Joint Forum RPA Bulletin 2

Welcome to the second edition of this bulletin on the RPA, produced by the Joint Forum’s RPA Sub-group. This bulletin assumes some prior knowledge of the process that has taken place and the decisions that have been made on the future number of Councils, Health Trusts etc. All this information is available on the RPA and CommunityNI websites which are noted under the ‘Useful Links’ section below.

Details of all progress made against the RPA timetable can be found at: www.rpani.gov.uk/index/update-against-timetable.htm.

CONTENTS

1. Implementation and structures
2. Appointments
3. Publications
4. Consultations
5. Useful links

1. IMPLEMENTATION AND STRUCTURES

Reporting Structures

The implementation of the RPA is being driven by both the Secretary of State, Peter Hain MP and by Minister of State, David Hanson MP.

• Reporting Structures (PPT 134KB)

RPA Steering Group

There is a central steering group chaired by Nigel Hamilton overseeing the implementation of decisions across government. However, the Governance arrangements for the RPA programme, undertaken by the central steering group are currently being reviewed

• Terms of Reference of RPA Steering Group
• Membership of RPA Steering Group
• Dates of Meetings
• Minutes of Steering Group meetings

DoE Taskforce on Reform of Local Government

Following an independent review, a revised structure has been established to deliver the reform programme in local government. There are now three main elements:

a) The Strategic Leadership Board

The Board will drive the implementation process and will include 10 political partyrepresentatives who are nominated by the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) and the political parties. It is chaired by the Department of the Environment Minister with the NILGA President as Vice-Chair. Two seats have been allocated to social partners, via Concordia, and will be taken by Trade Unions and business.

b) Policy Development Panels

These Panels will take their lead from the Board and will include further political representation. They will be responsible for addressing the following areas:

• Human resources and capacity building
• Shared services, finance and estates
• Community planning and governance
• Central local government and performance management
• Transfer of functions

NICVA are asking for representation from the voluntary and community sector on the Community Planning and Governance group.

c) Social Partners Forum

Local government reform will also be shaped by involvement from social partners, these will include representatives from the voluntary, community and private sectors.

For the latest information, please see www.doeni.gov.uk/lgd/localgovreform/

DHSSPS

• ‘Reconfiguration Programme Board’ chaired by Andrew McCormick – oversees the reorganisation of current health structures.
• Project teams for each area of work.

The new health structures are due to come into operation on 1 April 2007, including the new Health & Social Services Authority and the five new Trusts.

Seven primary care-led Local Commissioning Groups (LGCs) have been set up and each LCG will have 15 members. They will be made up of 6 Trust employees, 4 GPs, 1 dentist, 1 pharmacist, 1 optometrist and 2 lay members. All the positions, apart from the six employees, will made by public appointment. Applications for these positions closed on 2 February and interviews have recently taken place.

For the latest information, see

www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/hss/rpa-home.htm

DE

• Programme Board chaired by Will Haire.
• RPA Stakeholders Group – advises on the development of new arrangements for the education sector and the mechanisms at local level.

The Education and Skills Authority will begin to operate in April 2008 – see ‘Appointments’ below. Consultation has recently closed on a number of policy papers, including those dealing with a new Education Advisory Forum, the schools estate, youth work and many other topics.

For the latest information, see

www.deni.gov.uk/index/8-admin_of_education_pg/100-review-of-public-administration.htm

DSD

• DSD is responsible for a number of significant elements of RPA implementation, particularly transferring major delivery functions from DSD and the NI Housing Executive to Local Government.

For the latest information, see www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/publications/dsd_rpa_faq.htm

2. APPOINTMENTS

• Gavin Boyd took up post as Chief Executive (Designate) of the new Education and Skills Authority (ESA) on 1 February 2007. The ESA is due to be operational from April 2008.
  
• Seven Assistant Local Boundaries Commissioners have been appointed. Their role was to carry out the public hearings into the Commissioner’s provisional recommendations of the seven new local government districts. They will subsequently submit written reports to the Commissioner based on written and oral representations within each of the areas.

3. PUBLICATIONS

The central RPA team are currently developing a communications strategy, and all of their news releases, circulars etc can be found here.

The first Minister’s Quarterly Bulletin was published in December and is available at www.rpani.gov.uk/index/rpa-communications/ministers-quarterly-bulletin.htm

4. CONSULTATIONS

Consultation is taking place on many of the changes and pieces of legislation needed to carry the RPA forward.

Health and Social Care structures
Consultation on legislation to create new health and social care structures is currently open and will close on 11 April. For more information visit this link.

Public Bodies
A consultation document on the draft guiding principles which will help to determine the location of new public bodies in Northern Ireland has now been published. Copies of the consultation document, which is open until 20 April, can be downloaded here.

Public Authorities Reform
This consultation closes on 20 April and it deals with the future of a range of public bodies under the RPA, including the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board. It can be accessed here.

Library Authority
Consultation on the legislation to create the Library Authority is now open and closes on 20 April. Click here to see the consultation document. The Libraries (NI) Order 2007 Screening Report is also out for consultation until that date and can be found here.

Public Sector Jobs
'Guiding Principles for the location of Public Sector Jobs in Northern Ireland’ is currently out to consultation with a closing date of 20 April 2007. For more information click here.

5. USEFUL LINKS

RPA website

www.rpani.gov.uk

NICVA resources on RPA

www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/ReviewofPublicAdministration

www.pscni.gov.uk

Public Service Commission (established in March, chaired by Sid McDowell, ‘To make recommendations to Government on the guiding principles and steps necessary to safeguard the interests of staff and to ensure their smooth transfer to new organisations’).

For further information or to receive this bulletin in another format, please contact Zoë Anderson at zoe.anderson@nicva.org or on 028 9087 7777.

This bulletin has been produced by the RPA Sub-group of the Joint Government/ Voluntary and Community Sector Forum. For more information on the Forum please visit: www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/Joint%20Forum