It is grimly ironic that today is April Fools’ Day — because the fallout from our political leaders’ failure to secure a workable solution to this devastating funding gap is anything but a joke.
As a sector we have been united in our message and have pursued every possible avenue of advocacy. We have to Ministers and officials in both Westminster and Stormont. For months, organisations have worked collectively to highlight and evidence the scale of impact, pressing
For months, our sector has been united in its message. Via our NICantWait campaign organisations have pursued every avenue of advocacy directly to Ministers and officials in both Westminster and Stormont. Together, we have provided evidence, highlighted the scale of impact, and urged both governments to work with us on a solution in the interests of the most marginalised across our communities
Yet, as these cuts take effect, political leaders at Westminster and Stormont have still failed to act. No resolution has been secured.
We have reached this point because of political finger‑pointing and repeated claims that responsibility lies elsewhere. Our political representatives have publicly acknowledged that these services are essential and that the consequences of withdrawing support would be severe. But those words have not been matched by action nor by leadership.
There is no comfort for impacted services in knowing that those affected by this cut will now miss out on vital support and opportunities, becoming more isolated, more vulnerable, and more dependent on already overstretched public services. Our health, social care, justice, and welfare systems will inevitably feel this pressure.
This short‑sighted funding decision will ultimately cost more to the public purse , never mind the very real cost to the thousands of individuals across our communities who will lose these supports.
The needs of the people these services support do not end on 1 April. They do not disappear because funding has been withdrawn.
While the UK Government’s flawed funding model created this crisis, these are local services delivering local impact and there remains a responsibility to find a local solution to the gap now faced.
The services now at risk are the very ones delivering on what must be core Executive priorities: tackling poverty, reducing economic exclusion, supporting mental health, strengthening community wellbeing, and providing opportunity for young people, women, and those facing the most difficult of circumstances.
For months, organisations warned that the Local Growth Fund model would lead us here. Now, as organisations absorb the consequences for their staff, their services, and the people they support, we cannot allow this moment to pass without challenge.
We will not quietly accept the loss of hundreds of skilled staff from an already overstretched sector, nor the dismantling of vital community infrastructure that has been repeatedly evidenced to successfully support those on the very edges of our labour market into, and to sustain, meaningful work — an infrastructure that has consistently demonstrated its value by providing essential support and, most importantly, inclusion, opportunities, and hope to thousands of the most marginalised across Northern Ireland.
Words simply do not feel enough today – we are utterly dismayed and profoundly disappointed at the complete lack of action by those who so clearly had a responsibility to act.
