Culture: New year honours list
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012Fifty-five individuals from Northern Ireland have been recognised in the new year honours list for their service to society. Across the UK, 984 awards were announced. Order of Bath Companion (CB) Carol Patricia Moore, lately director, justice policy, Department of Justice Order of the British Empire Dame Commander (DBE) Professor Judith Eileen Hill CBE, chief executive, Northern Ireland Hospice Commanders (CBE) Catherine Elizabeth Bell, deputy secretary, Department for Employment and Learning Professor Jack Crane, state pathologist Officers (OBE) David William Best, director...[full story]
Tags: Culture
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Voluntary: NICVA-risks of welfare reform
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Lisa McElherron warns that welfare reform will hit the poorest hardest. The welfare reforms currently working their way through Westminster have been widely described as the most radical shake-up of the social security system in over 40 years. With the aim of simplifying the benefits system, improving work incentives to encourage the move from benefits to work and reducing administration costs, the implementation of the changes will impact upon a significant percentage of the working age population in Northern Ireland. No one can argue that the present overly complicated and bureaucratic...[full story]
Tags: Voluntary
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Draft Programme for Government: Sharing
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Ministers suggest action on ‘peace walls’ and shared education but language and the past are two major obstacles. The Executive claims that “much progress has been made” in creating a shared and better future and it “remains as committed as ever” to achieving that. However, the first step of its “Building a Strong and Shared Community” chapter relies on three separate sports stadia projects, rather than the single one proposed under direct rule in 2006. The whole community can unite around the World Police and Fire Games in Belfast (1-10 August 2013) and plans for a major...[full story]
Tags: Draft Programme for Government
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Energy: Fuel poverty update
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Stephen Dineen assesses the problem and plans to combat it. The level of fuel poverty in Northern Ireland has been revised downwards following a Department for Social Development-commissioned study. The University of Ulster study revised the 2009 figure of 44 per cent figure to 13 per cent (75,000 households), using a new method of calculation. Previously, the threshold was set at twice the median amount of household income that families in England spent on heating their homes in 1991 (10 per cent of household income), to maintain an acceptable temperature in their home. The study says...[full story]
Tags: Energy
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Care services: Overview
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Care services will have to change and adapt to a rise in older people. Preventing poor health can reduce future demands. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Northern Ireland’s population is set to age, with an 18.6 per cent increase in over 65s between 2011 and 2020 and a 42 per cent increase by 2025. The population of children (under 16) will increase by 4.3 per cent and every working age person will have the equivalent of three children or four pension age dependants from now until 2020. These trends, from NISRA’s statistics, will have implications for all health policies, especially residential...[full story]
Tags: Care services
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Care services: Age NI – Fixing social care
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Age NI believes Northern Ireland’s social care system is broken and a new revised system is long overdue. The Compton Review has provided a much needed platform to debate social care provision in Northern Ireland because the situation for older people in receipt of social care is already at crisis point and a new revised system is long overdue. Age NI believes social care is the linchpin for wider health care provision, if we get it right everything else will fall into place. A system promoting low level services that enables older people to remain in their homes for longer and reduces...[full story]
Tags: Care services
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Care services: Adoption reform
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Adoption legislation must be updated to provide more children with a family. Meanwhile, alternatives are being considered to reduce the number of children in care. Meadhbh Monahan reports. An Adoption (and Children) Bill is expected to be brought to the Assembly in 2013 aiming to speed up the process of placing children in care with a permanent family. It currently takes approximately three years and six months for a child to be adopted from care in Northern Ireland, while in England children wait an average of two years and seven months. The Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order was passed...[full story]
Tags: Care services
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Care services: Palliative care funding
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011As people live longer, often with chronic conditions, hospices will have to treat more patients while being forced to raise most of their funds. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Palliative care is provided by five voluntary organisations in Northern Ireland: the Northern Ireland Hospice, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Care, Foyle House Palliative Care and St John’s House Southern Area Hospice. They offer inpatient beds, respite care and bereavement services free of charge to patients referred by their GP or hospital. Children with life-limiting illnesses receive nursing care and...[full story]
Tags: Care services
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Care services: Age Sector Platform – health priorities
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011The Northern Ireland Pensioners Parliament finds that one in three older people are worried about access to health and social care. Health and social care was one of three key areas discussed at a recent debate at Parliament Buildings, which was attended by around seventy Members of the Pensioners Parliament (MPPs). The debate, which took place in the Senate Chamber, followed on from the highly successful Northern Ireland Pensioners Parliament held earlier this year which saw twenty four motions being passed by older people from across the province. The debate at Stormont, which took...[full story]
Tags: Care services
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Care services: Safeguarding children
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Protecting and promoting the welfare of children is now to be overseen by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland. agendaNi reports. A Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland is to be established in April 2012 after the Safeguarding Board Bill was taken forward by former Health Minister Michael McGimpsey and received royal assent on 10 February 2011. While voluntary and statutory organisations currently work together to safeguard children (for example on the Regional Child Protection Committee), this is now a statutory requirement. The Safeguarding Board will replace the committee....[full story]
Tags: Care services
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