Debate contribution: Respite Provision: South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on .
- MLA
- Mr Colm Gildernew
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 8 April 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Respite Provision: South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4920013
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I assure Members that I have not moved to the South Eastern Trust area, but I retain my interest in carers and respite. In fact, I raised the issue this morning in Members' statements. I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate today. The lack of adequate respite services in the South Eastern Trust and, indeed, across the North deeply impacts on countless families in my constituency as well as those in the South Eastern Trust area. Respite care services provide essential relief for adults and children with learning difficulties, complex needs, physical disabilities or other needs and are a key support for their carers. Respite care is not a luxury; it is very much a lifeline for carers. It is essential for their physical and mental well-being and for the continued care of those whom they look after. It offers a break from the relentless 24/7 care that they provide to loved ones, ensuring that those loved ones receive the highest level of care. Respite often supports carers so that they can manage some of the day-to-day activities that are taken for granted by those of us who do not have to provide care. It also provides a safety net for carers if they fall ill or are hospitalised or if either the carer or their family member needs a break. Those who work in respite services absolutely deserve our respect and praise for their work in very challenging circumstances. Respite facilities face issues with staff retention, due to the mounting pressure on those who provide respite care. That is not their fault; it is a reality of the situation in which they are working. Many facilities cannot cope with the increasing demand of planned respite and the pressing demand of unplanned and emergency respite that can arise. Sinn Féin believes that ongoing co-production with families, carers and front-line staff is essential to ensure that funding is targeted effectively and delivers meaningful improvements in respite care where it is most urgently needed. We welcome the Department of Health's allocation of up to £2 million for the remainder of the financial year and an additional £13 million annually that is aimed at expanding and improving respite care services. However, families affected by the crisis have reported that there is little evidence of tangible improvement on the ground as a result of that funding. Families are all too familiar, unfortunately, with receiving a last-minute notice that their respite has been cancelled. Minister, that situation arose once again with Woodlawn House in Dungannon in the past week. Families, some members of whom are in their eighties, who look after loved ones with very complex cases had, with only a week's notice, the respite that they were so badly looking forward to taken away. As someone tweeted, if any of us were told that the leave that we were looking forward to had been scrapped, we would be devastated. Carers are doing their utmost, but late cancellation, in particular, and the lack of regular and sufficient respite leave them feeling hopeless and abandoned at times. Last October, Sinn Féin successfully had a motion passed that called on the Health Minister to urgently bring forward a plan to improve respite services across the North. I look forward to hearing an update on those plans and how they will target support for carers. We need assurances that the respite services that were previously closed have reopened and will not be repurposed for residential care, which, itself, is a very valuable and much-needed service. We need clear planning mechanisms to ensure that local healthcare trusts can develop and implement the services that are necessary to significantly increase respite provision in order to provide support for families and carers.
624 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 | 0.01 | 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 | 0.98 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.02 |
| 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 12:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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