education and training, and we cannot and should not lose sight of the fact that it is the participants in ESF projects and, therefore, the quality of training that they receive that should remain our primary focus.”
“<BR /> <BR />In order to ease cash flow issues for the new projects, I have agreed to my Department implementing an interim measure whereby 100% of the European social fund and DEL contribution in unpaid claims is paid now and vouched later. Applying this process has alleviated the initial financial pressures that the projects have experienced, and work continues apace to ensure that all claims are subsequently fully vouched in line with audit requirements. In tandem with this, the Department has brought further staff into the ESF managing authority to assist with the vouching of all claims.”
“I am pleased to report that all 66 projects under the 2014-2020 programme are now fully up and running, with the programme providing funding of £112 million, which will significantly contribute to the programme’s overall target of supporting 42,000 people. Many of the projects have been operational since April last year, while some other EU-funded programmes from the 2014-2020 funding round, both here and in other parts of the UK, have yet to initiate their application processes. As the first year of the programme draws to a close, I am also pleased at the level of match-funding support that my Department has been able to provide for a significant number of projects.”
“Equally, there may well be people who feel obliged to engage in the world of work, given their domestic circumstances, but want to improve their life chances and to do a degree. Hopefully, we will facilitate them as well.”
“I agree with the Member on all of the points that he has made, apart from the bit about upsetting Mr McCarthy, who probably agrees with the comments that the Member made as well. He is very resilient, our Mr McCarthy. <BR /> <BR />The Member is right: this is there to appeal to a wide range of people from different backgrounds. There is a major issue of widening participation on the back of this, where we can better support people in a range of work or, indeed, domestic contexts. That includes, for example, as the Member outlined, single parents, who may see doing a full-time degree as impossible to combine with their caring commitments. Part-time study then becomes a very viable option.”
“It is pragmatic to ensure that what we do is fair and workable for those who will take advantage of this. In the main, we have sought to ensure that we were in line and in parity with the full-time counterparts, but that will not always be the case. People will be in work while they do this, which might be a slightly different context from those in full-time study. It is important that we also reflect that in how we construct the repayment framework.”
“I thank the Member for the question. I very much agree with him. It is about widening higher education to a range of groups. That will support people in work to avail themselves of higher education. <BR /> <BR />Across the UK, we have seen a major drop in the number of people doing part-time study with the support of their employer. That was, perhaps, one of the first casualties of the economic downturn over the best part of the past decade. Hopefully, through what is a revised form of support, we will encourage and facilitate much greater numbers of people to avail themselves of part-time higher education. If we are to be competitive, we have to upskill our population, so this is critical.”
“That would be part-time study, so it allows us to offer wider support in the implementation of the strategy. In that way, we will deliver fresh opportunities not only for students but for local employers and, therefore, our economy.”
“I thank the Member for his comments and for recognising that we are being innovative in Northern Ireland with the grant and loan approach, which is not offered in other parts of the UK. We have a relatively small part-time study footprint. We are trying to widen higher education to a much broader range of students from different backgrounds and age groups. We are moving away from the notion that a student is an 18- to 21-year-old in full-time higher education, so it is important that we encourage people into higher education. <BR /> <BR />It also allows us to support emerging strategies, in particular the new apprenticeship strategy, where we are looking to provide the skills that companies require. It will now be possible to do a degree-level apprenticeship whereby someone is employed and learning on the job while studying at university.”
“<BR /> <BR />Introducing that improved support is not only a matter of social justice but an economic imperative as we contend with increasing skill demands and the need to upskill and reskill our existing workforce. The new loans, subject to the Student Loans Company implementation, should be available from the 2017-18 academic year.”