Northern Ireland needs a powerful Older People’s Commissioner - we agree ... do you?

AgeSectorPlatform
29 October 2009 - 2:54pm
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Tagged as:

• Age Concern Help the Aged NI
• Age Sector Platform
• Older people
• Older People's Commissioner
• We Agree

Between October 2009 and January 2010, the legislation that will define the powers and duties of the forthcoming Older People's Commissioner for Northern Ireland is open for public consultation.

This is a crucial stage in the development of an Older People's Commissioner for Northern Ireland and a valuable opportunity to influence the decision making process that will determine what the Commissioner's office should be responsible for and what powers it should have. 

The we agree campaign is a partnership between Age Sector Platform and Age Concern Help the Aged NI. The main aim of the campaign is to inform the decision making process to ensure that ultimately the role and responsibilities of the Older People's Commissioner for Northern Ireland will be robust, effective and serve the needs and best interests of older people.  We are now calling on all individuals and groups to join us and help present a united voice. 

The we agree campaign has produced an informative magazine and DVD to help people respond to the consultation in a meaningful way.  We encourage every individual older person and all older people's groups to respond to this consultation and to join us in our campaign. 

Older People have been waiting a long time for a Commissioner and we want one that has the capacity to make a difference without being hindered by the absence of what we believe would be essential powers.  

As our population ages we must ensure that older people are enabled to contribute as fully as possible for as long as possible and can be assured that their rights and interests will be adequately protected. 

In our opinion, an ideal Commissioner would be an independent body with a wide range of powers and duties, capable of making a real and positive impact on services for older people and tackling priority issues head on and with a sense of urgency. 

We agree that the Older People's Commissioner for Northern Ireland must: 

• Be empowered to act independently from all other government and public authorities 
• Be endowed with the capacity to undertake casework and initiate litigation in strategic cases 
• Have the power to mediate on issues of contention between service providers and older people 
• Have an arbitration function exercisable where time is a critical factor 
• Be empowered to conduct formal investigations, issue directives, conduct audits of compliance and reviews of performance 
• Be endowed with "victim" status to enable cases to be taken without the requirement to name an individual 
• Have the power to commission and publish research on issues affecting older people, provide information and stimulate debate on issues and models of good practice 
• Have a duty to communicate widely, seek the opinions of older people and take their views into account. 

Within the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland there is widespread support for a powerful Older People's Commissioner and we intend to increase the visibility of this support by building a coalition of organisations with the shared goal of campaigning for an Older People's Commissioner in Northern Ireland that has sufficient powers to protect the interests of older people, uphold their rights and act with urgency in cases of need.   

In the coming months the we agree campaign will have a distinct focus on extending the reach of campaigning activity to older people and the wider general public by making participation accessible and raising awareness of this important opportunity to take part in the consultation process. 

To get more information about how to respond to the consultation or to get involved with the we agree campaign visit the campaign's website:

http://olderpeoplescommissioner.ning.com

or contact: 

Michele Smyth (Project leader for the we agree campaign)

Tel: 028 90 230666

e-mail: michelle.smyth@ageconcernhelptheagedni.org