Debate contribution: Community and Voluntary Sector Funding
Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on .
- MLA
- Ms Diane Forsythe
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 30 September 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Opposition Business
- Heading
- Community and Voluntary Sector Funding
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4564024
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland is delivering front-line health services to the public. It fills the gaps in need where public services, through the Department of Health and local trusts, do not reach. Without the sector, tens of thousands of people across Northern Ireland would have no mental health services at all. In my area, the sector includes great organisations such as Mourne Matters, the Regenerate project, the JIMS youth centre, MyMy and many more. The huge problem that we face is that the Health Minister and Department of Health officials do not fully appreciate the scale of the healthcare services that the voluntary and community sector is providing. It is widely felt that the Health Minister and his officials do not fully appreciate and value the sector. As chair of the all-party group on voluntary and community sector, the main theme from the groups is that they do not feel valued. At a recent Public Accounts Committee hearing, I asked Health officials how many people in Northern Ireland were receiving mental health services from the voluntary and community sector. They had no idea. In June, I asked the Health Minister how many healthcare patients in Northern Ireland were referred by his Department, the trusts and GPs directly to the voluntary and community sector for mental health services. He advised that that information was not available. I do not believe that he has an idea of the number, and we want to see him take steps to value the sector enough to find out. I know that the figure is tens of thousands. In my constituency, health workers panicked at the financial cliff edge last year, contacting me to say that they were referring thousands of people every month directly to voluntary and community sector groups such as Mencap, and that, without them, those patients would have nowhere to be referred to. No pathway for those services exists. We want to see the role of the voluntary and community sector valued and extended, not diminished. The cut in core grant funding has meant that many service providers that support the health and social care system have been forced to divert resources from supporting people in order to cover running costs. In April this year, 51 community and voluntary groups wrote to the then Health Minister to appeal for reinstatement of the core health grant as it would keep them existing. Nothing was done. The core health grant was £3·6 million per year, and it was cut by Robin Swann to £1·8 million per year. We are calling for a reinstatement of only £1·8 million per year — small in the overall scheme of the Health budget. We do not support the amendment because we do not accept that it is the Finance Minister's role to find extra money to take from other Departments for items in the Health budget. It is for the Health Minister to accept responsibility for the delivery of healthcare in Northern Ireland. He needs to recognise that for just another £1·8 million in the core health grant, the return on investment is huge. Reinstatement of that funding would keep in place and secure the many voluntary and community sector organisations and keep tens of thousands of people receiving services. The Health Minister needs to take steps to quantify and appreciate the value and contribution of the sector. He needs to identify £1·8 million within his budget, which would be better used in this way. We still await transformation plans, and I ask whether the Minister has taken steps to review the health service for obvious inefficiencies. In a place like Northern Ireland, where we have five area-based health and social care trusts, I imagine that some steps could be taken to make simple efficiencies. Well over 100 directors on significant salaries, duplicating administrative tasks across Northern Ireland, comes to mind, and from practical examples of inefficiencies presented in my constituency office on a regular basis, I am sure that £1·8 million could be identified. We support the motion to reinstate the funding for our much-valued voluntary and community sector organisations and the work that they do to deliver mental health services, but we do not support the amendment calling for the Finance Minister to respond rather than the Health Minister.
717 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.96).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.96 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.92 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.08 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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