What goes around comes around

Editorial: SCOPE November 2005

The collection of volunteer bureaux and social service organisations (later to be known as the voluntary and community sector), represented by the Northern Ireland Council of Social Service, was complaining about how Ministers were ignoring its views.

The issue in question was about giving the new District Councils responsibility for community relations, an item that is again on the agenda. Ironically, the 26 Councils had just been created out of eight local authorities and government is now planning to return to seven councils.

In general there have been huge improvements. Niall Fitzduff (p18) talks of the paternalism of those younger charitable bodies, built on a pre-welfare state model. People came to them as clients, not as contributors to the solution for themselves or their areas.

Traces of this remain but there has been a huge growth in what might loosely be called citizenship; people believe they have a role to play in defining the problem and finding ways of dealing with it; they expect to be consulted about the drafting and implementation of official policies.

There is a much more widespread acceptance of the notion of equality; human rights have been more firmly entrenched in society and there is at least tacit acceptance that social inclusion is a good thing.

Northern Ireland is a much more peaceful society than in the dangerous mid-1970s and, though we still blighted by sectarianism and paramilitarism, recent developments bring much hope. And, of course, this is a more prosperous place now than ever before, if only we could learn to share the wealth better.

Felicity McCartney (p14) feels we have lost the centrality of volunteers and the sheltered environment that allows confidence to be built. Her list of gains includes building skills in the voluntary and community sector and the fact that thousands of people have become better and more informed citizens, to the extent that Northern Ireland can and does contribute to the rest of the world. This is crucial as the Make Poverty History campaign continues to focus on the vast inequalities that cause famine, poverty, illiteracy and death in developing countries.

Closer to home, we cannot be complacent about our own inequalities; there is real poverty in Northern Ireland and one cause is the existence of too many people who lack the confidence and skills to find work that will pay a good wage.

As government rightly begins to tackle the problem of economic inactivity, it must learn from the lessons of the past. Over the last 30 years, there have been many schemes to get people into work, from Youthways and Youth Training Programme through to ACE and New Deal. We have learned much from these but seem unable to apply it to find a programme that works well for the most disadvantaged groups.

New Deal (p12) may have reached the end of its useful life. In the early years it helped many long-term unemployed adults to find jobs but the task is increasingly difficult and those who remain are seen as increasingly 'challenging'.

We are doing them no service by churning them through New Deal, sometimes for the third and fourth time, only for them to return to benefits. The Preparation for Employment Programme seems singularly useless; at present only 2% of people on PEP are moving on to sustained employment. Let's remember that ACE was criticised because only 40% found jobs.

New Deal has the classic features of such schemes; in general it works quite well in areas where there are plenty of jobs but badly in areas of high unemployment. This means it may be helping to perpetuate inequality both on a geographical and religious basis.

The voluntary and community sector has learned a lot over 30 years on how to reach these very disadvantaged individuals, whether they are officially unemployed or on incapacity benefit. It must be right for government and the sector to begin talks on creating a training and employment programmes that will meet their needs.