Jennifer McCann
West Belfast · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“I have listened to the answers that you have given. What steps will you and your Department take to address the issue? As you mentioned, quite a percentage of schools are failing to meet the entitlement framework requirements. What actual steps will your Department take?”
“I begin by echoing what my two colleagues said: we will oppose the motion and support the DUP amendment. <BR /> <BR />I welcome the general direction of travel of the draft area plan. It puts the needs of children and young people at the heart of the planning process.”
“I want to say again — we have had this in debates — about the excellent results in my constituency of West Belfast in educational outcomes. It clearly shows that, when the right intervention is made in those areas, the children shine and their potential comes through.”
“It is not just about their academic achievements but about giving them the skills to deal with life's problems and difficulties. <BR /> <BR />The plan also seeks to close the attainment gap. That issue should be of great concern to all of us and the wider community.”
“I hope that in the final area planning it will be. I have seen it at first hand with programmes like New Start in west Belfast. We all want children to go to mainstream education, but, for whatever reason, mainstream education just does not suit some children's needs and does not do it for them.”
“It is not just about school buildings, but school buildings sometimes can be crucial, particularly in an area where, for instance, they do not have sporting facilities in a school. The Minister will be aware of the campaign in the Colin area of west Belfast for a new school.”
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“We aim to launch our consultation before the end of the year based on the responses received during consultation, and we will liaise with the OFMDFM Committee and develop the consultation document into a final strategy for publication following approval by the Executive.”
“We are engaging with the main childcare stakeholders in a detailed co-design process to develop the content of the full, final Bright Start childcare strategy. To date, that has included one-to-one consultation meetings with the childcare sector, all of which are now completed. Childcare strategy development workshops involving all the main stakeholders will explore further the emerging key themes and issues. The first of those took place on 3 October. Following the workshop stage, the Department will publish a consultation document setting out policy proposals for childcare. Consultation will include public consultation events and a request for written responses.”
“The real source of the financial difficulties that we are in today is the result of the Tory Government reducing the block grant from 2011 in real terms by £1·5 billion. We are facing into year four of those cuts, and we will see that being the case with all sorts of funding. I agree with you about victims and survivors funding being crucial. I have met a number of organisations and, indeed, individual victims along with junior Minister Bell in recent days, and we have to look at where those services are being cut, but we also have to remember that this is a result of the Tory cuts to the block grant and is the type of thing that we are seeing being played out and cascading down to impact on vulnerable people and vulnerable groups in our society out there.”
“I know that the Member will be aware that, as this is a live recruitment process, it is not possible to comment any further.”
“As the Member will be aware, the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors, Kathryn Stone, left her post on 12 June 2014. Our officials are currently working through the processes to appoint a new commissioner. The appointment will be regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and will follow the code of practice for ministerial appointments. The process will be taken forward by HR Connect, and advertisements recently appeared in newspapers. The closing date for applications was 12 September 2014, and interviews will take place in the week commencing 13 October. The Victims and Survivors Forum was consulted on the skills and qualities needed for the role, and that was taken into consideration when finalising the necessary skill sets for the incoming commissioner.”
“As I said in my answer, there have been efficiency savings of 4·4% right across all arm's-length bodies. Unfortunately, the bid that was made in June monitoring was not met, and that is why we are very optimistic that it will be met in October monitoring. Therefore, the funding cuts that you are talking about had to be implemented in the previous period. We are committed to ensuring that funding is protected for the services that are being delivered to those victims and survivors who need them.”
“<BR /> <BR />To protect front line services, and in line with the levels of efficiency savings being sought from our Department and its arm's-length bodies, the Victims and Survivors Service is seeking a 4·4% reduction in administration and in funding to groups. The Victims and Survivors Service has been working with groups to help them find the efficiencies needed, and the service itself has been able to make efficiencies in its running costs to mitigate the impact on its front line services. We remain optimistic that a bid for additional funding for the Victims and Survivors Service will be successful in October monitoring. Funding for victims' services has increased over recent years, with £50 million being allocated for victims during this budgetary round.”
“We fully acknowledge that the needs of victims and survivors have to given high priority, and we will continue to work to ensure that they are. We are committed to ensuring that the victims and survivors' budget is protected, and, to that end, we have a bid for £1·3 million in additional funding in October monitoring. We have raised the issue directly with the Minister of Finance and are confident that the budget will be protected at the same baseline — £11·3 million — as in the previous financial year. However, we are also aware that there has been an increase in the number of victims and survivors coming forward to the service.”
“SIF provides a real opportunity to bind those projects together and enhance outcomes, while addressing the gaps that exist.”
“We all acknowledge that working in silos does not work, and, yet, for too long, that is really how business has been done. The social investment fund cannot operate in isolation and must integrate and add value to other key policies and initiatives. For example, SIF projects will need to align with the Executive's child poverty strategy to help alleviate poverty among our communities. We are all too aware of the expected projected rise in child poverty levels, and family poverty levels more generally, due to austerity cuts, which are unacceptable. We want this money to make an impact and address evidenced, objective need where there is a clear deficit. There are also clear links to neighbourhood renewal, education, regeneration and employment programmes, and investment and other initiatives in rural and urban areas.”
“As I said, to date, there are 23 projects, with a total commitment of £34·4 million, across all the social investment zones. As of 1 October, a further 12 projects, valued at £18·8 million, are at final-stage approval. Of that, £12·3 million is for capital projects, and it is expected that those projects will soon be issued a letter of offer as well. There is certainly a further strand of SIF money coming soon.”
“East Antrim is part of the northern zone. A number of projects were prioritised in the northern zone area plan. Indeed, contractors are on site at one of those capital projects, the Causeway rural and urban network capital project, which is the development of a charity hub in Coleraine. In addition, a key revenue project, employment fuel poverty, has just received a letter of offer. That project, worth £1·8 million, will help insulate homes and reduce heating costs in deprived areas in the 10 current council areas across the zone, including in East Antrim. Details of all projects prioritised in the funding allocation for each of the nine investment fund zones are available on the OFMDFM website.”
“We cannot allow the Official Secrets Act or any national interest certificates to be used to hide the truth or to prevent the disclosure of any evidence, as that will only result in another cover-up. <BR /> <BR />The victims and survivors of Kincora were let down by the state as children, and we cannot allow them to be let down now as adults. They have the right to truth; they have the right to a thorough investigation of the crimes that were perpetrated against them. I hope that all parties will stand united and be their voice today and come out to support the motion. Go raibh maith agat.”
“Even more startling in respect of Kincora are the reports that the intelligence services not only knew it was going on at the time but chose to allow it to happen and to deliberately block any investigation, as they were using the knowledge of a paedophile network operating there as a means of gathering intelligence and protecting informers. It is difficult to imagine anything worse than a paedophile network knowing that it could get away with whatever it wanted to do to abuse vulnerable young children because it was being protected by the security services at the time. That shameful practice illustrates the need for a proper independent investigation that has the powers and the remit to access the files and information held by the British security services that allowed the abuse to happen.”
“Indeed, some individuals have gone even further and gone on public record claiming that they reported the abuse while it was happening but investigations by the authorities at the time were deliberately blocked. That has to be a concern for us all. To date, only three members of staff at Kincora have been charged and sentenced, and at least one of them is alleged to have been an agent for British intelligence. <BR /> <BR />I reiterate: all forms of abuse against children are wrong and should be condemned, no matter who was responsible or where the abuse took place. The abuse of children in care is an attack on our most vulnerable children, as they have no one to protect them or to speak out on their behalf.”
“I feel that an independent investigation would be better, but, that said, I support the motion. <BR /> <BR />As Members have said, we hear on a daily basis from the historical institutional abuse inquiry in Banbridge details of horrendous and horrific abuse and sexual exploitation of children. The testimony that is being given by witnesses is clearly saying that those children, who were in the care of the state, had no one to turn to. Even when they tried to speak out about the abuse, they were often not believed and were sent away. In the case of Kincora, there have been persistent claims of a cover-up of what happened and claim after claim that members of the British security services, high-profile politicians and civil servants, among others, were involved in the abuse and sexual exploitation of young boys who were in the home.”
“I thank the proposer of the motion and hope that today's debate will shine a light on a very grave injustice that saw young children left to the mercy of a paedophile network. That was all in spite of it being known and, indeed, covered up by the British security services. At the outset, I express my admiration for the victims and survivors of Kincora and, indeed, any victims and survivors of this type of abuse. The way in which they have come forward to try to highlight their case is admirable. I also pay particular tribute to the proposer's colleague Naomi Long MP, who has raised this issue on several occasions. <BR /> <BR />I too voice my support for the motion for Kincora to be included in the Westminster inquiry, but I also want to express some concerns that have already been expressed about the state investigating itself.”
“So, we are very keen to talk to Mrs Long first to see whether there is any way in which we can help those women who have come forward.”
“Yes, I can tell the Member that I am very aware of the statement by Naomi Long over the weekend. She put out a statement and has said that more people have contacted her in recent days about being abused by members of the British state forces here in the 1970s. I can tell the Member that we have asked for a meeting with Mrs Long to discuss that, but we also want to ensure that any of those women who have come forward are covered and will be able, in some way, to avail themselves of the services of the historical institutional abuse inquiry. I do not want to go into it in great detail, but we have seen the way in which the British state has spent decades covering up the activities of its intelligence service here in Ireland, and we have seen it more recently with the cover-up around the Kincora institution.”
“I think that they deserve justice and truth as well. We are trying our best to look at that.”
“Yes, we are very aware that there are a number of people who fall outside the remit of the inquiry. Obviously, we are keen to make sure that the inquiry continues. We actually had consultation with a number of people. For instance, women who were over 18 when they entered an institution are not covered by the inquiry. Indeed, anybody affected by wider clerical abuse who was not in an institution is not covered. However, we are certainly very keen. We have asked our officials to bring forward recommendations and to look at them. Judge Hart, who is the head of the inquiry, is adamant that he does not want to widen the terms of reference of the current inquiry. However, I have written to him to see whether there is some way that we can look after those women, particularly those who were over 18 at the time.”
“Two hundred and sixty teachers are employed for this, and there is a focused, targeted approach towards those children who need support in the classroom. So we are seeing that, and we are seeing it right across the board in some of the signature programmes. But I think we need to go out and see it and to talk to the teachers and to the children and, indeed, to their parents, which we have done.”
“I can tell the Member that junior Minister Bell and I visited a number of schools where the newly graduated teachers have been employed through the Delivering Social Change signature programme. From talking to those teachers, I know that they have seen improvements in the classroom, in the children themselves and in the school environment. There has been a lot of positive feedback from that. The strategy is still out for consultation, but I believe that we have seen achievements in educational attainment, which is what the Member asked about.”
“As I said earlier, following Committee referral and Executive consideration, we propose to lay a separate child poverty strategy for 2014-17 in the autumn and to allow the 10-year strategy for children and young people to continue until 2016. We propose to work with stakeholders, using a co-designed process to develop a new strategy for children and young people post-2016, and this work will begin shortly.”
“The 'Delivering Social Change for Children and Young People' consultation document was published in January 2014. It sets out proposals to integrate the child poverty strategy with the 10-year strategy for children and young people and to work to deliver our commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The consultation closed on 31 March, and an analysis report was compiled. <BR />Most respondents welcomed the proposals, but some stakeholders wanted more time and more engagement with them to develop an integrated strategy. We have listened to our stakeholders and taken their views on board.”
“You also need to look at the whole family when you are looking at child poverty, because we cannot see it in isolation. That is what we are trying to do with this new anti-poverty, or child poverty, strategy.”
“Relative poverty is when your income is 60% below the average household income. Absolute or persistent poverty is when you are in that type of poverty totally. You can measure levels of poverty, and that is what we are trying to do with this new poverty strategy. Rather than getting figures that have been massaged, we are trying to ensure that the indicators are outcomes-based. The slight decrease in child poverty over recent times is the result of the average household income coming down, as opposed to any impact being made on child poverty. That is why we wanted to look at child poverty outcomes. Measuring child poverty is about looking not just at household income but at educational underachievement, educational attainment, health inequalities, access to play and access to services for children.”
“We developed the Delivering Social Change framework to ensure that poverty is tackled in a holistic way, but all Departments have responsibility for poverty. Indeed, every Member in the House has a responsibility for tackling child poverty. <BR /> <BR />In one of my earlier answers, I mentioned the launch of the first phase of the Bright Start childcare strategy. The grant scheme is already creating and sustaining childcare places and working towards tackling poverty. DARD also does work through its poverty framework. So, a lot is being done by Departments. Are you asking me whether it is enough? I think that we all need to do more. As we go forward, everybody — all Departments — working together under the Delivering Social Change framework needs to do more.”
“As I said, we are very concerned. I understand that, even now, we are seeing an increase in the number of families using food banks and in the number of crimes in supermarkets, where people are stealing food. Some work has been brought forward in Departments. OFMDFM, for instance, has made funding of £13·56 million available over the three financial years from 2013 to employ an additional 230 recently graduated teachers through our Delivering Social Change framework.”
“Reports commissioned by the Children's Commissioner's office indicate that, because the North has a relatively large proportion of households with children and higher numbers of children with a disability, the North will lose more income than any other region outside London. We are, therefore, very concerned about the coalition Government's austerity measures and the proposed welfare cuts.”
“I am very concerned about the predicted rise in child poverty levels as outlined in a recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report carried out for OFMDFM and a similar report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies report shows that, across Britain, families with children are hardest hit by welfare cuts. The report also states that child poverty levels here will rise to 30·9% and 38·5% respectively for relative and absolute child poverty. We have seen how welfare cuts are affecting families in Britain, particularly families with children. We have even more families with children here, and we have families with larger numbers of children.”
“It aimed to integrate the child poverty strategy into a wider strategy to improve outcomes for all children and young people. The majority of consultees welcomed the proposals. However, some of our stakeholders wanted more time and engagement to develop an integrated strategy. We have taken the views of our stakeholders fully on board and have decided to lay a separate child poverty strategy and to engage further with stakeholders on the development of a new strategy to replace the 10-year strategy for children and young people post 2016. We plan to lay a child poverty strategy for 2014-17, following Committee referral and Executive consideration, this autumn. That strategy will be informed by the consultation and the child poverty outcomes framework.”
“The Executive's child poverty strategy, 'Improving Children's Life Chances', was published in March 2011. In 2012, the Executive launched the Delivering Social Change framework to tackle poverty and social exclusion. That framework established a mechanism for cross-departmental action in Delivering Social Change signature projects that have been launched to target action where it is most needed. In October 2013, we published the child poverty outcomes framework, which was the result of several years' work to develop a model in which every Department could understand its role in tackling child poverty. <BR /> <BR />A review of the current child poverty strategy was carried out from October 2013 to January 2014. We subsequently published a consultation document, 'Delivering Social Change for Children and Young People', in January 2014.”
“I have details of the £12 million. In 2011-12, £3,222 was allocated to the fund. In 2012-13, £1·482 million was allocated from the fund. Again, in 2013-14, £692,000 was allocated from the fund. I can give the Member details of where those specific allocations are, but I do not have time to go into them here. If the Member wants, I can write to him with those details. For example, in the last year, PlayBoard got £652,000 and £40,000 went to the Department of Health. All of that went towards delivering childcare services for people in local communities. As I say, there are quite detailed amounts. I will write to the Member with those details.”
“As you said, the coalition Government propose to introduce a new scheme to provide financial support to help working families with the cost of childcare. The purpose of the new scheme is to enable those with responsibility for children to take up paid work or to work for longer. We are in the process of looking at the scheme, but no definitive consultation has happened yet. Part of our proposals for Bright Start are to ensure that all parents and carers are informed of all the schemes in respect of the childcare element of working families' tax credit and the vouchers. Part of Bright Start is to do that, so we will be looking to roll that out.”
“I do not have the exact figures for the different sectors that you mentioned, but I can say that they are all from the social enterprise sector. The reason for that is that we are very clear that any surplus moneys are reinvested for more service provision to create more places and not for the distribution for owners. I do not have the exact figures here, but I can assure the Member that a number of those childcare places are in a rural setting.”
“All 77 applicants to the grant scheme have now been advised of the outcome of the assessment process. No new or existing setting was required to deliver its places by 1 September this year, but we expect most of the settings funded under the first call to be operating by the autumn. All the 40 childcare settings that are currently financially assisted by OFMDFM have applied for funding under the grant scheme, and those that were successful will continue to operate when their current funding ends on 30 September.”
“The Bright Start school-age childcare grant scheme aims to create or sustain up to 7,000 school-age childcare places in low-cost social economy settings. Those will begin to address current unmet need for school-age childcare services. Some 77 applications were received under the first round of applications for the scheme, which closed in May. A second call for applications for the scheme projects will end on 30 September 2014. <BR /> <BR />The childcare partnership strategic funding panels have assessed the 77 applications and agreed that 50 met the selection criteria. The settings that will be funded will sustain 1,165 school-age childcare places and create 326 new school-age childcare places. The 50 successful applications represent funding of some £1·9 million, to be paid over a three-year period.”