New deprivation research confirms sector's fears on levels of need

Voluntary and community organisations are at the coalface of rising levels of need across Northern Ireland and new research released by Queen's University confirms what our sector witnesses on a daily basis. 

According to ‘Trajectories of Deprivation in the UK’ - a research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Northern Ireland has a much higher proportional share of the most deprived areas in the UK than Scotland, Wales, or any of the nine regions of England, at 25%. 

Education deprivation is highest in Northern Ireland at 27%, with Yorkshire and the Humber ranked second at 19%. For health deprivation, Belfast (NI) has the largest proportion of areas in the most deprived 10%, with Glasgow (Scotland) ranked second and Derry and Strabane (NI) ranked third.

Whether it's through place-based initiatives like Neighbourhood renewal, emergency food provision, grassroots educational underachievement programmes, economic inclusion projects, healthy living centres, or early intervention schemes such as Sure-Start or Home-Start - our sector leads in the way in providing a much-needed safety-net below the safety-net for our most marginalised citizens and communities. 

Crisis support infrastructure across Northern Ireland is iterative, highly sophisticated and driven by voluntary and community organisations, but these systems are close to breaking point due to rising costs and rising need.

Our sector's proximity to need means we are well-placed to hear from the people most-affected by multiple deprivation about what needs to change. These policy solutions have been articulated to decision-makers time and time again - yet the potential of a resourced, targeted anti-poverty strategy remains sadly unfulfilled. 

The figures released by this project should be a wake-up call to the NI Executive that our sector and the communities we support cannot continue with this heavy-lifting in the absence of decisive action from Stormont for much longer.