Inspire Public Affairs Update 27-10-25

Inspire’s Public Affairs Update is your source for the latest on policy and public opinion in mental health, addiction, intellectual disability, and autism. 

Our aim is to influence policy, decision making and public opinion by amplifying the voice of lived experience.

On 9th October, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Health hosted a departmental briefing on the review of the deliverability of the Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031.

• Officials provided the Committee with an update on the recently published review of the Strategy.
• They presented figures relating to the cost to the economy of high rates of mental illness.
• They stressed a lack of resources and confirmed that only 16% of the necessary funding had been allocated to the Strategy. The Strategy contains 35 actions and 15 have neither commenced nor been funded.
• Consequently, the Strategy’s scope will now be scaled back.
• MLAs voiced their concerns about the lack of progress on the Strategy but also focused many of their responses on the vital role of the voluntary and community sector in delivering services.
• They asked why such essential partners are so often at risk of funding cuts.
• The officials praised the role of the sector and said that it will be a key part of workforce considerations going forward.
• Professor Siobhán O’Neill, the Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland, later told the BBC that the updated direction of travel was “absolutely devastating”

On 16th October, the Committee for Health convened at NICON, Northern Ireland’s health and social care conference. MLAs heard from former MP and Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn, who presented evidence on the UK Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England.

• Mr Milburn, who is now the lead non-executive member to the board of the Department of Health and Social Care, spoke about how technology and AI can change healthcare provision for the better.
• He urged the Executive to buy time for successful reform, suggesting that outcomes, rather than structures, should be a primary focus. and concentrate.
• He claimed that long waiting lists can result in “cultural fatalism” within the National Health Service but that prevention must overtake the “treatment-first mindset” for significant policy changes to take hold.

Tuesday 14th October – Debate on Tackling Child Poverty

• Cathy Mason MLA spoke about how children’s lives can be adversely affected by their postcodes and called on the Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons, to introduce a childcare strategy as soon as possible.
• David Brooks MLA described the multi-faceted nature of child poverty and the steps required in response to it: ” child poverty cannot be achieved by one Department acting alone… it requires a cross-Executive, cross-society approach. Poverty is not simply about income. It is about housing, health, education, employment and opportunity.”
• Sian Mulholland MLA signalled the Alliance Party’s support for a child payment, similar to the scheme operated in Scotland: “Analysis has shown that that payment reduced relative child poverty by around four to five percentage points. That has lifted thousands of children out of poverty.”
• Brian Kingston MLA said: “Child poverty does not exist in a vacuum… It is therefore essential that we acknowledge that tackling child poverty means addressing wider issues of disadvantage in our society.”
• Patsy McGlone echoed this, appealing to the Minister to bring forward an anti-poverty strategy that is fit for purpose and introduces proven interventions. “Those are all policies that the Executive could and should be introducing.
  
• The Minister pushed back against criticisms of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Anti-Poverty Strategy and listed a number of co-design group priorities that were included in the draft strategy, including measures around housing supply, welfare mitigations and fuel poverty.
• He suggested that both ongoing and new initiatives are making a real impact and defended the strategy’s integrity and effectiveness.
• MLAs then adopted the following resolution: That this Assembly expresses alarm at the rate of child poverty in Northern Ireland, with one in five children living in absolute poverty, as detailed in the ‘Northern Ireland Poverty and Income Inequality Report, 2023-24’; expresses concern that the proposed anti-poverty strategy will have little impact on addressing that challenge, with no new policies, no timeline for delivery and no budget; and calls on the Executive to make the eradication of child poverty a cross-departmental priority and to develop a fit for purpose anti-poverty strategy, shaped by lived experience, including commitments on the creation of a new child payment, an enhanced childcare subsidy scheme and enhanced provision of free school meals.

Tuesday 14th October – Debate on Community Crisis Intervention Service: Closure

• Mark H. Durkan MLA introduced the motion, stating: “Those community-based services are not optional extras. They are literal lifelines.”
• Fellow Foyle MLAs also contributed. Ciara Ferguson said that investment in mental health is a commitment to the wellbeing and safety of every citizen, while Gary Middleton was critical of short-term savings “that come at the expense of long-term wellbeing.”
• Pádraig Delargy contended that “the Department of Health refused to prioritise mental health services, refused to prioritise intervention services and refused to prioritise services that are being cut in the North West.”
• Health Committee member Danny Donnelly, who represents East Antrim, described the “mental health crisis” as being about more than a cost with no context on a budget document. The cost of not preventing it is arguably much greater, and that needs to be addressed.”
• In his response to these statements, the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt, expressed regret about the closure of the Foyle service, particularly given the prevalence of mental illness in Northern Ireland, which he reiterated. He went on to praise the work of the Mental Health Champion.
• However, he also pointed to significant health funding shortfalls generally and stated that the crisis intervention service had not seen its funding removed. Instead, he stated, it had failed in its application for fresh core grant resourcing.

Tuesday 14th October – Debate on Adult Respite Provision

• Colm Gildernew led an adjournment debate focusing on Woodlawn House, a respite centre for adult intellectual disability in Dungannon.
• Current challenges including disrupted services, high staff attrition rates and emotional strain on ageing carers. He urged the Minister to intervene directly.
• The Minister confirmed that while temporary closures and reduced services were necessary for safety, efforts are underway to restore full provision, including recruitment of band 5 nurses, introduction of trainee posts and enhanced governance measures.
• He also outlined broader strategic work, including a regional learning disability service model currently under consultation, aimed at increasing short break capacity across Northern Ireland.

Oral Ministerial Question on Fuel Poverty Strategy

• In addition, the Minister for Communities, in response to an oral question about the fuel poverty strategy, confirmed that analysis of the consultation responses had been completed and a summary document will be published in the coming weeks. Finalisation of the strategy will soon follow. 

 Tuesday 21st October – All-Party Group on Suicide Prevention

• The All-Party Group on Suicide Prevention met to discuss the progress of the PROTECT LIFE 2 Implementation Plan.
• Chairperson, Órlaithí Flynn MLA opened the meeting by highlighting the recent review of the Mental Health Strategy implementation and the significant shortfall in funding to deliver it. This set the context for the discussion.
• Mr Bryan Dooley, DoH, and Fiona Teague, PHA, provided an informative update to the group.
• They placed an emphasis on the role that the VCS play in the integration for delivery of services alongside the implementation plan. Citing many good examples of projects already delivering on the ground, Inspire’s Self Harm Intervention Programme (SHIP.) was mentioned as a ‘positive impacting’ project.
• According to the PHA’s Fiona Teague, every £1 spent on early intervention, under the implementation plan, returned a saving of £14.
• There was general consensus that the work being done under the strategy and through the implementation plan, was essential and a sign that with further funding, much more could be done to continue the positive impact. 

Week commencing 27th October 2025

Assembly is in recess.