This weekend, the Citizens’ Assembly for Northern Ireland met for the final time to discuss the future of social care policy for older people. Its 77 members, broadly mirroring the demographics of the wider Northern Ireland population, looked at the public’s aspirations for social care for older people, including the role the health service, communities, and individuals need to play.

After six days of learning, deliberation, and decision-making, the Citizens’ Assembly collectively developed and agreed 27 recommendations to be presented to the Department of Health, which is responsible for the provision of social care. Tim Hughes, the Director of Involve, has thanked the Department for being “so welcoming of this process.”

These recommendations covered a number of themes including: person-centred care, care provision, and the systems and structures for the funding and delivery of care. As well as the recommendations, the Citizens’ Assembly agreed three high-level resolutions on transformation, funding, and political leadership:

  • 97% of the Citizens’ Assembly members agreed that “the existing service models for delivering social care for older people do not meet the needs and expectations of current and future service users” and called for a “comprehensive transformation programme with public and user engagement at its heart, to design a system fit for purpose.”
  • 86% of members agreed that “much more dedicated funding is needed to reflect demand and resource the appropriate provision of improved social care for older people. We urge Ministers and decision makers to take decisive and accountable action to address this under-investment and the poor management of resources.”
  • 81% of the members called for “strong, cross-party collaborative leadership on social care for older people in Northern Ireland’ and for ‘decision-makers to look beyond their party-political interests and make the decisions needed to deliver transformational change.”

The further 27 recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly offer meaningful guidance as to how decision-makers can achieve a transformative system of social care for older people, as called for by the overarching resolutions.

Recommendations include: the creation of a Junior Minister dedicated to social care once a power-sharing Executive has been re-established; the adoption of an ‘Older Persons’ Charter’; improved use of technology in social care; and improved regulation of all care providers to ensure consistent provision and quality of care.

The Citizens’ Assembly also unanimously agreed that better support is needed for carers. In order to “make caring a more attractive profession” the members agreed to an end of compulsory zero-hour contracts, as well as the paying of carers’ travel time and mileage expenses in addition to salary.

The care sector is currently one defined by some of the lowest wages in the labour market, a high turnover of staff, and, in Northern Ireland especially, a shortage of qualified nurses.

I have previously outlined on Northern Slant why social care policy for older people needs transforming, and the recommendations and resolutions produced by the Citizens’ Assembly are an excellent first step towards a more effective, community-grounded social care policy.

The issues raised by the Citizens’ Assembly for Northern Ireland demonstrate that serious discussions are required on the future of the social care system – especially on the integration of older people in society, and the value we associate with care work. These issues are not ones that can be resolved overnight by legislative changes alone. Meaningful conversations within society need to be had in order to establish a more effective, forward-thinking social care system. The Citizens’ Assembly has confirmed that these conversations are possible, and that society is willing to have them.

From observing the Citizen’s Assembly, what impressed me most was just how engaged the citizens themselves were. Social care policy is a complex topic to understand, and the work of the Citizens’ Assembly was spread over six, intense, long days. The genuine commitment of those 77 ‘ordinary’ people to discussing the future of social care policy for older people is nothing short of remarkable. That compassion I witnessed is the Northern Ireland I know and love.

At times I caught myself looking out at the packed room in awe at the engagement of the citizens; just 20 years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the Citizens’ Assembly has demonstrated that a cross-section of people from all backgrounds can come together, ask appropriate questions, and respectfully debate contested issues. This model of deliberative democracy has the potential to be used in the future, complementing decision-making at Stormont, in order to produce policies that are developed in line with the informed expectations of society.

 

An official launch of the report from the Citizens’ Assembly, including all 27 recommendations and three over-arching resolutions, will be made in January 2019. The initiative was delivered by Involve, the UK’s leading public participation charity, and the learning process was led by an academic team of social policy experts from Ulster University.

For more coverage of the Citizens’ Assembly for Northern Ireland, you may be interested in these recent articles from Northern Slant: