Joint Forum Panel Minutes 8 Feb 2006

PRESENT

Maurice Leeson (Chair)

Lynn Carvill

Jim Deery

Roy Hanna

Patricia Haren

Seamus McAleavey

Frances McCandless (Secretariat)
Zoë Anderson (Secretariat)

1 Welcome

Maurice welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologised for the postponement from January. Members were reminded that if they are unable to attend, they should let the Secretariat know as soon as possible in order that adequate notice can be given if a date needs to be changed.

2 Apologies

Apologies were received from Chris Ball, Patricia Cooke, Grace Henry, Michael Hughes, Marcas Mac Ruairi, Elaine McElduff, Carol O’Bryan, Anne O’Reilly, Wendy Osborne and Ricky Rowledge.

3 Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as accurate.

4 Matters Arising

All matters arising are covered in the agenda items.

5 Policy online tool

Frances McCandless gave a brief presentation to the meeting on the development of the ‘Have Your Say’ online policy tool, and demonstrated what a sample site might look like. This included cartoons, quizzes and information provided in a range of easily understandable formats.

Policy capacity work coming from Positive Steps has no resources, however money is available within the E-Government Unit to work on connecting citizens to government, and this project is one way of helping to improve the capacity of the sector as well. BIFHE have been working on interactive online tools, at a very basic ‘point and click’ level, so the concept (known as ‘Mall NI’) can be accessible to those with limited IT skills or literacy. It will be aimed at everyone from citizens to civil servants to voluntary and community organisations. One benefit is that by having a great depth of information online, you only need to visit the areas or subjects you are personally interested in.

A steering group is now being set up including E-Government Unit, OFMDFM, BIFHE, and Frances and Maurice will be sitting on it. There is no definite timescale, but this would hopefully be available for use within a year.

The main barrier will be how to get people interested in the first place, which is where the sector will have a vital role to play. People will need to know what policy is on the most practical level ie how it will affect their daily lives. A clear link between policy and funding should be shown. A CD would be a good way of disseminating the information to households.

6 Sub-groups updates

The Training Sub-Group met at the end of December. Members will be aware of the Study Day which is taking place on 16 February, and were reminded to confirm any intention to attend as soon as possible. Numbers are quite low which is disappointing but many people have said they would like to attend on another date. It is planned to run at least one more similar event, and members are welcome to suggest topics or organisations to visit.

The Secretariat have been working on updating induction materials, in particular on the government side, and it is intended to put all of these on the CommunityNI website. This will also hold all minutes (including those of the IDG), useful publications, links etc.

The Joint Training Course, which has been run very successfully on two previous occasions, will hopefully take place in June of this year and more information will follow in due course.

The Strategy Sub-Group met in early January. There are currently vacancies for two members from the sector and an email will be sent to members asking for volunteers. The timeline for Partners for Change has fallen very badly behind and if the document is published at the start of 2007, the majority of what it contains will be historical fact rather than a strategy. Departments are at present being asked to resubmit their information, however the outcomes of the RPA will make this difficult for some of them. Departments have agreed to hold bilateral meetings with the sector, as it was agreed this worked very well last time. It is hoped to have a draft to the Forum by June and full consultation at the end of the year.

It has been agreed that the Compact needs to be revisited, and possibly updated to take into account major policy agendas such as Section 75 and Sustainable Development, which did not exist at the time of writing. The problem of increasing awareness remains, and the Partners for Change process will be a good opportunity to roll it out more fully. It was agreed that we need to emphasise that the Compact is only being revisited due to policy changes, and explain why this is taking place.

A small working group met at the end of December to discuss Recommendations 1-5 of the Review of the Joint Forum. As a result of this meeting, an Aim for the Forum was written, and the Terms of Reference were redrafted. These will now be discussed at the full Forum meeting so they can be agreed by members.

One issue that has come up at previous meetings regarding the Review recommendations was that the words ‘and volunteering’ be omitted. The working group discussed this recommendation and agreed that there is no obvious rationale for retaining these words in the ToR, as volunteering is inherent to the sector – voluntary management committees are one aspect of the sector that makes it unique.

It was agreed that the fifth point in the ToR which deals with the policy function of the Forum sums up the two aspects of the role very well. It is important that the Forum continues to act as an ‘early warning system’ or ‘sounding board’ for policy development.

7 Positive Steps update

The Implementation Group met on 28 November and should meet again in early March. NICVA have met with VCU and have agreed to do one major report and one 6-month update per year, on how Positive Steps is being implemented and its effects on the sector. NICVA hope to do this by the end of February however this may be affected by the postal strike (in the meantime the survey will be available online and details will be sent by email). It is hoped that groups will answer honestly and report any change, no matter how small. NICVA also plan to hold another event as a follow up to the one held in June 2005.

Nothing further has happened on the issue of ‘lead departments’. The idea seems to have become confused within Departments – the intention was never to move all funding streams to one Department, but rather about auditing responsibilities. DFP needs to take the lead on rolling this out.

8 PSI article and update

Following the presentation of the PSI report to the Forum, it was agreed that in order to disseminate the findings, an article would be submitted to SCOPE. The article was drafted and circulated to members, for agreement at this meeting. One small change to the wording was decided on, and the article will now be submitted for publication.

Members were very concerned about the continued lack of an Anti-Poverty Strategy, and the probability that its name when published will be changed to ‘Lifetime Opportunities’. Removing ‘poverty’ from the very title of the document does not bode well for its intentions, and diverts the focus it should have. ‘Lifetime Opportunities’ is a totally irrelevant name, has no obvious link to what the strategy should contain, and will have no meaning for anyone who is not aware of its existence. No draft has been seen, yet we are expecting publication within the next few weeks. It was agreed that Maurice will write to the Minister on behalf of the Panel expressing these concerns.

9 Items for Forum meeting, 6 March

The following will be proposed for the Forum agenda – updates on Anti-Poverty Strategy, A Shared Future and Neighbourhood Renewal; response from OFMDFM on PSI paper; agreeing the new Aim and Terms of Reference; visit from NCVO and Home Office regarding the Compact; Positive Steps updates/reports including the Modernisation and Community Investment Funds; and the Review of Public Administration. It was suggested that the RPA should form the discussion groups item as well as updates from key Departments such as DoE, DHSSPS and DE.

10 Communications

It was suggested that a leaflet or pamphlet be designed as a way of promoting the Forum. This would contain basic information and details of how to find out more. This will be suggested to Joint Chairs and could be taken forward by Secretariat or a sub-group.

As discussed above, more information will be made available on CommunityNI over the coming months. Members agreed that the communiqués produced after the Forum meetings are very useful and can be amended as necessary for their own publications.

11 AOB

A concern was raised about banks asking for personal details of voluntary directors when accounts are opened, including sensitive health information. As this does not involve government it would not be an issue for the Forum, however NICVA will investigate on behalf of the sector.

NICVA’s Policy Manifesto process is starting again and members were encouraged to sign up to relevant groups. This will be published in the autumn. NICVA is also running a range of policy training and seminars, details of which are available on the Policy page of CommunityNI.

12 Dates of next meetings

The Forum meets in NICVA on Monday 6 March at 9.30 for 10.00. The next panel meeting is on 23 March at 10.00.