COLLABORATIVE WORKING AT LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL Preparatory - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

SOCIAL INCLUSION FORUM 2019

COLLABORATIVE WORKING AT LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL

Preparatory Workshops

 Focus Group with

Community Workers

 Waterford  Tralee  Dundalk  Dublin  Castlerea

POVERTY LEVELS

 Poverty levels continue to be

unacceptably high

 Structural causes – not just

symptoms

 Cost of living – esp. housing  A consistency of inequality  Many groups and

communities including Travellers and other minorities not featured

“Poverty is hidden and dispersed – because people and families are getting HAP, they often live in areas that are not included in SICAP or other target areas”

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 At Risk of Poverty Rate (%) 19.4 18.3 17 16.5 14.4 14.1 14.7 16 16.5 15.2 16.3 16.3 16.2 15.7 Deprivation Rate (%) 14.2 14.8 14 11.8 13.7 17.1 22.6 24.5 26.9 30.5 28.9 25.4 21 18.8 Consistent Poverty Rate (%) 6.8 7 6.5 5.1 4.2 5.5 6.3 6.9 8.2 9 8.3 8.5 8.2 6.7 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Poverty & Deprivation

At Risk of Poverty Rate (%) Deprivation Rate (%) Consistent Poverty Rate (%)

“How many years are we waiting for the new National Action Plan? Is it really going to be presented without any real consultation?” STRATEGY & MEASUREMENT

What is essential is commitment to consultation and an understanding that consultation makes for better policy-making. It is too late now for consultation on the National Strategy so what we need is a clear commitment to robust processes built into the implementation of the Strategy. “People are really struggling but it is not always visible. The Resource Allocation Model and the targets that are set preclude us from working with people that really need it. There are a large number of refugees living in [name of area] but the Index indicates this is an affluent area – work we do there is not counted by the system” Deprivation measures need to be updated and reflect new forms of poverty, including exclusion and lack of access to services, particularly in rural areas

 Gaps in the implementation of

policy

 Monitoring mechanisms for

progress on poverty and social inclusion need to be reviewed and given additional status.

 Efforts to re-establish the

network of social inclusion

• fficers in each government

department was welcomed

 SIF – re-established as a robust

mechanism for accountability on progress.

IMPLEMENTATION & ACCOUNTABILITY

“How do we get the words on the pages of the National Report into action? Do these forums work? Does anything change?”

COLLABORATIVE WORKING AT LOCAL & NATIONAL LEVELS

 Welcome the shift to collaborative ways of working  Mechanisms such as the Local Community

Development Committees not reaching full potential – failing to get the government departments and agencies to collaborate on locally shared targets in many areas

 Competitive tendering and target setting for the

Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme and other programmes have been damaging

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

 Community Development is critical in

addressing poverty and social exclusion

 Decimated over the past number of

years by policy decisions and funding cuts

“Community development has been decimated – we really need autonomous infrastructure and programmes if we are serious about collaboration and making a real impact on poverty and social exclusion”

GETTING MORE FROM DATA

 Data and information sources currently used is problematic for a

number of reasons:



Main sources of data, such as SILC, fail to capture minorities, including Travellers;



Over-reliance on quantitative data - fails to reflect the lived experience and the impact of poverty on people and communities;



The over-reliance on income as a measure of poverty fails to reflect more comprehensive notions of wellbeing;  There is a myriad of data being collected at local, regional and

national levels by community organisations and government agencies but there are few attempts to collate the information being gathered.

SOCIAL INCLUSION AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

 Added cost of disability  Disproportionate number of people with disabilities in poverty  Measures needed to address barriers - clamp-down on behaviour

that inhibits people with disabilities -

 Access to employment - still very difficult and the ‘reasonable’

accommodation requirement on employers does not go far enough

 Greater measures required to support entrepreneurship for

people with disabilities

 Need greater awareness of disabilities amongst employers.

HOUSING & ACCOMMODATION AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

 Social Housing  Traveller

Accommodation

 Homelessness  Women in refuge not

counted

 HAP payments – top-up

THE ROLE OF EMPLOYERS IN SOCIAL INCLUSION

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE OF MANY EMPLOYERS TO MANY INCLUDING MINORITIES AND THOSE WITH DISABILITIES ISSUES FOR (WORKING) PARENTS ON LOW INCOME

TRAVELLER HEALTH & WELLBEING

 Issues have been well rehearsed

 Action based on Social

Determinants of Health that link social, economic and cultural conditions

 Traveller health and wellbeing cannot

be addressed in isolation of the wide range of issues being faced

 Traveller voice essential – need for

an autonomous Traveller

• rganisation in each area

BREXIT

 Fear of the unknown – return

• f the Border and associated

issues

 Already having an effect

including a chilling effect

 Supports to enterprise need

to be extended to community

OTHER ISSUES

Rural Isolation Refugees and Asylum Seekers Older People Carers