FIS Policy E-Bulletin 2
For all stakeholders in this debate/consultation at all levels of FIS
This is the title of a Green Paper to initiate a debate/consultation on the future shape of A National Care Service - which will continue until September - on the way that social care and support will be provided in the future in England to those who need these services. The paper contains three funding options for social care. With regard to care and support for those 65 + a key premise of the Green Paper is that "it is unfair to ask younger people to pay a lot of tax when older people are already the richest age group in this country. In 2004 people over 65 had £932 billion saved up in the value of their houses" (Shaping the Future of Care Together (Easy Read version), p. 41.
You can find copies of Shaping the Future of Care Together, both full and Easy Read versions, here.
You can find the pre-thinking of Age Concern here and here; and their initial reaction to the consultation paper here.
The Department of Health will be organising a series of consultations throughout the English regions between now and September. Details of these can be found at Join the Big Care Debate.
We will provide you with updates on this debate as it progresses and consult you on a FIS response.
For those with a responsibility for funding in relevant service delivering Irish agencies
The Hardship Fund is presented as an additional sum of £16.7 million to the already announced £42.5 million package of measures in the government's Real Help for Communities Action Plan. It is for organisations delivering front line services in England to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society.
It offers grants ranging between £50,000 and £250,000 to 3rd Sector organisations that are suffering financial hardship which is impacting on their ability to deliver front-line services in the following areas: health and social care, housing support, education and training and advice, information and guidance.
In order to apply, organisations must have a turnover of £200,000 or more.
This fund is being administered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF); and further information about how to apply and guidance notes for applications can be found on the CDF website at the following link or by calling 0113 246 1561.
For those with a responsibility for policy and representation in Irish agencies
The attention drawn by Ceri Hutton and Barbara Nia to the work of FIS in Report prepared for Capacitybuilders by LVSC (London Voluntary Service Council) on behalf of London Regional ChangeUp Consortium (LRC) (LVSC 2007) - copies available on request from FIS London Office - appears to have completely fallen on deaf ears.
From the outset, FIS has criticised the ChangUp project for its failure to provide the hands-on development support that small community organisations require. Now Community Accountancy Self-Help, an organisation which received £50,000 to carry out partnered research into the needs of small charities in England and which developed a kit to enable such charities to improve their accounting, has referred to waste of public money to the extent that this initiative had not been rolled out. Capacitybuilders have stated that they do not provide ongoing core funding for specific services at a local level. See here.
This comes at a time when a report from the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons is quoted as stating that Futurebuilders and Capacitybuilders had "failed to follow even basic good practice" and had not demonstrated value for money.
Building the Capacity of the Third Sector, the report of the Public Accounts Committee concerning these programmes, which were set up at a cost of £446 million and overseen by the Office of the Third Sector within the Cabinet Office, is available here. While recognising the experimental nature of these programmes, and acknowledging aspects of their achievements, they are extremely critical of fundamental weaknesses identified in the report, such as the absence of effective evaluation and of proper targets to measure performance.
For local Irish projects actively involved in the process to engage with their local authorities and/or development workers assisting such Irish projects to do so
From April 2009 local authorities have had a duty to involve local citizens in how they carry out their duties, through providing them with information, consulting them and involving them in other ways. Urban Forum believe that there are several ways in which voluntary organisations might become involved in this process: for example, by following up their interest in relevant areas of local authority responsibility, by acting as advocates for local groups, or through acting as links between the local authority and marginalised groups.
It is timely that Urban Forum is now seeking to investigate to what extent local authorities are meeting their requirements with regard to this duty. In doing this they are focusing on three areas: (a) how aware are individuals and local groups of the mechanisms/structures in place to facilitate involvement; (b) how aware are these individuals and groups of changes due to this duty; and (c) what part do councillors play in carrying out this duty.
Their questionnaire can be accessed here. Closing date for responses 7 August 2009.
For those who use statistics for national or local representation purposes or who seek to represent the need for better Irish data
This week's inclusion example has an extended title of Victorian proportions. It is Disproportionality in Child Welfare: The Prevalence of Black and Minority Ethnic Children within the 'Looked After' and 'Children in Need' Populations and on Child protection Registers in England. The authors are Charlie Owen and Jane Stratham and it has recently been published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. While children form of much lower % of the Irish population than in other BAME groups the Irish data is fully analysed in this report and it shows, for example, that White Irish and White British Children (Age range: 0-17) spend a longer total length of time in care than children of other ethnicities, that the four main reasons for Irish children starting to be looked after are:
- Abuse or neglect (62.6%; average 60.2%), Parental illness or disability (8%; average 7%), Family in acute distress (10%; average 10.3%), Family dysfunction (10.4%; average12.8%);
- While many of these scores are around average, Black Caribbean and White Irish score above average (4.9%) at 6.7% and 6.2% respectively for the causal category Socially unacceptable behaviour;
- 84.1% White Irish in the sample had been fostered (average: 85.3%); 28.4% of White Irish in the sample had been in residential care (average 23.1%) coming 2nd to Black Caribbean (30.2%) here;
- 11.8% (average 12.4%) had been adopted.
The outcomes here show exactly why the practice of excluding the Irish from equalities analysis is unacceptable. Even where the White Irish statistics are close to average, they do point to pockets of disadvantage in the Irish community; and they do show some similarities of treatment with those of some 'visible' groups.
Our example of unsatisfactory practice from the point of view of the Irish community - as a substantial British-based BAME community which was included in the Ethnic question in the 2001 Census in recognition of the need for Irish data to inform policy formation - is the following. If you go to the website of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, you can visit their Interactive Map of Minority Groups in Britain. The rationale for this map tells you that it is a work in progress but that "you will find 30 cities or areas of Britain, which appear as red circles - if you double click on a circle this takes you to a detailed neighbourhood map showing the most numerous minority groups by postcode, in that area". Their coverage of the methodology for this project explains that, as an alternative to using census data (which gets out of date) they use family names to identify "which national, ethnic or religious groups" people belong to.
You can now go straight to the Interactive Map of Minority Groups in Britain and begin to double click to your heart's content. Wherever you click, you will find lots pretty coloured shapes clustering together in their diversity, forming attractive patters of cohesion of greater or lesser numbers and density; but nowhere will you find a signifier for your local Irish community. Return to the opening British map page with the 30 red circles and click on About in the top, left-hand corner (more rationale and methodology) and you will find something that is the beginning of an answer as to the absence of a signifier or signifiers for your local Irish community: "A common set of 15 minority groups are shown on every map though for obvious reasons not every minority group will feature in the map of every town. We can identify more than 15 minority groups but for reasons of legibility it is not really practical to show more than 15 different groups on a single map." The fifteen minority groups are Cypriot (Greek), Eastern European, Hispanic, Italian, Jewish, Somali, Sri Lankan, Turkish, African (Black), Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean, Hindu, Northern European, Pakistani, Sikh.
No disrespect to any of the groups included - they are all our fellow BAMES and some of them are currently more disadvantaged and stigmatised than the Irish community - but there is no adequate explanation of the choices made for inclusion and the purpose of this map project seems to be as fuzzy as some other aspects of the EHRC's endeavours.
For Irish agencies and media to publicise
The ONS has now added to its site some very clear pages setting out employment opportunities in connection with the Census Rehearsal which will take place on 11 October 2009 in Lancaster, the London Borough of Newham and Ynys Mon - Isle of Anglesey. There will also be a smaller test in Birmingham at the same time. That is the geographical spread of the immediate opportunities for employment, some of which will be full-time and for a period extending to six months. Other opportunities for employment will be shorter and part-time.
Your can access the different parts of this section of the ONS website from the menu on the left-hand side of the opening page on the above link. Details of the jobs available are clearly set out on the site, with information about the application process; and a personalised job search can be made on the basis of the user's post code, region or Local Authority.
This section of the ONS website will be constantly updated; and recruitment for the full national Census of 2011, as opposed to the Census Rehearsal and Birmingham test, will begin in November 2009.
Given the present downturn in the economy the prospect of employment on the Census will be a welcome opportunity for many people, not only in terms of income, but for experience and to add to their CVs. We therefore hope that Irish agencies in or close to the geographical areas involved in the 2009 Rehearsal-plus-test will publicise these opportunities to their members and users of services, and in any local media or forums to which they have access; drawing attention also to the website address for accessing these opportunities.
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