Why we are bringing Scope back to life

Scope magazine's final printed copy, March 2008

NICVA Chief Executive Seamus McAleavey looks back at the last print edition of Scope and explains why it is being re-launched today.

NICVA last published Scope magazine as a printed copy back in 2008.  The cost of publishing the magazine was getting too much for our limited resources but we valued Scope and thought we would move it online.  We did set it up on CommunityNI but it never really worked and that was partly our fault in that we really didn’t understand how to transfer a magazine to a new medium or have the right resources to support it.

Now we think we are in a better place and we are ready to give it a go. NICVA, as publisher, wants Scope to be a place for informed social policy debate, a place to generate and air ideas, views and critiques.

Looking back at the articles in the last issue they featured issues like child poverty, calls for an Environmental Protection Agency, EU funding difficulties, equal pay, reproductive rights, childcare and the relationship between government and the voluntary and community sector. All issues that are still in the mix today.

But perhaps the most telling comment can be found in the last Scope editorial. Written soon after the return of devolution it noted “there is a lingering doubt that the vision is not quite right… There are too many signals that Ministers do not want to upset rate payers and tax payers and too few signs that it will take robust action to end disadvantage and exclusion.”   Politically, Northern Ireland is back in talks again, we need an accommodation between the parties that puts a sound political operating system in place or devolution will not survive.

I hope you like the new Scope, we are delighted that Nick Garbutt has agreed to be Editor; he will bring his journalist’s independence and editorial skills to Scope 2014. A unique and important feature of Scope in the past has been its editorial independence from NICVA.  It’s a feature we value and it is a key priority for us in how we take the current format forward. So when we say the views contained in Scope are not necessarily the views of NICVA we mean that. Let’s all share in the debate.

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