Northern Ireland Assembly Election

The elections are over and the 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly have been elected

This is the result of the Northern Ireland elections held on 5 May 2011 for the 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) seats.

• Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 38
• Sinn Fein (SF) 29
• Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 16
• Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 14
• Alliance 8
• Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) 1
• Green 1
• Independent 1

Northern Ireland Executive

The Executive is headed by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, who act jointly in all matters. Along with the 11 departmental ministers, chosen from the Northern Ireland Assembly and accountable to the Assembly, they make up the Executive Committee Cabinet. There has been no change with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and Peter Robinson (DUP) have been elected to lead the Executive Committee of Ministers. Jonathan Bell (DUP) and Martina Anderson (SF) will be junior ministers in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFM/DFM).
 
The following are the Departments and which party is taking the portfolio and name of the incoming Minister:

• Education; John O'Dowd Sinn Fein is to be Education Minister
• Enterprise, Trade and Investment; Arlene Foster is to be Enterprise Minister
• Environment; Alex Attwood, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), is the new Environment Minister
• Health, Social Services and Public Safety;- DUP's Edwin Poots will be Health Minister and in two years time Jim Wells will take over the health post.
• Agriculture and Rural Development;  Michelle O Neill Sinn Fein is to be Minister of Agriculture
• Regional Development; Danny Kennedy Ulster Unioists(UU) will be Minister for Regional Development
• Finance and Personnel; Sammy Wilson DUP Finance Minister and in two years Simon Hamilton will take on the finance portfolio.
• Culture, Arts and Leisure; Caral Ni Chuilin,  Sinn Fein is to be Minister of Culture.
• Social Development; Nelson McCausland DUP is to be Social Development Minister.
• Employment and Learning. Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party will be the new Minister for Employment and Learning
• Justice David Ford Alliance Party

A summary of what the result might mean for OTs

 
Department of Health
DUP has taken the portfolio for Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety with Edwin Poots as the new Minster of Health for the first two years and Jim Wells to take over for the following two years. What will this mean for occupational therapists?  We can firstly look at the DUP manifesto 2011 'Let’s keep Northern Ireland moving forward.' Very generally some of the areas /themes in the manifesto that they seek to work towards and would have relevance for occupational therapists are:

• moving care to the community, increase investment in rehabilitation.
• produce an Allied Health Professionals Strategy
• changes to organisation and infrastructure
• focus on health promotion
• moving forward with legislation, policy and service provision
• emphasis on modifications and telecare

 
These are some of the more specific points that may have relevance for occupational therapists. They are not taken in any particular order from the manifesto. The DUP say in their manifesto that a DUP Health Minister would seek to 'reconfigure provision to shift the 25-30% of care currently carried out inappropriately in hospitals into the community-patients must be treated in the right place at the right time by the right people...'
 
They also say they will 'increase investment in intermediate care and rehabilitation to treat more patients with chronic illnesses at home rather than requiring hospital admission,' and to 'reconfigure services shifting resources from acute to community-based services as outlined in the Bamford Report.'  In the care of older people DUP would intend to 'reinforce teams to ensure care assessments are conducted swiftly' and have 'dedicated discharge teams to allow patients to leave hospital promptly.' DUP would also seek to 'provide the opportunity for older people to play a full and active role in the community.'
 
They intend to 'overhaul commissioning to have budgets held at local level...'  In addition they would aspire to 'transform the range of services which are tendered for' and they include ‘social care’ in that list. They also would intend to 'have 80% of domiciliary care provided by charities and other non statutory organisations by 2015'. Greater productivity of the health service they say is essential and also would seek 'to incorporate the Public Health Agency within the Health and Social Care Board.' They propose to minimise waiting times for assessment and treatment across the Northern Ireland Health service, utilise fully ICT including progressing a single electronic health record for each patient and ensure patients’ review appointments are not delayed or cancelled in order to meet politically-driven targets, saying these have skewed resources and led to distorted clinical priorities.
 
Health promotion will be an area of focus  and they intend to allocate to public health an increasing percentage of the overall health budget with a view to increasing spend on health promotion and disease prevention beyond £100 million, to more than two and a half times the 2007 figure. They also include that they seek to 'frontload funding for the first few years of life, investing in health promotion and preventative and early intervention measures.'
 
They would aim to publish an Allied Health Professionals strategy. Additionally they want to introduce a Dignity Charter for Older People in Hospital, produce a long term strategy for Caring for our Older People, replicate elements of the Partnership for Older People projects in Scotland, restore funding for the stroke strategy, implement an effective dementia strategy, implement a Service Framework for Cancer, produce a Positive Ageing strategy  and take forward mental capacity legislation. They would seek to ensure everyone who needs cardiac rehabilitation can access it and expand our addictions provision. They speak of instilling resilience and coping skills in young people and improving access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Providing more respite packages and short breaks for those with disabilities and their families is included in the manifesto and DUP also would seek to 'encourage those with disabilities to participate in sport.'  They also seek to have greater transparency in funding for children’s services and aim to overhaul the Regional Autistic Spectrum Disorders Network and speed up diagnosis and intervention for autism.

The manifesto includes that a DUP Minister would seek to 'provide sufficient resources for a range of modifications including fitting hand and grab rails in elderly people’s homes to prevent falls...' They also note in another section on valuing older people that Laing and Buisson found in 2008 that postponing entry into residential care by adapting people’s homes saves over £28,000. They would also want to explore local telecare interventions.
 

Department of Social Development
 

DUP has also taken the portfolio for the Department for Social Development Minister with Nelson McCausland as Minister. Generally some areas they would seek to work on that may have relevance for occupational therapists are:

• simplifying the social security system and improving the processing system to take account of difficulties of people with conditions such as autism
• place an increased focus on the housing needs of the vulnerable including the elderly and disabled
   

 
In their manifesto in relation to welfare some aims are to 'support and implement logical welfare reforms that simplify the social security system and support people to move from welfare to work' and to 'further improve the processing system to take greater account of and show more sensitivity in the difficulties experienced by people with conditions such as autism' and support expansion of the winter fuel allowance to cancer sufferers. In housing they include in the manifesto seeking 'to place an increased focus on the housing needs of the vulnerable including the elderly and disabled, ensuring processes are more sympathetic to their particular needs' and also 'produce a comprehensive, cross- Departmental homelessness strategy.'
 
In the manifesto they have also included a section on Social Impact Bonds. These they describe as 'outcomes based contracts where external investment is used to frontload funding for interventions by proven providers, and the state then pays on the basis of results for significant improvements on social outcomes for a defined population.'
 

Department of Education

Sinn Fein has once again taken the portfolio for education, however with a change of Minister. John O'Dowd Sinn Fein is now Education Minister. The Sinn Fein manifesto includes the following in the area of education:

• 'Support and promote Sinn Féin’s education reform programme' 
• ensure the education system is grounded in the twin aims of excellence and equality, and address structural inequalities wherever they persist
• cut back on bureaucracy and ensure that more resources are put into frontline services
• build more new schools on the basis of area needs
• promote the collaborative schools framework
• harmonisation of the two education systems on the island
• raise standards and ensure that all children are given an equal chance in our system
• promote and facilitate Irish medium education.”

 
Link to manifesto: http://www.sinnfein.ie/manifesto-downloads (accessed 10.05.11)

Department for Employment and Learning

Alliance has taken the portfolio for the Department for Employment and Learning and the Minister is Dr Stephen Farry. One interesting point in their manifesto summary was
'develop an inter-agency ‘total place’ approach to inactivity and unemployment.' 

Department of Justice

David Ford of Alliance is again Minister of this Department. In their manifesto summary they include the following 2 points which may be of interest to occupational therapists:

• reduce offending and re-offending via an inter agency approach
• reform the prison system

 
The link to the manifesto is on the Alliance Homepage: http://www.allianceparty.org/ (accessed 10.05.11)

What BAOT will be doing to promote the profession post-election

Writing to all successful members in relevant departments to introduce ourselves and profession to members.
 

• arrange meetings with new ministers, Health committee members/ spokespeople
• scrutinise the party manifesto's to identify our messages
• partnership working with AHP Groups such as AHPFNI and also partnership organisations such as Mental Health and Learning Disability Alliance and user representative groups such as the Long Term Conditions Alliance Northern Ireland
• empower COT Members to influence
• linking members into political process
• informing and connecting with Members, what are the issues for members –what do they want to influence regarding
• inspiring members to put COT messages into practice

Members - what can you do?

• Be aware of the political process and the party’s political messages
• Know the messages for occupational therapists and particularly for your area of work. COT has produced some useful information such as '10 high impacts'.
• Find out who is the AHP lead in the Department of Health and Social Services and Public Safety and what is she responsible for
• Find out who is the AHP Consultant at the Public Health Agency who is the link for the occupational therapy profession?
• Find out what are the structures in Northern Ireland? What will local commissioning mean for occupational therapists?
• The people who are working in the structures need to know what occupational therapists can do or are doing. How can we ensure they get relevant information and evidence to demonstrate the value of occupational therapists?   
• Identify any opportunities where we can help you to influence and get in contact to discuss
• Get involved! There are lots of opportunities to get involved in the profession in Northern Ireland and there are now many occupational therapists here who are really involved. There is for example the Northern Ireland Board and a number of very active Specialist Sections. Is there a Specialist Section area you feel is missing or would you like to set up a local group? 
• Think of the people who use occupational therapy services- this is really who we want to influence on behalf of. What can we do to influence on their behalf and prove the value of occupational therapy services?

 
Get in touch with Kate.Lesslar@cot.co.uk if you have any questions, thoughts or comments