Joint Forum Panel Minutes 23 March 06

PRESENT

Maurice Leeson (Chair)

Chris Ball

Patricia Cooke

Roy Hanna

Patricia Haren

Olwen Lyner

Marcas mac Ruairi

Elaine McElduff

Wendy Osborne

Zoë Anderson (Secretariat)

1 Welcome

Maurice welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2 Apologies

Apologies were received from Lynn Carvill, Jim Deery, Grace Henry, Seamus McAleavey, Frances McCandless, Carol O’Bryan, Ricky Rowledge and Monica Wilson.

3 Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 February were agreed as an accurate record.

4 Matters Arising

All matters arising are covered in the main agenda. Zoë reminded members that NICVA have begun the process of developing their new Policy Manifesto and that the closing date for signing up to the categories has been extended until 21 April. You can sign up online at www.nicva.org

5 Attendance at meetings and use of alternates

The fact that many people attended the full Forum meeting but did not stay for the entire agenda highlights some general attendance issues that need to be addressed.

The alternate system exists for many good reasons and it should be properly utilised. Alternates should be encouraged to attend all meetings so they can keep abreast of what are very complex ongoing issues, therefore allowing them to represent the member at short notice if necessary. In fact, they should be told they are expected to attend. Appointing an alternate also allows double the number of organisations to have access to the Forum and its information. This is one reason why alternates should be appointed from a different organisation to the member. This also means that if the member is busy, the alternate is more likely to be free at the same time. It was agreed that in future, guidance will state that alternates must be selected from a separate organisation.

Other advantages of the alternate system include spreading the workload for working groups etc, and allowing some continuity when a member’s term expires, as their alternate could then apply for full membership. The alternate does not necessarily need to be a paid employee, eg Roy is a volunteer and board member of RCN. Zoë is available to provide any guidance or suggestions if members wish to change their alternate – this would be advisable if the person they originally suggested takes no part in the Forum.

While it is inevitable that not every member can make every meeting, and that we are to an extent tied to set Forum dates, these are usually set well in advance and members are expected to make the effort to attend or at least send their alternate. In particular, members must make the effort to let Secretariat know of their attendance or apologies, well in advance, and if they send apologies they are then responsible for encouraging the alternate to attend. A letter will be sent to all members to reinforce the points made in this discussion.

6 Feedback from Joint Forum

It was generally felt that the meeting was a bit ‘too civilised’ and that we were ‘too nice’ to the Minister, rather than being more forceful and asking difficult questions. All the points he made were things we could agree with. However, he is genuinely interested in the sector and we should endeavour to take full advantage of that while he is here. It is difficult to engage more when the bureaucracy is so complex and when civil servants can’t speak openly in the Forum. Protocol dictates that they speak to a brief and that no opinions are expressed. It was suggested that if the Minister is going to be asked to come to part of a Forum meeting once a year, while this is good for publicity and prestige, it may be of more benefit to raise issues from the sector prior to that meeting. Perhaps this could be done in the form of an agreed delegation from the Panel, who could agree issues beforehand.

The Forum meeting was also felt to be quite ‘flat’ and it was agreed that the interactive small working groups were badly missed – unfortunately the busy agenda simply did not allow for them to take place. Generally all the government representatives, including the Minister, were perceived to have been very guarded in any discussion around funding or timescales. It is very frustrating when Departmental representatives will not speak, even when prompted to.

7 Following up on PSI paper with OFMDFM

As the OFMDFM representative did not stay for the duration of this item at the Forum meeting, a new course of action is necessary. It was felt that at the meeting they did not address the issues we had highlighted. Maurice has discussed this with Carol O’Bryan who was unable to attend the Panel, and intends to write to OFMDFM to ask for a meeting with Carol, Anne O’Reilly and Ricky Rowledge – this action was agreed by the Panel and will be discussed at the next Panel meeting, then again put to the full Forum.

Following on from the discussion on attendance, it is important that all members from both sides, when confirming attendance, also indicate if they will be unable to stay for the whole meeting for any reason. This is particularly important for Departments who are presenting an issue. It was suggested that rather than asking for updates on issues, we should put questions requiring answers. The Departmental reps meet in IDG prior to the Forum and have sight of the Forum agenda in advance just like we do – they should be able to contribute something. This will be taken up by Joint Chairs.

8 The Compact

A summary of what we have learned from the three jurisdictions will be compiled before the Panel next meets. The Compact needs to be updated and revitalised, but not substantially altered, and we need to know more about how it is used, if at all, in Departments. The RPA could prove to be a very useful way to drive the Compact down into local government and public bodies. There really does need to be some Council involvement in the Forum, and we also would like to know who is involved in the new DoE Taskforce and Sub-groups. The Panel would like more information on what DSD is doing with the Compact, how it uses it itself and how it intends to lead on it in future.

The Compact and how we progress with it should be the key discussion item at the next Forum meeting, in light of the RPA. Our views on how the Compact should be included in new local government need to be put to the RPA team as soon as possible, while the new arrangements are being put in place. Such positive action from the Forum would also encourage engagement and attendance, as we could show real wins and advances in relationships.

9 Positive Steps

Zoë clarified that the report presented by NICVA at the Forum was the six-monthly short report and that a full report will be presented in another six months giving much more detail (as NICVA was tasked to do in Positive Steps). The content of the first report was greatly curtailed by poor survey response due to the postal strike and there will be a lot more to report on later in the year.

The recent developments with the Children’s Fund are a clear example of Positive Steps not being implemented. Money was allocated out of the blue with no strategic planning or discussion, and after organisations had already made staff redundant or moved them to new arrangements. Now much of this money cannot be spent as the original structures no longer exist! This undermines everything that Positive Steps advocates on planning and good governance. There needs to be a strategy and a policy context for this money to be effective, for example a 10-year Children and Young People Strategy with targeted resources. Without this context the £14million is practically useless, especially as (as David Hanson pointed out) so much of it needs to be used to set up and wind down projects. In fact it appears that across the sector, instead of the long-term funding environment envisaged by Positive Steps, posts are increasingly being funded for only one year, not even two or three. Many groups are still going from crisis to crisis with only short-term fixes and no strategic input. Security of funding is simply not being implemented and the Children’s Fund is a good example of bad working!

Another question that we could pose to Departments is, one year on, what steps they are taking to implement Positive Steps. This would be a good way to further interrogate the document and monitor the key issues of long-term funding and strategic planning.

10 Sub-groups and working groups updates

No sub-groups have met since the last Panel meeting. Two volunteers are needed for the Strategy Sub-group – Wendy Osborne put herself forward, and an email will be sent asking other members.

The Working Group looking at Recommendations 1-5 of the Review was discussed at the last Panel, however some members are not happy with the removal of the words ‘and volunteering’ from the Forum’s Terms of Reference. The rationale for its removal was that it was believed to be implicit in ‘voluntary and community sector’ and that one aspect of the sector should not be singled out – in defence of its retention it was stated that volunteering cuts across the whole sector unlike any other aspect and that it has value at the heart of the voluntary and community sector – this also reflects the content of the Compact where volunteering is specifically referred to under a number of headings. It was also highlighted that the governance of the sector is done by volunteers through management boards. We know how important specific wording is to civil servants and there are concerns that volunteering could get lost entirely from the definition in the future if it is removed now. These issues will be taken back to the Working Group and to Joint Chairs.

The Study Day which took place on 16 February had been organised by the Training Sub-group and, while a very interesting day, was extremely poorly attended. It is hoped that another event will be organised later in the day and that sufficient numbers attend to make the amount of work by sub-group members worthwhile.

11 Communications

The suggestion of producing a leaflet to publicise the Forum will be discussed at Joint Chairs and can be progressed at the next Panel meeting.

12 AOB

No additional business was raised.

13 Dates and venues of future meetings

Panel 3 May 2.00pm (immediately after Positive Steps conference), NICVA

Forum 25 May 9.30am for long half day, venue TBC

Panel 7 June 10.00am, NICVA

Dates of future Forum dates will be circulated after they have been set by Joint Chairs.