Sian Mulholland
North Antrim · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“Members from different parties recognised that our justice system must continue to evolve and continue to have children, young people and victims at its heart. What, we know, works to reduce offending and create safer communities has that support. <BR /> <BR />Not every contribution reflected that approach.”
“I will use my final Member's statement before recess to reflect on the work of the Ten is Too Young Coalition and all those who have worked so passionately to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR), including Voice of Young People in Care, the Children's Law Centre, NIACRO, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Childre…”
“We so often hear calls in the Chamber for legislation that is evidence-led, data-driven and compliant with our human rights obligations. Those are principles that I wholeheartedly support, but they cannot be principles that are applied only when they are convenient. Children's rights are human rights too.”
“<BR /> <BR />The triggering of the petition of concern mechanism was a misuse of a mechanism that was designed to protect minority rights. Here it is, blocking change designed to protect those who are most vulnerable.”
“Safeguarding falls within your remit, Minister. We know that, but we also know that it is the responsibility of each and every one of us. That is part of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. Faith-based counselling is not subject to the same regulation as other clinical counselling services.”
“Thank you, Minister. I am glad to hear you say that the role played by social workers is "complex and challenging". From what I hear from those who have contacted me, social workers are stretched to capacity. What is the Department doing to address that?”
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“I rise today to talk about the abuse of the protective mechanism by one party in this Chamber. I got involved in politics 15 years ago because, at my core, I believe in social justice. I believe that it is the duty of every single one of us to fight for a fairer and more equal society. When, in 1998, the majority of our communities and society in Northern Ireland voted for the Good Friday Agreement, that is exactly what they voted for. They voted for a fairer and more just society. That is why, at the time, we needed protections such as the petition of concern. We needed them so that decisions could not be imposed on one section of our community and to encourage power-sharing.”
“<BR /> <BR />The debate is directed towards the Health Minister, but I recognise that it does not fall on the Health Minister alone. It lands at everyone's doorstep, but I encourage the Minister to use the Children's Services Co-operation Act 2015 to find willing Executive partners to pool resources and invest in the early intervention that, we know, works.”
“Can the Minister give us a timeline for what the beginning of the process will look like and what the implementation of the model will look like? <BR /> <BR />Finally, my ask to the Minister tonight is, I hope, simple: will he ensure that early intervention and family support in North Antrim is visible, accessible and properly resourced with a clear pathway from that first concern right through to support? It needs to have a serious focus on poverty, given that his Department is part of the Executive and part of the anti-poverty strategy. Will there be rural access and a commitment to learning from the models that I have mentioned, such as the Western Trust's family response service and the Southern Trust's diversion pilot?”
“The proposed level 2.5 enhanced family support service would sit between that community early intervention help and the statutory social services, which is precisely where, too many families have told us, they fall through the gaps. If it is delivered really well, it could strengthen family support hubs. It could embed family support workers and provide earlier multidisciplinary help. <BR /> <BR />It was welcome to finally hear today the Finance Minister announcing the Together for Families model being funded by the Assembly and by lottery funding. The original timeline was for it to be up and running by September, but that will not be possible given that the funding for it has only just been announced.”
“That work has dealt with child-to-parent violence, school assaults, sexting, substance abuse and, indeed, mental health issues, but it focuses on family relationships, emotional well-being, community connection and support around a child. <BR /> <BR />My point here is simple: when we have models of really good practice across other trust areas and intervene early, we can reduce risk, stabilise families and prevent children from being drawn much more deeply into the crisis systems. For me, those models should not be exceptional. They should not be based on a postcode lottery. There should be a standard that we can learn from for families in North Antrim. <BR /> <BR />The Department's Together for Families model is a really positive opportunity.”
“On the day that I met him, which was after that sustained, relationship-based support funded by the Department of Health, he was back in full-time education and the threat against him from dissident paramilitaries had been lifted. That is an incredible achievement through a joined-up working approach under the same roof, using all resources that were available to the Department of Health. Again, however, that is a postcode lottery. That is not happening across every trust. <BR /> <BR />I saw a similar principle in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. I visited early intervention work being done through the family support hubs. Youth justice created a route for children to get support before it escalates into formal justice intervention. That was funded through the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust.”
“<BR /> <BR />The outcome of that work was really powerful. Families were linked into the community services. That even included connecting in with GPs and health visitors. Families then reported increased confidence in professionals, in social work and in their relationships with the social care system. Antisocial behaviour reduced, and threats against families were lifted. I met a really articulate young man and his mother who had taken part in that service. They told me that it had changed their entire world. Before that intervention, he was under threat from the paramilitaries. He was not engaging in school. His mental health was really poor.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have also seen some really promising work in other trusts that shows what early intervention can achieve when it is practical, relationship-based and delivered before escalation. I visited the Western Trust up in Creggan, where the family response service uses its funding from the Department of Health and the Western Trust. It supports families during the week and at weekends, using youth practitioners alongside family support workers and social workers to build trust with the young people and their families. It does not wait until the family reaches breaking point. It works earlier on a whole-relationship, holistic approach with the child. It works with young people who are at risk of family breakdown, exploitation, antisocial behaviour and, indeed, paramilitary threat.”
“That is exactly why bringing that support together, whether it is through a family-centred model or a strengthened early intervention pathway, really matters so much across North Antrim, particularly for a rural constituency where access and transport are a big deal as well. Bringing services under one roof could be part of the answer in North Antrim. The Minister has spoken about it. Action for Children has spoken about it. They want to develop a family centre in Ballymena. At Ebrington, the Western Health and Social Care Trust's early intervention support services provide short-term, whole-family support for children aged from nought to 18 who face challenges around school, behaviour, family difficulties, development or health. That is the kind of accessible, relationship-based model that we should be ambitious for in North Antrim.”
“There is a bottleneck in the system, and early intervention is one of the ways to unblock it. <BR /> <BR />Castle Tower School is a good example of how joint working between Health and Education, with speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, can unlock progress for children, because behaviour, communication, sensory regulation and emotional well-being are all connected. However, that is one school. It is not a whole trust. It is not a whole-constituency model. Families should not have to rely on being in the right setting to benefit from joined-up support.”
“Thank you very much, Danny. That is pretty much the point that we are talking about: the postcode lottery. I will go into a wee bit more detail on some of the other projects and models that I have engaged on over the past few months. <BR /> <BR />It also applies to harmful behaviours. That is what fed my real interest and input. I met Marcella Leonard, an independent consultant social worker, who pointed to the widening gap in early intervention for children displaying harmful sexual behaviour, interpersonal violence, child-to-parent violence or technology-facilitated harm. Too often, the system there, particularly in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, was responding after escalation rather than therapeutically when the warning signs first appeared. That is the reality.”
“Poverty persists, it becomes parental stress, and parental stress becomes family conflict. That can then affect a child's emotional well-being, behaviour and development. In some cases, it leads to intervention by the police and justice system. What began as a need for early help can then involve bringing in schools, health visitors, nurses, doctors, social workers, CAMHS, crisis services and, in some cases, care proceedings, all of which puts more and more pressure on our social and healthcare system. By that stage, the cost is far greater financially for the system and emotionally for the child and the family. Harm has become entrenched, relationships are fractured and the opportunity for earlier, cheaper and more humane support has been missed.”
“At first, the issue may be that the electric is running low or the family needs an emergency food parcel. Then the school raises concerns about behaviour or attendance. Then the child is presenting as increasingly anxious, distressed and dysregulated. The family will be signposted in so many different directions, but nothing feels clear. Support and services feel too far away and too hard to reach by public transport. Often, they are just too difficult to navigate for a parent who is already in a pressurised situation. <BR /> <BR />Referrals can be made to CAMHS or for ADHD or autism assessment, but families are now being told that they could be waiting months or, more likely, even years for the help that they need. While a family waits, life does not stand still.”
“What we are seeing across North Antrim and Northern Ireland is that need is widespread and increasing. Eligibility can still be based on old geographical boundaries and historic patterns of deprivation. New housing estates have been built and communities have changed, but children who need support may well be missed. <BR /> <BR />Poverty is yet another major pressure. When I visited the Trussell Trust food banks in Ballymena, it was clear that poverty is on our doorstep. Families are dealing with all sorts of housing pressures, fuel costs, childcare costs and the cost of the school day. Those pressures are not separate from a child's well-being; they absolutely shape it. I have constituents ringing my office with the same awful experiences far too often.”
“Some services cannot be accessed without the formal diagnosis, even when parents know exactly what they are seeing at home. Families who can afford it go private, but many simply cannot. That builds unfairness into the system from the very start. For that family, early intervention did not feel early. A child's development does not pause when a family navigates that referral process, the thresholds and the waiting lists. Most importantly, that window for support can be missed. <BR /> <BR />Action for Children also raised concerns with me about increasing special educational and additional needs. Those teams are adapting, but they require higher staff-to-child ratios due to safeguarding. If commissioning and funding do not reflect that complexity, services will be asked to do so much more with the same resource.”
“They experience one family, one child and one urgent need for help. I have heard from a constituent whose child's developmental concerns appeared very early and very suddenly. Her child's speech regressed at just 15 months. It happened rapidly over the course of a week. She did everything right: she contacted the GP immediately and tried to seek help as early as possible. The autism diagnosis did not come until her child was almost three. That gap matters. Parents are told repeatedly that early intervention is crucial, particularly before the age of five when so much of the brain's development is taking place, yet, in practice, many families are left with little or no support while they wait for that official diagnosis.”
“Their message was really clear: the model is good and the staff are committed, but the need and complexity are increasing, and demand is greater than supply. I recognise that Sure Start is funded through Education, not Health. However, it is highly relevant to this debate, because most health-related needs are first identified through Sure Start, health visitors, school nurses, GPs and family support services. There might be a speech and language delay, developmental concerns, a parental mental health issue, emotional distress, poverty or wider family stress. The question that I am asking, and the question for Health, is this: what happens next? <BR /> <BR />Parents do not experience their child's needs as an education issue one day, a health issue the next and a social care issue the day after that.”
“In Ballymena and the Mid and East Antrim and Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council areas, we have dedicated staff working in Little Steps Sure Start, family support hubs, health visiting, school nursing, the children's early intervention service (CEIS), child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and community and voluntary organisations. However, for me, the question is whether families can access the right support quickly, locally and before crisis. <BR /> <BR />I recently engaged with Action for Children and have done so throughout my time as an MLA. It runs services across the Northern Trust area, including the Choices family support service, the family support hubs and Ballymena Little Steps Sure Start, which I have visited.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am really grateful for the opportunity to have an Adjournment debate on access to early intervention and family support services in North Antrim. The debate is about families who are trying to get help early before difficulty becomes crisis. However, too often, they find a system that is fragmented and overstretched and find that it is really difficult to navigate their way through the quagmire of different bureaucratic processes. <BR /> <BR />North Antrim is not without services, and I pay tribute to those who work in those services.”
“<BR /> <BR />I support the report, and I urge the Minister and the Executive to act on its recommendations in full.”
“and that is a right and proper ambition, but, for communities such as mine, it has to be more than just a slogan. It has to be backed by targets, funding, local delivery solutions and structures capable of changing lives and a focus on the life-cycles of individuals, because the experience of poverty is not linear. The final anti-poverty strategy therefore has to be measurable, properly resourced, co-designed with people who are living in and experiencing poverty now and delivered in genuine partnership with local government. It has to put councils and community planning partnerships at the heart of delivery, not just at the margins. People do not live in silos, and they do not simply need help to survive poverty; they need a real and genuine route out of it.”
“Thank you. <BR /> <BR />Absolutely; it has to be owned across the Executive, by the stakeholders and particularly in partnership with our councils. <BR /> <BR />Councils cannot be treated as optional consultees or convenient delivery partners. They have to be placed on an equal footing with the Department for Communities in the delivery of the strategy. Councils know where the poverty is. They know which organisations already carry out effective engagement. They know where the transport gaps stop people getting to work, where advice services are under pressure and where local interventions already hold families together. They cannot do that work properly on short-term, competitive, last-minute funding. Poverty is long-term, and the response has to be long-term too. <BR /> <BR />The Programme for Government aims to have:”
“We need secure, fairly paid work with enough hours and flexibility for parents and carers and real accessibility for disabled people and others facing barriers to employment. That is particularly important, again, in my area of Causeway Coast and Glens. The local labour market partnership has identified economic inactivity, unemployment, disability employment and skilled labour supply as key priorities. The economy inactivity rate is 30·1% when the Northern Ireland average is 26·3%, and the area has the lowest employment rate in Northern Ireland. That is why the anti-poverty strategy must be directly linked to good jobs, skills, childcare, disability employment support and regional economic development.”
“It has to recognise regional imbalance, rural poverty and particular pressures facing communities such as Causeway Coast and Glens, where housing, transport, low pay, seasonal work, childcare and skills gaps interact to make people feel trapped in poverty. <BR /> <BR />The strategy also has to recognise that, while the Minister frequently references getting people into work, work alone is not the route out of poverty. The JRF has shown that the majority of people in poverty now live in working households, including 64% of children in poverty and 60% of working-age adults in poverty. Work is not the only route, although it is one of them. Almost half of workers have experienced low pay in the past five years. Yes, we need jobs, but we do not need just any jobs; we need good jobs.”
“<BR /> <BR />The report is clear that councils are already delivering vital anti-poverty work from hardship funds through to social supermarkets, labour market partnerships and local advice networks. Right now, however, they are doing that work without clarity, authority, funding or the status that they need and deserve. The draft strategy has to do more to recognise councils and community planning partnerships as central delivery partners. That matters in all constituencies and communities, but, in my council area of Causeway Coast and Glens, where poverty is not hidden, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's (JRF) latest analysis estimates that 23% of people live in poverty — the second-highest rate of any council area in Northern Ireland. That shows why the anti-poverty strategy cannot be generic.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Communities Committee's report on engagement with local government on the draft anti-poverty strategy. First, I thank the clerking team for all their hard work in taking forward my suggestion to compile the report, once we realised just how valuable the contribution of councils was to the conversation. I support the report and its recommendations. It reflects exactly what all of us have heard from councils, advice workers, community organisations and families, who tell us every day that poverty cannot be tackled from a desk in Stormont alone. It has to be tackled in our towns and villages and our rural communities alongside the people and organisations who understand those communities best.”
“That lack of understanding can follow people into the personal independence payment (PIP) system, where scoring often fails to capture urgent toilet needs, pain, fatigue, blood loss, side effects and the fear of leaving the house. People who are already exhausted by illness should not have to keep proving that they are struggling. <BR /> <BR />On IBD day, I thank Mark not just for sharing his story with me but for always showing up and fighting to use his experience to make things better for others.”
“Our constituents are needlessly sitting at home — bent double in pain, wrapped around a toilet, bleeding, exhausted, frightened — and waiting. When a flare starts, quick support can make the difference between managing it at home and ending up in crisis. <BR /> <BR />Mark also raised with me the lack of psychological support linked to IBD clinics. The IBD standards recognise that patients should be assessed for mental health, fatigue and other symptoms beyond the gut, yet only 19% of people with IBD in Northern Ireland said that they had been asked about their mental health. <BR /> <BR />IBD is a hidden and fluctuating disability. Mark has been challenged for using accessible toilets and a blue badge, because he does not look disabled, which my father, who, for most of my life, had Crohn's disease and a colostomy also experienced.”
“It also shows how timely care matters. Some 50% of people waited more than four weeks, after speaking to a primary care practitioner, to be referred to a specialist.”
“He talked about the impact beyond his bowel: liver disease, arthritis, eye problems, mouth ulcers, skin problems, weak teeth, osteoporosis, constant pain and the effects of losing blood over and over again. That is a lot for one person to carry, and it is made so much harder because so much of it is hidden. The general public simply do not see the fatigue. Mark described it as being not just tired but completely exhausted while not being able to sleep because of pain or having to go back and forward to the bathroom through the night. They do not see the fear of a flare starting and not being able to get help quickly enough. There is simply no respite. <BR /> <BR />Sadly, Mark's story is not unusual. A report by IBD UK found that more than 17,000 people in Northern Ireland live with Crohn's disease or colitis — around one in 114 people.”
“Today is World Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Day, and I want to speak about my constituent Mark. I have known him for quite some time, and he has campaigned about IBD issues in Northern Ireland for almost 20 years. <BR /> <BR />For Mark and thousands of others, IBD is not something that you can fix by popping a pill from the medicine cabinet. It is not just a dodgy tummy or a bout of diarrhoea. It shapes your entire day and night: whether you can leave the house, work, sleep, feel safe going somewhere new or will be believed when you say that you are ill. <BR /> <BR />Mark told me about running to the bathroom 30 or 40 times a day. He talked about the lifelong cycle of appointments, medication, tests and colonoscopies.”
“Thank you, Minister. The Minister will know that I have a personal interest and passion in breaking the cycle of child poverty. What targeted interventions will you and your Department put into the next version of the strategy to address the rising rate of child poverty?”
“We cannot keep allowing funding cliff edges to hollow out our voluntary and community sector, and we cannot keep losing the very people who know what works and how to deliver it. Then we wonder why services collapse. <BR /> <BR />This is about people; it is about dignity; and it is about prevention, opportunity and hope. I thank the SDLP, once again, for bringing the issue to the Chamber. We support the motion and the amendments.”
“Organisations were notified late in the delivery year, days before Christmas. That is absolutely no way to treat a sector that delivers essential public services that, in reality, should have been properly and sustainably funded on a statutory basis. <BR /> <BR />Northern Ireland is particularly exposed when it comes to the work that was being delivered by the sector. We have the highest economic inactivity rate in the UK. We have a very specific set of circumstances here and the lowest employment rate for disabled people. We do not have access to the same alternative programmes that are available elsewhere, like the DWP's Connect to Work. A capital-heavy model is simply not fit for purpose.”
“Thank you very much, Kellie. <BR /> <BR />When EU structural funds ended after Brexit, the sector was promised that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would replace that support. That transition brought instability, delays, uncertainty and a really damaging loss of the workforce. Organisations lost staff, and programmes were paused or closed. There was a loss of institutional memory, community knowledge and hard-won expertise. Now, with the transition from the UK SPF to the local growth fund, we are repeating the same mistake. When experienced youth workers, employment advisers and community mentors leave, they do not simply wait for the next funding round. They move on, so the sector loses knowledge, relationships and know-how. There has been no proper consultation with the community and voluntary sector and no published impact assessment.”
“However, the blame for the design and implementation of this particular fund lies squarely on the shoulders of the UK Government.”
“I can understand how the sector feels that frustration. We feel that frustration. You hear it in the House as well, Matthew.”
“As someone who came through the Youth Service, I can, hand on heart, attest to that work being life-changing and live-saving. <BR /> <BR />Action Mental Health has warned that more than 80 of its staff may lose their jobs and that 900 people will no longer receive support next year. Its chief executive, David Babington, said that lives will be lost here. That is the reality of that cut.”
“It cannot simply be paused and restarted when a funding stream changes its name. That is why the UK Government's handling of the local growth fund is so utterly damaging. The new model does not reflect Northern Ireland's needs. You cannot mentor a young person with a capital budget, support someone who is going through suicidal ideation with bricks and mortar or help a disabled person into employment if the specialist worker who truly understands their situation has been made redundant. <BR /> <BR />YouthStart shows what that means in human terms. Funding for the seven YouthStart partners is being reduced from £3 million to just £1·08 million. That programme has supported over 1,500 young people a year. Youth Action has said plainly that young people's lives are changed and, in some cases, saved by that intervention.”
“vulnerable people and communities across Northern Ireland. In many cases, those organisations are delivering essential public services — services that people rely on every single day that should be properly and sustainably provided for with long-term funding by the Executive. <BR /> <BR />Every day, voluntary and community organisations support the people who are furthest from the labour market: people with disabilities, carers, women who face barriers to work, young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), people who live with long-term health conditions and those who deal with addiction, homelessness, family breakdown, isolation, domestic abuse, severe mental health challenges and debt — the list goes on. That work is skilled, relational and built on trust.”
“I support the motion and the amendments and I recognise the immense social and economic value of Northern Ireland's voluntary and community sector. We need to stop talking about the voluntary and community sector as though it were somehow separate from public service delivery, because it is not; it is so intertwined. As Youth Action has described it, the sector is:”
“Like everyone else, I put on record my admiration for Katie's friends and those who loved her and her family. The Minister knows that I am really interested in safeguarding. There have been many failings in that area over the last while. Can you give us a bit more information about what changes in safeguarding, particularly in equestrian settings, you will bring in with this?”
“Minister, do you agree that, where domestic abuse and coercive control are present, the starting point must be the child — their voice and point of view — and that there should not be an assumption that contact with a parent is always beneficial?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. As he said, there is a real fear among registered school-age childcare providers that the draft strategy simply places greater emphasis on non-health and social care trust-registered provision in school estates. Settings such as Loughgiel Community Early Years in my constituency have been in touch with the Department to express their concern about that. <BR /> <BR />Minister, how will you ensure that quality, staffing ratios, workforce qualifications and meaningful play opportunities are protected and not diluted in the new strategy, while acknowledging the work of non-statutory providers?”
“Does the Member agree that there has to be a multidisciplinary approach and that early intervention would save money down the line and, hopefully, save lives?”
“Minister, many in the arts sector say that you talk the talk, but they are still waiting for you to walk the walk. This has been going on for so long. They have waited for so long for the policies. What is the hold-up? Why is your Department not bringing forward these policies in a timely manner?”
“Thank you, Minister. Given that the puffins arrived on Rathlin a couple of weeks ago, can you give us an update on the seabird conservation strategy, given that it links so much to the work of the LIFE Raft project?”
“On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. First, may I ask for a ruling from the Speaker under Standing Order 17 around speeches in the Assembly and order in the Assembly on whether correct protocol was followed, as David Honeyford was not asked to discontinue his speech? <BR /> <BR />Secondly, may I request a ruling from the Speaker on whether the ruling of irrelevancy on David Honeyford's speech was appropriate, given that he was referencing his potential causes of the cost-of-living crisis, which is directly mentioned in the motion?”
“How do we recognise their value, not just culturally but economically? If we get it right, the cultural, social and economic returns will speak for themselves.”
“That matters, because, without intervention, we risk losing the very spaces that nurture our artists, animate our towns and cities and enrich our communities. We also risk losing opportunities, particularly for young people, to participate in music, be that as performers, workers or audience members. <BR /> <BR />The report, which is being launched in the Long Gallery today, shows clearly that grassroots venues are not just nice to have. Rather, they are essential infrastructure in our cultural and creative economy, and, like any infrastructure, support, strategic thinking and long-term planning are required. The question therefore for us as policymakers, and for the Minister for Communities and the Minister for the Economy, is this: what do we do next? How do we ensure that venues are sustainable?”