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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“The Member will be aware that we had long consultations with people on the voucher scheme. We are also looking at the new scheme coming in with that. The childcare voucher scheme will still be available for people who have it at the moment. In terms of the overall childcare strategy, that is exactly what we are trying to do. We are trying to provide childcare in a way that targets the people who most need it. The key issue that will affect families with children is the cuts to tax credits that the Westminster Government are talking about bringing forward. That will impact on over 120,000 families here in the North. On average, each household will lose up to £1,000 a year. That is a big part of the household budget that will be taken away.”
“The Member will be aware that, as I have said before during Question Time, the 15 key first sections of the draft childcare strategy were to look especially at training for people who work with children with disabilities. In some of the conversations that I have had when I am out speaking to some of the childcare providers, that has been an issue. Therefore, provision is made there for some organisations that deliver that, particularly to children with disabilities, to avail themselves of money to train their staff to an adequate level so that they can work with children with disabilities.”
“Officials are looking at the issue of childcare as a whole. I am not sure what you are talking about in relation to the Barnett consequentials, and I will come back to you with a definite answer on that. However, our officials are in close contact with officials in the Westminster Government to see how anything that happens there can be developed and brought forward here.”
“Once the strategy is agreed, we will take forward each intervention separately, supported by a detailed business case and implementation plan.”
“<BR /> <BR />In the context of expanding on early care and childhood development initiatives, the Executive's draft childcare strategy is open for public consultation until 13 November. The draft childcare strategy has two high-level aims: to promote child development and to enable parents to join the workforce. Each of those will, in turn, contribute to enhanced levels of economic activity, greater equality and social inclusion and reduced child poverty, thereby delivering social change. <BR /> <BR />The draft strategy proposes 22 separate interventions or actions to give effect to the Executive's vision for childcare. Our proposals will be finalised only on the basis of the feedback that we get from a range of stakeholders, including parents, practitioners and policymakers.”
“With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer questions 6 and 10 together. <BR /> <BR />We are aware of the provisions of the Westminster Childcare Bill, which will increase the amount of free preschool childcare available to working parents in England. The Executive have committed to provide a year's funded preschool education to every family that wants it. A full-time preschool place is 22 and a half hours a week, while a part-time place provides 12 and a half hours a week. The primary purpose of the preschool education programme is educational and focused on the development of the child. A positive consequence is that parents can enter the workforce. While, currently, there are no plans to extend the number of hours provided under the preschool education programme, that does not preclude consideration of such provision in the future.”
“The consultation on the active ageing strategy has taken place, as you know, and it is ready to go to the Executive for approval. We worked very closely with the advisory group on the strategy and the Commissioner for Older People. The responses to the consultation on the age goods, facilities and services (GFS) legislation are currently being processed. The consultation actually does not finish until 8 October, which is this week. Obviously, we will look very carefully at what people have said when the responses come back. Once the responses to the consultation have been assessed, we will look at how to take that forward and make our response.”
“In terms of financial support, the Department has received a proposal from the Age Sector Platform for the Department to joint-fund the Pensioners' Parliament with Atlantic Philanthropies for the next two years, and this proposal is currently under consideration.”
“Former junior Minister McIlveen and I spoke at the Pensioners' Parliament in Belfast on 28 May this year and, in addition, I spoke at the Pensioners' Parliament in December of last year that was held in Parliament Buildings. The then junior Minister Bell and I launched the public consultation on the draft active ageing strategy at the Belfast Pensioners' Parliament earlier last year and we spoke at, and held a session at, the Pensioners' Parliament in 2013 to seek views on the proposed signature programmes contained in the draft active ageing strategy. <BR /> <BR />We are fully supportive of the work of the Pensioners' Parliament, as our engagement with it shows.”
“We believe that it is vital that the voices, views and experiences of older people are heard and taken into account by government in the designing, delivering, monitoring and implementation of all strategies, policies, legislation and services which impact on the lives of older people. Engagement with the Pensioners' Parliament is a vital way in which Ministers and officials can discover older people's precise needs in relation to the range of services provided by government and its arm's-length bodies. <BR /> <BR />Former junior Ministers Bell and McIlveen and I have regularly been involved in sessions of the Pensioners' Parliament since its launch in 2011.”
“It is clear that a child not having enough to eat because the family does not have enough money to feed it, a child living in a damp house or in inadequate housing or not having a computer to do homework, that all those things will all have an impact on the life chances of that child in later life. So, it is very important that those measurements of income and deprivation are there.”
“As I said in earlier answers, you cannot divorce child poverty from poverty in families. It is very important that, when we are looking at measures of poverty, we look at low income but also at deprivation. Those measurements, in my opinion, are probably the two most important when looking at child poverty. There are other measurements, such as educational underachievement, health inequalities and everything else, but I think that, when we are looking at child poverty, we need to look at family income and particularly deprivation among children in those families.”
“The Government have indicated that each devolved Administration can decide whether or not to propose amendments to the provisions in relation to their duties and statutory obligations. <BR /> <BR />In line with Scotland and Wales, we have agreed the proposals of the Department for Work and Pensions. We are considering the potential impact of the positive work carried out to date locally to address the circumstances that cause more of our children here in the North to face poverty and the impact of poverty on their lives. The Executive's approach to child poverty will not be determined by the Bill that is currently before Parliament.”
“On 1 July 2015, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, announced that he will bring forward legislation to amend the Child Poverty Act 2010. Mr Duncan Smith and the Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, wrote to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister following that announcement to outline the potential proposed amendments. <BR /> <BR />On 9 July, the Westminster Government announced a Welfare Reform and Work Bill in Parliament, which aims to put the new proposed approach into law. The Bill includes clauses to remove the duty on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to meet the four current statutory targets and to enact a new approach to tackling child poverty in England.”
“As I said in my earlier answer, we have had a number of meetings, over a long period, with different individuals, the four main Churches and religious orders to discuss the issue of redress. We have also had meetings with Professor Kathleen Daly, who came from Australia to talk particularly about redress and to try to develop a redress model. That work is ongoing and, while we cannot pre-empt the recommendations that will come out of the inquiry, we are hopeful that a parallel process, in which work gets done, will carry on alongside that when those recommendations are made.”
“I have spoken to that young fellow's family. Really we have to say that killing — I am talking about historical institutional abuse here. For any child to suffer such abuse, no matter what institution they were in, was horrendous. The death of any child, no matter what the circumstances are, is very tragic.”
“As I said, we have had discussions with the First Minister's side on this, so we will be looking to pursue that and make progress on it to see where it goes.”
“The Member has made a very valid point. The deputy First Minister's office has made its views very clear on the options it would like to see, such as those around the mother-and-baby homes and the Magdalene-type laundries. We believe that there should be a separate inquiry into that. It is essential, particularly for the women who were over 18 and were in those institutions. We feel that there should also be an inquiry into wider clerical abuse. Even in the options around redress, we have already had a number of meetings with the Churches and different religious organisations about that and, more importantly, with the people who were directly impacted. All those issues are being discussed.”
“Officials have completed a scoping exercise in relation to mother and baby homes, the Magdalene laundries and clerical abuse, which we are presently giving careful consideration to.”
“The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was initiated by the 2009 Assembly debate about historical institutional abuse of children. Its terms of reference refer to children under 18 years. It was on that basis that the inquiry was designed and its chairperson and panel members appointed. <BR /> <BR />We are sensitive to the views of those who have suffered abuse who fall outside the scope of the current inquiry and we are mindful of the equally destructive impact that it has had on many people. To consider amending the scope of the terms of reference at this stage would undermine the work that has already gone into reaching this critical juncture of the inquiry.”
“The development of the strategy was a co-designed process, as the Member will know. We have been out talking directly to stakeholder organisations that provide childcare. More importantly, we have been talking to parents who need that childcare. All that has been costed within those proposals. As the individual actions are rolled out and delivered, we will have to look at an economic case for that. Certainly, there have already been costings, and the resources needed will be very easily identifiable within those.”
“To answer your first question about funding, between 2011 and 2015, a budget of £12 million was to be ring-fenced in support of the childcare strategy and £4·7 million has already been allocated and, to date, £3·4 million has been spent. Money has been spent. OK, not all of it has been spent but, at the same time, this is all going to be part of the strategy. <BR /> <BR />I also remind Members — this is very important — that this is an Executive childcare strategy, so all Departments have responsibility for it.”
“To answer your last question first, I do not think that it is a failure of OFMDFM. We are going to see from the Westminster Government not just welfare reform but cuts to tax credits, which will hit families and actually put people out of work. More people will be out of work because of the decrease in tax credits, which will very much come to the fore. <BR /> <BR />In terms of funding —”
“They cannot be separated; they have to be seen in a holistic way.”
“<BR /> <BR />We also know that investment in the early years leads to greater economic, social and emotional benefits later in life at an individual and societal level, and it can counter the effects of that disadvantage and deprivation. That includes children in workless households as well as working households. We need to make childcare more affordable. That is essential because 70% of children in poverty are in families where at least one parent is working. It is very clear that we need to ensure that those low-income families are provided for as well. <BR /> <BR />Just last week, we had child poverty figures published in DSD's 'Households Below Average Income' report. Again, there has been a three-point rise in relative child poverty. We cannot separate child poverty from poverty and families. That is very clear.”
“As I said, it is important that disadvantaged children and disadvantaged families are included in the strategy. As I said in my response to the substantive question, a central aim is to give all our children the best start in life. Early care and education initiatives, including childcare, should, first and foremost, be focused on the developmental needs of the child. <BR /> <BR />Investment in the strategy must also address the needs of disadvantaged children to ensure better life chances for them and help to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. It cannot simply be about servicing a labour market. That is what this particular strategy looks at: it is about the developmental programmes that are there to develop a child and meet the needs of that child.”
“Obviously, we always hope to do more in childcare — you can never have enough childcare — but we hope that this will provide a quality service, an affordable service, which is very important for people, particularly families on a low income. We certainly hope to make those childcare places available.”
“I assume that the Member is talking about Bright Start and the 15 actions. The money has been allocated. Several millions have already been spent in those childcare programmes. I have been involved in situations in which a number of service providers came and got money for different elements of Bright Start and those first actions. We were concentrating on school-age childcare because that is where the need was identified in the beginning. I think that that is getting rolled out. This will complement the childcare strategy, as I said. This is a 10-year strategy. Money and resources have been put into this strategy, and, hopefully, it will be rolled out in the same way as the first actions were.”
“We recognise that that will lead to an increased demand for skilled childcare workers, and we fully expect the current workforce to expand. Workforce development is a key element of the draft strategy, building on the key first actions launched in 2013. There are a number of specific proposals for training to enhance skills and create pathways into working in childcare. We are working closely with the Department for Employment and Learning on the detail of estimating the extent of demand for new training places and the cost of meeting that demand. We are also undertaking a skills audit in each of the childcare partnerships' respective areas. Delivering the childcare strategy and achieving its aims and objectives will require coordinated action from a range of Departments and services.”
“Mr Speaker, with your permission, I will answer questions 1 and 10 together. The Executive's draft 10-year strategy for affordable, integrated childcare is out for consultation until mid-November. It fulfils a Programme for Government commitment and puts child development at the heart of the Executive's vision for childcare. A central aim of the draft strategy is to give all of our children the best start in life, preparing them for lifelong well-being and achievement, thereby creating the basis for a better and more prosperous future. <BR /> <BR />The draft strategy sets out the Executive's vision for childcare, which is one based on shared aims and objectives. It proposes 22 areas of development where action is needed to give effect to that vision and proposes the creation of a significant number of new childcare places to meet need.”
“As the Member will be aware, the Victims and Survivors Service (VSS) is undergoing a review. Several reports have made a number of recommendations. What we heard very clearly from all parties, particularly in the Chamber, is that many victims and survivors of the conflict came forward a while back and said that they felt that going through the assessment process, for instance, was quite traumatic for them and that some of the support mechanisms that were in place could have been better. We will continue to monitor the ongoing review and recommendations, a number of which have already been put in place. We need to ensure that the service is fit for purpose and that people feel that they are getting help and support from it.”
“I certainly will. I encourage anyone who has any information to come forward. It is also important to send that very clear message out to people because we need to ensure that victims of any form of abuse know that they will be supported through that and that the support mechanisms that they need will be there when they decide that they want to come forward. It is also important that we help them when they access justice because they are entitled to justice.”
“The Member is quite right: we should do everything in our power. The deputy First Minister asked, through the North/South Ministerial Council, that we put in place a mechanism whereby people could come forward in a safe atmosphere because the most important thing is that people feel supported and that they can come forward. There are lots of those people out there. It is said, for instance, that, right across the island of Ireland, one in every four people suffers some form of sexual abuse in their lives. It is very important that we support them and have those support mechanisms in place. If we could work that through the North/South Ministerial Council, it would be a way forward for people to have that support mechanism.”
“I do not know whether there will be a SIF 2. The Member makes a valid point about the delays, and I am very conscious of them. We have discussed this quite a lot at Question Time. Because SIF includes other Departments, getting through the economic appraisals and everything else was a lengthy process. The letters of offer and all that are there now. I hope that those projects will come to fruition, because I know that there is frustration for people in the community who want to see something happen on the ground. I am very keen that those projects are driven through as quickly as possible.”
“Due diligence work is progressing for the remaining capital projects, and it is anticipated that they will move to tender for design teams later in the summer. Work on achieving business case approval for the remaining projects is continuing.”
“Expenditure on the social investment fund (SIF) to date is £1,576,366. That includes expenditure for consultancy support provided to steering groups in 2013 to develop their area plans. Of the overall programme, £53·5 million or 67% is now committed to 33 projects across the nine social investment zones. Many of those projects are to roll out over a number of years; therefore, immediate actual expenditure is not desired or expected. However, we are contractually committed to this expenditure, and the funding is ring-fenced and committed to those projects. <BR /> <BR />Expenditure is entering a key phase, with 12 revenue and five capital projects due to start delivery or build in the next few months.”
“Yes. We have been in consultation with individuals and groups representing victims of clerical abuse. When we looked at the issue of people who fell outside the remit of the current inquiry, one thing that we considered was people who were the victim of clerical abuse outside institutions. We will continue in our efforts to reach some sort of position where we can take that forward. <BR /> <BR />Victims of sexual abuse, no matter where it happens, still face lifelong challenges. We need to be sure that, when we consider putting something in place, the terms of reference include people who have suffered this type of abuse no matter where it took place or who the perpetrator was.”
“The Member will be aware that, on 30 September last year, we unanimously agreed that we would rather see the Kincora Boys' Home investigated by Westminster's independent panel. I think that we were all very disappointed when we heard that that was not happening. We have had consultation with the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry and Sir Anthony Hart, and we are conscious that he recently released a joint statement to say that they would be working together. There is also an ongoing judicial review as requested by one of the people who was in Kincora. As I said, we are doing our best to ensure that as many powers as possible can be transferred over, but I share the Member's disappointment that that inquiry is not taking place at Westminster.”
“<BR /> <BR />We are currently looking at all of those options, and, obviously, meeting the people who were directly involved and who were in those mother and baby homes and who had their children forcibly taken off them, in many cases, and put into forced adoptions. We are very conscious that we need to talk to the people who were directly impacted by this and look at whatever option will be best for them.”
“They came back with a number of options, which include the following: extending the terms of reference of the HIA inquiry to include women aged 18 and over who were in mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries; commissioning academic research into mother and baby homes and laundries; establish an interdepartmental working group led by the Department of Health to review the evidence and make recommendations to the Executive; invite the Committee for the First Minister and deputy First Minister to consider and advise on the issue of the mother and baby homes, including the Magdalene laundries; appoint independent experts to review the evidence and provide a confidential listening forum; and establish an independent statutory inquiry into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries.”
“The Member asks a very valid question, because I think we realised that a number of people fell outside the terms of reference. The previous junior Minister, Minister Bell, and I met a number of individuals and organisations in relation to that. As I said, we were aware of it. <BR /> <BR />We asked officials to go away and bring us back a scoping paper that would look at some of the people who fell outside the remit of the current inquiry.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is the view of the inquiry chairperson that the inquiry simply could not cope with some major new area of investigation within the timescales imposed by the Assembly. He felt that considering amending the scope of its terms of reference at this stage would undermine all of the considerable work that has already been done and the effort that has gone into reaching this critical juncture in the inquiry.”
“The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was initiated by the 2009 Assembly debate about the historical institutional abuse (HIA) of children. Its terms of reference refer to children under 18 years of age, and it was on that basis that the inquiry was designed and its chairperson and panel members appointed. <BR /> <BR />Mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries were not established principally for the care of children and had many residents who were over the age of 18. To the extent that the inquiry has received applications from people who spent time in a home of this type here while under the age of 18, those will be considered. Until all applicants have been interviewed, it will not be possible for the inquiry to make a final decision on whether these cases properly fall within the terms of reference.”
“As the Member will know, a number of strategies are being developed. At the moment, we have the sexual orientation strategy, the racial equality strategy and the gender equality strategy. We are pushing forward on those. Junior Minister McIlveen and me attended the gender advisory panel last Thursday. We are hopeful that that strategy will come out very soon. When we are talking about strategies, we need to put the time in to get those strategies right. We need to talk to all the stakeholders involved. I emphasise that a strategy will go a long way to help in some of the issues, but it is about implementing the strategy, not just having the strategy there. The strategy is only as good as its action plan and implementation, so we need to get it right.”
“People have a right to choose who they want to marry, and it is particularly important to send a clear message out to our young people in the LGBT community so that they feel valued and are given confidence and reassurance. We have to do that from this Chamber in particular, but we also have to ensure that we are legislating and that anything that we do here is for everyone, that we are progressive and, at any time, we need to challenge homophobia in any other places where that leads to discrimination and everything else against people, particularly our young people.”
“The Member makes a very valid point. The recent referendum in the South means that the North is out of sync with the rest of Ireland and Britain. We really need to ensure equality and challenge any time when there is discrimination against anyone, no matter what the reason is for it.”
“Certainly, given that, as I said in my previous answer, there has been an increase in that type of hate crime. There have been some debates in the Chamber recently, and there is an onus on a lot of people, when they are speaking, to be very temperate in their language as well, because I believe that we need to send a very clear message to the LGBT community that it has the reassurance that the Executive will ensure that its needs and interests will be addressed by government. To re-emphasise, this process has been delayed. However, we have to redouble our efforts to ensure that the strategy is put in place as soon as possible.”
“I agree with the Member that the strategy has been far too long in coming. As we see and have heard from the PSNI, there has been an increase in hate crime of that type in recent times, and there is an onus on us to bring the strategy forward. As I said, that is what we are looking to do. We are trying to get it brought forward as quickly as possible with agreement on the strategy. I hope to be here saying that that will be brought forward in a short period ahead.”
“Analysis of responses to that 12-week consultation period has been finalised, and the results are being used to inform the content of a draft sexual orientation strategy. The draft strategy is being developed using a co-design process with relevant stakeholders though the sexual orientation project team. A meeting of the project team took place on 15 April, and a further meeting is planned for June. Once developed, the draft strategy will be referred to the Executive for final agreement and publication in draft form. A further 12-week period of public consultation will then take place.”
“Mr Speaker, with your permission, before I answer this question — I am sure that I am speaking for the whole community — I would like to express our support for Paul Finlay-Dickson, whose home was attacked at the weekend in a homophobic attack. I am sure that I speak for most people when I say that it was a disgraceful attack on that man, who is grieving because of the loss of his husband Maurice, who died in January. <BR /> <BR />To answer the question, we have regularly stated our commitment to producing a sexual orientation strategy in the Assembly and in the context of the good relations strategy, Together: Building a United Community. To achieve that commitment, we asked officials to commence a public consultation process. The first phase of that process ended on 6 June last year.”