Joint Forum Panel 19 May 2005

PRESENT

Chris Ball, Lynn Carvill, Niall Fitzduff, Roy Hanna, Patricia Haren, Maurice Leeson (Chair), Olwen Lyner, Marcas Mac Ruairi, Seamus McAleavey, Elaine McElduff, Carol O’Bryan, Wendy Osborne, Denis Palmer, Ricky Rowledge and Zoë Anderson (Secretariat).

1. Welcome

Maurice welcomed everyone to the meeting, in particular Wendy Osborne attending her first meeting in this incarnation of the Panel.

2. Apologies

Apologies were received from Patricia Cooke, Jim Deery, Frances McCandless and Anne O’Reilly.

3. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as accurate.

4. Matters Arising

All matters arising are covered in the agenda.

5. Positive Steps

It was agreed that the publication of the document is to be welcomed, and that the context of discussion had changed since the Panel and Forum last met. The replies from some departments in response to our letter sent in March were noted.

We now need to look at how Positive Steps (PS) will be taken forward and where actions will be taken.

Members felt that the document is rather light considering the long process it has gone through, and wondered where the money will come from to implement the recommendations. What will be consulted on and which recommendations still require further work? A common concern is that there will be difficulties in rolling actions out across departments, and it was agreed that a great deal of promotion needs to be done across departments, their agencies and NDPBs, and across the sector.

Effective monitoring of actions will also be vital to ensuring that the recommendations are implemented, and the proposed Annual Report to the Forum will dictate a large part of future agendas.

Disappointment was again expressed at the stilted nature of the funding debate at the last Forum meeting. An open discussion at the Forum meeting will be helpful, however it could be difficult for working groups to look at additional actions until we know how and when the specified actions will be carried out. There needs to be a specific action plan and clear links to Partners for Change – which actions are appropriate to be carried forward by Partners? Where will other responsibilities fall that are out of its remit? There need to be explicit links between policies, strategies etc as there is such a huge variety of documents that all relate.

Regarding the recommendation around lead funders, concerns were raised at the idea of all responsibility being left with DSD instead of one or more other relevant Departments. What will the determining process be? What steer will be given to departments on the implementation of this and other recommendations? Who will take the lead role in each department in terms of promoting PS and monitoring its implementation across the department? Awareness, on both sides, is crucial. Zoë can provide articles for any members wishing to promote PS in newsletters etc.

NICVA has been tasked with looking at implementation in the sector. NICVA’s Executive Committee is currently discussing it, and NICVA will be holding a seminar for networks on 8 June. It was agreed that a summary of the points we wish to raise will be forwarded to Dave prior to the meeting.

6. Update on PSI report – Carol O’Bryan

Carol circulated the latest draft of the report which she has been working on with Anne O’Reilly and Ricky Rowledge (attached). This exercise was initiated following discussion at the Forum last year on the Anti-Poverty Strategy and concern that the good work done by PSI groups could fall by the wayside. Representatives involved in the groups were identified and interviewed. This is still a work in progress and it is hoped a higher level paper will go to the Forum in the Autumn.

They are happy to receive thoughts on the current paper either directly or through Zoë. It was agreed that good practice and efficiency creates learning which should be shared and that the work of PSI groups complements that of the Taskforce. The report will also be passed on to the work being done on Partners for Change.

7. Items for forthcoming Forum meeting

The main item will be Positive Steps and this has been covered above. The Review of the Forum will be informed by the debate at the Forum meeting.

8. Sub-groups update

Zoë informed the meeting that the Joint Training Course, which was initially designed with the Training Sub-Group, is running again on 6 and 7 June. Following this meeting, feedback will determine whether more courses should be run and the Training Sub Group may start to meet again.

The current membership of the Strategy Sub-Group is Maurice Leeson, Anne O’Reilly, Niall Fitzduff, Olwen Lyner, Frances McCandless, Marie Abbot (VCU), Agnes Killen (DCAL), David Lennox (VCU), Patricia McVeigh (DHSS&PS) and Harry Armstrong (VCU). Marie Abbott will give some input at the Forum regarding the current work.The group is currently working on the draft of ‘Partners for Change 2’.

All but one department has responded to initial requests for information on their relationships with the sector in terms of joint working, policy development, building communities and investment in the sector. It is intended that a draft will be issued for consultation in the Autumn.

It has been a long and difficult process for the group so far in ensuring that the targets are SMART. It was noted by some members that the first Partners for Change process included bilaterals where most departments held meetings involving Panel members. So far we are only aware of one that has taken place this time – DRD, which Niall attended. He felt that one meeting was not enough to work on many of the issues. We need clarification as to whether any other department will be involving the sector in discussion. We want to challenge the departments, without alienating them. Will there be a wider opportunity for the Panel to feed into the strategy prior to consultation? This happened last time.

There is also the ongoing problem of dissemination across departments and to their agencies, NDPBs etc. It was agreed that the Panel should discuss the sub-groups, their remit etc in more detail and this will be done at a future meeting.

9. Communications

As discussed a letter of introduction will be sent from the Panel to the new minister. Members were also encouraged to familiarise themselves with the www.communityni.org portal.

Further discussion on communications will be taken forward at the next meeting.

10 AOB

Seamus informed the meeting that he has written to the new secretary of state asking for a meeting about the ongoing funding cuts and ‘efficiency savings’.

Wendy informed the meeting that this is the Year of the Volunteer and distributed information packs.

11. Dates of next meetings

Forum: 26 May 9.30am at NICVA
Panel: 2 June 10.00am at Children in NI, Belmont Road, Belfast
Panel: 11 October 10.00am at NICVA
Forum: 20 October, TBC
Panel: 26 October, 10.00am at NICVA
Forum: 16 February 2006 TBC
Forum: 25 May 2006 TBC