Transitional Family Support Services:  West Belfast

Adjournment – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 5:15 pm on 1 July 2014.

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Photo of Roy Beggs Roy Beggs UUP 5:15, 1 July 2014

The proposer of the topic will have 15 minutes.  All other Members who wish to speak will have approximately eight minutes.

Photo of Rosaleen McCorley Rosaleen McCorley Sinn Féin

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.  Tá mé an-bhuíoch as an seans an cheist seo a ardú sa Tionól inniu.  I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue in the Assembly.

Integrated services has been an extremely positive programme for west Belfast and has provided much-needed support at many levels for a number of years.  It has been a model of good practice in the partnership work that it does with local community groups, schools and statutory agencies to provide the best service available for families that are in the greatest need.

It has often been the case that families with complex needs have been sitting on the edge but have managed to stay on track because of their ability to avail themselves of services provided by early intervention.  In such cases, it can be detrimental if that support is suddenly withdrawn, and, ultimately, that causes them to go into the statutory services environment, where the route back can often be difficult and not always straightforward.

It is readily accepted that where a family can be prevented from entering the social services arena, action should be taken to ensure that that happens.  Integrated services carried out very positive and meaningful work, which filled that gap.  As a result, families have been assisted in turning their lives around and moving onto a more positive, independent path.

Quotes from users of the services are the best indicators of what integrated services has done best.  As one young mother put it:

"Without the family support I received, my mental health would have got worse rapidly.  I want to thank Integrated Services for helping me to be the mum I used to be."

Similarly, a father of two young children who had challenging behaviour and ASD struggled to deal with those issues whilst trying to cope with an eating disorder and dealing with trauma.  He stated clearly:

"Integrated Services was able to provide a full service for me and my son, dealing with everything we had going on.  I wouldn't have known where else to go.  We were at our wits end."

What exactly happened at the end of March this year?  Funding for integrated services came to an end, and the tender was awarded to Extern to provide services at tiers 3 and 4.  That meant that there was a gap in tier 2 early intervention services.

Under integrated services, 265 families were supported between April 2013 and March 2014.  That number reduced by 128 over that period due to cases being closed for various reasons.  In some of those cases, families were ready to move on due to the progress that had been made.  The remaining families were reviewed and were found to be in need of different types of support, including statutory involvement.  However, several families have been left unsupported as they only qualified for tier 2 services, which are no longer available.

Given that west Belfast is an area of high deprivation that has some very complicated social needs, it is reasonable to expect that families will continue to emerge that require the type of support services that were provided by integrated services.  We need to ensure that the services required to provide those families with the appropriate interventions, capable of supporting them out of their difficult circumstances, are made available.  We also need to find a way to ensure that the families who have most recently had their integrated services terminated will be supported in all of their needs.

Not only did integrated services provide support at the most appropriate level, it averted families from the likelihood of becoming known to the statutory agencies at a later date, as problems and issues tend to escalate due to a lack of support services.

There are processes in place to implement the early intervention transformation programme (EITP), but I am concerned about what exactly that will mean for west Belfast.  I seek assurance that the EITP will be appropriately resourced and hope that any transitional family support services will also be supported.

Ultimately, it would be wrong to stop the vital service provision, and I urge that appropriate resources are put in place to ensure that the vulnerable families that are in the greatest need are not let down due to a failure to continue to provide them with the services that are appropriate to their needs.

Photo of Alex Attwood Alex Attwood Social Democratic and Labour Party

I thank Ms McCorley for bringing this matter to the attention of the Assembly.

I concur with her that the best voices to rely upon when it comes to dealing intensively with individual, family and community difficulties — multiple difficulties — are those of the people who, under integrated services, were being supported.  It is curious what they say, because any of us who have met the individuals and families who have been supported through integrated services, have been impressed by their conviction that the model has worked for them and needs to be sustained to continue to work for them.  Ms McCorley relied on what they said.  One woman said:

"Some mothers are frightened by social workers; they take power away from parents.  The staff and family support had a more rounded approach and empowered us."

Another said:

"Integrated Services and the staff were so valuable to my family.  They gave me and my family a glimmer of hope.  Why is the rug being pulled from underneath the project?"

Similarly, one person said:

"We have not felt this good in years.  Our new family members, as we call Integrated Services, have been a rock and life saviours to our family."

As I said, anybody who heard those families speak up here earlier this year or who has met any of them over the lifetime of Integrated Services would corroborate what they say.  Therefore, this question arises:  if it is a model of good practice that you work intensively with individuals and families who have multiple areas of need and requirement, why would you put that in jeopardy?

Since 2008, the life of Integrated Services has been a turbulent one.  I remember, in March 2011, when I was the Social Development Minister, putting £500,000 on the table in order to try to sustain Integrated Services beyond 2011 and up to 2015.  Difficult thought it was, other Ministers eventually came to the table and, over a period of time, even if it were in an ad hoc manner, funding was secured to sustain it.

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Will the Member give way?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Does the Member recognise that it was the Department of Health that came to the table whilst the Department of Education, under a Sinn Féin Minister, ran away from the people of the Falls Road, the Shankill and the most deprived areas and took the money away from Integrated Services in the first instance?

Photo of Roy Beggs Roy Beggs UUP

The Member has an extra minute.

Photo of Alex Attwood Alex Attwood Social Democratic and Labour Party

I certainly recall that when people were sitting on the fence — to put it at its least — some of us got off the fence in order to ensure, in the spring of 2011, that Integrated Services was sustained and to try to work up the full funding package.  There is more than a grain of truth in what the Health Minister has just said about the conduct of other Ministers at the Executive table.

This question now arises:  why was the rug pulled from under people's feet earlier this year?  In March 2014, funding for this scheme came to an end.  As Ms McCorley rightly indicated, as a consequence, those with lesser needs, even though they are significant needs, are left with nowhere to turn, and those with greater needs, which are very significant indeed, have to rely on the new project, around which there is still some need for certainty and definition.

So, I have some questions for the Health Minister, who is responding to this debate and who I welcome to the debate.  First, why was it that a programme that had such an impact on the lives of many people across west Belfast, the Shankill and the Falls, and had such advocates at a community and political level, not continued?  Secondly, why was the tender for the new scheme only for specialist services and not also for general services in order to ensure that those who have "so-called" lesser needs are not left in the lurch?  Thirdly, what is now going to be done in order to ensure that those who are outwith the capture of the new tender being awarded to Extern will get the support required? Fourthly, where are we precisely in respect of the Extern scheme?

It was meant to commence on 1 April, and we are now three months later to the day after it was meant to be up and operational.  Where is it, what is its practice and what is its impact?

Question six:  why were good community representatives and activists on the Shankill left to dip into their reserves in order to maintain Integrated Services since March of this year, whilst a new project gets up and running, given its limitations?  Why were they required to dip into reserves which are now running out, as I speak, and which would see the end of the support programme that they put in place beyond the end of Integrated Services — would see that secondary scheme itself run out of space, time and money?  If a project has such a good impact — in the way that Ms McCorley and I have tried to articulate through the voices of women who have spoken to us and who have reduced to writing what they believe — why would you ever want to put that in jeopardy?  Why was there not certainty, throughout the period of Integrated Services, to see that scheme continue beyond 1 April?

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin 5:30, 1 July 2014

I, too, thank my colleague Rosie McCorley for bringing this debate to the Floor.  It is a very important debate, and I hope that people will not use it for point-scoring.  That said, most of us — whatever work we are involved in in the Assembly and Executive — are interested in trying to make life better for people, particularly children, young people and families out there. 

As has already been said, not just today but in other debates in the Chamber, of all the constituencies right across the North, West Belfast has the highest proportion of people in poverty and child poverty.  It has poor health outcomes; indeed, it has the lowest life expectancy for both women and men, and the highest number of post-primary pupils on the special educational needs register.  Those are just some of the statistics:  I do not want to stand here quoting statistics, because there are Members present from all parties who know too well the difficulties that people, and families in particular, face in that constituency.

Unfortunately, we see that a lot of our children do not have the same equal start in life as some other children.  That is no fault of their own; it is because of the family circumstances that they are born into, or the social and economic situation of the family.  There is a duty and responsibility on us, as a Government, to ensure that any support mechanisms or help that those families need are given to them.

In terms of Integrated Services, I was involved the last time, as Mr Attwood pointed out, when the first funding became unavailable.  I, Paul Maskey MP and my other colleagues here — MLAs, some of whom are here today — went to a range of Ministers and Departments to ensure that everybody was aware of the difficulties and also put money there from their Departments to carry it forward.  My colleague Rosie McCorley pointed out that, unfortunately, in the situation that we are in today, a number of families that were involved in the Integrated Services programme have not been picked up by the new programme.  We have to be concerned about those families.  It is very important that we provide services for families with complex needs, particularly for children and young people who have those social needs.  We also need to ensure that we intervene early with those families to give them the support and services that they need, to ensure that they do not become a family that actually has more complex needs.  That is important.  I just want to concentrate on —

Photo of William Humphrey William Humphrey DUP

I am grateful to the Member for giving way, and I appreciate all that she has said.  I pay tribute to the staff of the Integrated Services programme in west Belfast and greater Shankill.  Along with Members across the Chamber, I have had the experience of dealing with those staff, when they were dealing with our constituents and troubled families in the most difficult circumstances.

I welcome what the Member said and her clarification about her party's support, but that has not always been the case.  It has to be said that, previously, when there was a gathering of people from west Belfast and Shankill outside this Building in March 2011, this Minister came down to speak to the people, but the Education Minister could not be found and would not come out and speak to the people.  I appreciate that Sinn Féin is now in a different place on this, and that is to be welcomed.  We will see what potential funding will come from the Department of Health now.

Photo of Roy Beggs Roy Beggs UUP

The Member has an extra minute.

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin

I want to say again that I hope people do not use this debate for political reasons and point scoring.  We are talking about vulnerable families, about need and about trying to help people, and the new early intervention transformation programme will be rolled out.  We need to ensure that the commissioning of those services and engagement with community organisations that already have skills and expertise in delivering those services continues, because, at the end of the day, we do not want to throw the baby out with bath water.  We want to be able to ensure that models of best practice are continued.  I worked as family support worker across west Belfast before I came into the Assembly, and there is good working engagement between people and organisations in west Belfast and greater Shankill, and I would like to see that continuing. 

As I said, a number of families are out of the loop now because integrated services have stopped.  I and some of my party colleagues have had a number of meetings with people from the Health Department and other Departments.  I see it as a joined-up project, not primarily just an issue around health.  I think that it includes Education, Health, Justice and the Department for Social Development.  This is part of the Executive's Delivering Social Change framework, and we need to be working in that integrated way and in that capacity.  I want any proposals that are brought forward to not simply be driven by the family support hubs, because, again, this work is ongoing.  We talk about this all the time in the Assembly, and it is unseen work that goes on in communities every day.  Those community organisations and groups deliver those services and the valuable way that they do that is sometimes not recognised.  It is about the services for the families.  I want to reiterate that.  That is what we are talking about here.  We are talking about vulnerable families who need the continuation of those services.  I hope that the Minister takes that on board.  Other programmes are getting rolled out.  It will be targeted at specific families, and I think that is a good thing, but we should not lose sight of the fact that other families are maybe not just at the level of need that some families with more complex needs are, and we should not overlook them. 

I thank my colleague for bringing this important debate forward, and I hope that we can all work together — all the Ministers and all the Departments in the Executive — to ensure the continuation of this project.

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I thank the Member for tabling this debate and the Members who have contributed.  In my role as Health Minister, I have been actively engaged in seeking to address the issues outlined by the Members in the west Belfast and greater Shankill areas following the cessation of funding for integrated services for children and young people.  Whilst Ministers McCausland, O'Dowd, Farry, Ford and I have worked together to fund a new £5 million intensive family support service across Belfast, which will benefit some of the families previously supported by integrated services, I am aware that both partnerships between them have identified 99 families with lower-level needs who will not benefit from that new service and who may not have been able to transfer to other local family support services available in the area.  It is my understanding that those families do not meet the threshold for statutory social work involvement. 

Before addressing the transitional needs of those families, I would first like to say a few words about the new intensive family support service being funded by me and my fellow Ministers.  The service seeks to intervene with families with very complex needs across Belfast.  Those families often experience very poor outcomes across generations, including long-term unemployment, addiction, poor health, poor school attendance or exclusion, involvement with the justice system and homelessness.  The new service, modelled on the Troubled Families initiative in England, seeks to break the cycle of poor outcomes for the most socially complex families in Belfast.  The families that will benefit from the service are currently engaged with a range of statutory services, including youth justice, social services and educational welfare.  As well as providing additional support to those families, the new service will seek to improve the level of coordination between the various statutory agencies that are often involved with the families on a single-issue basis.  The new service is being delivered by Extern, following an open procurement process.  That is something that I cannot involve myself in.  Procurement has to be fully above board, and that is how it was done. 

I recognise the importance of the 99 families with lower-level needs who are not eligible for the new intensive service, and who have not been able to be transferred to other local services, receiving the support that they need to effectively transition from the integrated services for children and young people project.  That said, the support offered should be transitional in nature.  It needs to be time-limited and focused either on helping those families engage with other tier 2 services in the area or on successfully addressing the issues that they face in the period of transition.  The establishment of family support hubs in Belfast, which I will say more about, should help with that process. 

Having recognised that a need exists, as verified by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, I have been working with Minister McCausland, given his neighbourhood renewal responsibilities, to agree a transitional funding package.  Some transitional funding has already been provided by the Health and Social Care Board and the Public Health Agency to facilitate the transfer of those families who meet the criteria for entry to the new intensive family support service. 

From a longer-term perspective, I am aware that, in addition to the large number of existing services already in place for those types of families, a number of new services are being planned that will enhance the level of family support provision across Northern Ireland, including a number of initiatives being developed under the social investment fund and Delivering Social Change programmes that will benefit children, young people and families.  For example, under Delivering Social Change, and with the support of private philanthropy, we have established an early intervention programme, underpinned by a £30 million fund.  Between five Departments, we have contributed £10 million to the fund over three years.  One of the principal aims of the transformation programme is to embed early intervention approaches across all mainstream children's services.

There is a proposal to develop a new early intervention service across Northern Ireland.  The proposed service will aim to provide a consistent level of support to families with problems at an early stage, before those problems become embedded.  If we are successful, that will prevent the need for future statutory involvement in the lives of many children and families across Northern Ireland.  The design and development of the proposed service is currently being undertaken in partnership with the five outcomes groups and locality planning groups, which are part of the children and young people's strategic partnership arrangements, to ensure robust engagement with the community, voluntary and statutory sectors.  The proposed development of the early intervention service, along with other proposed developments by way of initiatives such as the social investment fund, will seek to complement and integrate with existing family support services in areas such as west Belfast and the Shankill. 

As I have referred to briefly already, my Department is developing a network of family support hubs across Northern Ireland.  There will be 25 hubs in total, seven of which will be created in the Belfast area, across all parts of Belfast.  The family support hub for Upper Springfield and Whiterock is already up and running, and other hubs will be coming on stream over the next weeks and months.  It should be noted that the hubs do not deliver services directly but will play a vital role in coordinating the activities of local providers that will jointly identify appropriate tier 2 services for specific families.

As for integrated services, I pose a question to Mr Attwood.  I welcome the fact that, when he was Social Development Minister, he put his money where his mouth was when other Ministers, in the Department of Health and the Department of Education, were not supportive.  Subsequent to me becoming the Minister of Health, I have put my money, or my Department's money, where my mouth is.  I recognise the vulnerability of the families involved.  I recognise the need for children in those areas to receive additional support to give them an opportunity in life that they would not otherwise be able to avail themselves of.

In doing that, I gave ministerial direction to make this happen whilst Minister O'Dowd and the Department of Education walked away.  That is not playing politics; that is telling the facts.  When it came to west Belfast and the Shankill, the Sinn Féin Minister walked away, and he has to answer for himself why that was the case.

Work has been ongoing in the last two months to deal with the issue.  The MP for North Belfast has been in with me on three or four occasions to discuss the issues, pressing for the people in the Shankill and west Belfast whilst I have not yet had a request for a meeting from the MP for West Belfast.  I am pleased that I have been able to clear a paper that was received this week, which will allow up to £270,000 to go to integrated services to ensure that it can continue until the hubs are fully established.

To summarise, I am pleased to be able to announce the additional support for the West Belfast Partnership Board and the Greater Shankill Partnership Board in meeting the transitional needs of the families identified.  I also outlined a range of new developments, some of which are aimed at supporting families with very complex needs while others are targeted at families who require earlier interventions.  These new developments are intended to complement and improve coordination between existing services across Northern Ireland, including west Belfast.  Our aim is to ensure that families who need a range of supports are able to access them locally and earlier.

It is time that people stepped up to the mark as opposed to complaining a lot about equality, poverty and everything that is happening.  When it was within their gift as Ministers to deliver for people in circumstances such as this, they were nowhere to be seen, whereas people such as us carry out actions to ensure that we can help people in the worst possible circumstances.

Adjourned at 5.47 pm.