$Unique_ID{COW00538} $Pretitle{405} $Title{United Kingdom Social Affairs} $Subtitle{} $Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC} $Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC} $Subject{ireland northern belfast education housing social services schools department development} $Date{1990} $Log{} Country: United Kingdom Book: Northern Ireland Author: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC Date: 1990 Social Affairs Social Welfare Health and personal social services correspond fairly closely with those available in the rest of the United Kingdom and include hospital and general practitioner services, community health services and personal social services. They are administered on behalf of the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Services by four health and social services boards together with the Central Services Agency which provides certain common services to the boards. Associated with this structure are district committees, the principal function of which is to represent the interests of local people. Since the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 many hospitals have been modernised and new ones built. The majority of family doctors (60 per cent) practise from health centres in which the general medical and community health services are fully integrated and where there may also be provision for dental, pharmaceutical and ophthalmic services. The state services are complemented by the many and varied voluntary organisations - many of them receiving government grants - which cover most aspects of the health and personal social services. A recent development has been the growth in community associations and women's groups indicating an attempt at self-help and the wish to participate in developments in the community. There are also a large number of organisations working in the field of community relations whose purpose is to encourage contacts between Protestants and Catholics. Additional government funds for community relations work were announced in September 1987 especially to promote cross-community contacts among young people under the age of 19 (see p 10). Social Security The social security system is the same as in Great Britain. There are three kinds of benefits: those paid in return for contributions - for example, retirement pension, and benefits for sickness and unemployment, widowhood, maternity and industrial injuries; non-contributory benefits paid to certain groups of people, regardless of income - for example, attendance allowance and invalid care allowance; and income support and family credit, the former for people not in full-time work with incomes below specified levels and the latter for low-earners in full-time work with children to support. Housing benefits - rent rebates and allowances and rate rebates - are also available to people with low incomes, whether in work or not. Major reforms in the system of income-related benefits were introduced throughout the United Kingdom in April 1988. A new system of income support replaced supplementary benefits, family credit replaced family income supplement and there were changes in housing benefit. A new social fund was also established. The social fund provides help to people, mainly those in receipt of income support, with exceptional expenses which may be difficult to meet from regular income. The help is mainly in the form of loans but there is also provision for certain grants, including funeral and maternity payments. In addition to payments made under the social security schemes there are other benefits for which people with lower incomes may be eligible. They include help with health service charges, and legal aid and assistance. In recognition of the greater extent of social disadvantage in Northern Ireland, expenditure on all social programmes - health and personal social services, education and housing - is higher per head of population than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, there are proportionately more claimants to almost every social security benefit in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Education Public education, other than university education, is administered centrally by the Department of Education and locally by five education and library boards which are broadly equivalent to local education authorities in England and Wales. The boards must ensure that there are sufficient schools of all kinds to meet the needs of their areas and they provide primary and secondary schools, special schools for handicapped pupils, and institutions of further education. As in the rest of the United Kingdom, parents or guardians of children of compulsory school age - from 5 to 16 years - must see that their children receive full-time education but, unlike Great Britain, secondary education has not generally been reorganised on comprehensive lines. Northern Ireland has a high proportion of four-year-olds in primary schools which, when added to existing nursery provision, means that the proportion of three- and four-year-olds receiving some form of education compares favourably with other parts of the United Kingdom. There are three main categories of grant-aided school: controlled schools, owned and managed by the area education and library boards and having all their expenditure met from public funds; maintained schools, mainly under Roman Catholic management and also supported by public funds; and voluntary grammar schools, which may be under Roman Catholic or non-denominational management and receive grants from the Department of Education. As part of the Government's policy of enabling parents to have a greater say in their children's education the boards of governors of all grant-aided schools include elected parents and teachers. New arrangements have also been introduced to give parents greater freedom of choice in their selection of secondary school. The Government has announced that, in line with recent changes in England and Wales, there will be a national curriculum common to all schools in the province; in addition to religious education, this will comprise six main areas of study - English, mathematics, science and technology, the environment and society (including history and geography), creative and expressive studies, and, for secondary schools only, the study of French, German or Spanish. There will be formal assessment of pupils at the ages of 8, 11, 14 and 16 against specified assessment criteria. Pupils will be able to study Irish as an additional modern language and this too will involve formal assessment of progress. The proposals followed a process of consultation, based on the Government's preliminary views, which began in March 1988. While all grant-aided schools are open to children of all denominations, in practice the majority of children attending controlled schools are Protestant and the majority attending maintained schools are Roman Catholic. There are a number of integrated schools of which three have been given grant-maintained status. The best known, Lagan College, which opened with 28 pupils in 1981, now has over 500 pupils. The Government's policy is to encourage integrated education wherever there is a local wish for it. Under proposals published in October 1988, there would be a statutory requirement for government to encourage integrated education and financial assistance in the early stages of development of new integrated schools. There would also be provision for existing schools to opt for grant-maintained integrated status after a ballot of parents and, in order to encourage maximum participation by parents in such a ballot, the legislation will introduce provision for a second ballot of parents if less than half those eligible to vote take part in the first ballot. The result of the second ballot will be conclusive regardless of the level of participation. A higher proportion of children leave school in Northern Ireland having obtained General Certificate of Education Advanced-level passes than in the rest of the United Kingdom and almost half of school-leavers go on to some form of further education, more than a fifth of whom go to universities. There are two universities, which have some 20,000 full- and part-time students. The Queen's University of Belfast provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Art, Science, Law, Medicine (including Dentistry), Economics and Social Sciences, Engineering, Agriculture and Food Science, Theology and Education. The University of Ulster at Coleraine has a number of faculties - Art and Design, Business and Management Education, Humanities, Science, Social and Health Sciences, and Technology; operating on four campuses, it offers both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as courses leading to Higher National Diplomas and professional qualifications. Both universities have well-developed links with industry and offer a wide range of support services. Some 2,000 students were following Open University courses in 1987. Some 55,000 people are involved in full-time and part-time vocational courses at institutions of further education and importance is attached to the provision of many forms of continuing education. The education and library boards also provide library services and recreational and youth service facilities. Financial support is given to voluntary youth organisations which are an important means of cross-community contact. The Department of Education is the main financial support for the Arts Council, the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, the Ulster-American Folk Park and the Armagh Planetarium. Housing The Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland has overall responsibility for housing policy. Implementation of that policy in the public sector is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive which has a stock of approximately 175,000 dwellings (almost 33 per cent of the total stock). The Housing Executive is responsible for the building, allocation and maintenance of all publicly owned housing, for dealing with substandard dwellings, whether publicly or privately owned, and for paying grants for house renovation and home insulation. It also operates a housing advice service. The Department is responsible for approving the Housing Executive's capital and revenue budgets and has effective control over rent levels. Resulting from the place accorded to housing in the Government's public expenditure priorities for Northern Ireland, gross expenditure on all housing services has risen from around 325 million Pounds in 1980-81 to over 552 million Pounds planned in 1988-89. This has fuelled the drive to improve housing conditions in the province and substantial progress has been made in reducing the general level of unfitness, improving the overall condition of the housing stock and in meeting urgent housing needs. Measures designed to maximise the provision of housing by the private sector and to encourage owner-occupation have seen private sector new house building reach record levels in the last four years with over 7,000 starts in each year and a substantial increase in home ownership with more than 60 per cent of the housing stock in owner-occupation compared with 54 per cent in 1981. The right of Housing Executive tenants to buy has allowed many to acquire their own homes who might not otherwise have done so. Improvement and repair grants to home owners have brought about major improvements in the quality of housing. The shared ownership scheme (that is, part purchase, part rental) operated by the Northern Ireland Co-ownership Housing Association has provided some 8,000 people since 1978 with home ownership opportunities which they would otherwise have been unable to afford. Registered voluntary housing associations undertake a large programme of schemes for groups such as the elderly and disabled and also play a significant part in the rehabilitation of older dwellings, especially in Belfast. Planning Planning functions are exercised through the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, which is responsible for a regional strategy, the preparation of development plans, development control, urban renewal and the conservation of amenity lands. The Regional Physical Development Strategy introduced in 1975 to cover the period to 1995 is based on the development of the district towns. The main town in each district council area is seen as a point of planned population and industrial growth, Belfast, Londonderry and Craigavon playing a dominant role. The smaller country towns fulfil a more modest role, being primarily tourist centres and dormitory towns and in some cases service centres, although some industrial development is foreseen. The third and smallest type of settlement is the village which, with the country towns, may absorb part of the population displaced from the countryside by the reduction of employment opportunities in the farming industry. Major urban renewal projects have been carried out in Belfast and in Londonderry to rehabilitate areas suffering from urban decline. The new Belfast Urban Area Plan seeks to strengthen the city's position as a cultural and administrative centre; shopping areas have been modernised and retail trading revitalised with large-scale private investment. City action teams have been set up to assist the poorer areas and encourage communities to become involved in the development of the city. In Londonderry an award-winning inner city project and new shopping centre have been completed. 'Enterprise zones' have been established in both cities in which certain taxes and controls are removed or relaxed in order to stimulate business and commercial activity. Elsewhere Town Centre Programmes have been prepared for 23 district towns to encourage regeneration of town centres through urban development and environmental improvement grants and comprehensive development and pedestrianisation schemes. The Programmes will involve public and private sectors and will run for three years. The protection and conservation of the countryside and wildlife is also the responsibility of the Department of the Environment, which is advised by the Ulster Countryside Committee and the Nature Reserves Committee, and which has designated eight areas of outstanding natural beauty and 47 areas of scientific interest. There are 41 nature reserves and nine bird sanctuaries. The Department has also created seven country parks where public amenities are provided, in addition to the ten forest parks established by the Department of Agriculture. The National Trust, the largest private landowner and conservation society in Britain, owns important historic houses, gardens, nature reserves and stretches of coastline in Northern Ireland. Among its more unusual properties is a richly decorated Victorian public house in Belfast. Sport There are facilities for a wide range of sport at national and international level and Northern Ireland has produced sportsmen and sportswomen of world repute. The outstanding development in recent years has been the building of 29 multi-purpose leisure centres, eight of them in Belfast, which are much used by local communities and offer provision for many activities, from swimming and indoor cricket to bowls and archery, as well as facilities for disabled people. The Government makes grants for the provision of facilities for sport and recreation through district councils and voluntary bodies and the education and library boards make provision for sport and recreation in schools. The Sports Council for Northern Ireland is responsible for the development of sport and physical recreation; its main aims are to encourage wider participation and to improve sporting performance. Cultural Life Northern Ireland has a strong cultural tradition apparent in its songs and dances, literature and festivals. Northern Ireland poets and playwrights, in particular, have achieved considerable distinction in recent years. Folk history is recorded in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum which is one of the finest open-air museums in Europe, while the Ulster Museum contains archaeological and natural history collections as well as important collections of paintings. The Ulster-American Folk Park is another outdoor museum which traces the history of emigration to the United States based on the experience of the Mellon family. It is vested in the Scotch-Irish Trust of Ulster which was set up with the aid of an endowment from the Mellon family of Pittsburgh. The Ulster Historical Foundation promotes knowledge and interest in Ulster genealogy and history and is of particular help to Americans in tracing their ancestry. The Planetarium in the grounds of the Observatory at Armagh provides extensive facilities for teaching astronomy. Northern Ireland has its own Arts Council which contributes financially to the visual arts, the performing arts and literature, and runs a gallery in Belfast. There are orchestras and theatres and the renovated Grand Opera House stages opera and ballet productions. The Queen's Festival, based on Queen's University, is a major annual event and believed to be the largest university-based arts festival in Western Europe. Broadcasting is integrated with that of the rest of the United Kingdom so that all the national broadcasting services are available. In addition, a regional and local radio service is provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Ulster Television is the independent programme contractor and there is also an independent local radio station. The British national newspapers are read throughout Northern Ireland and there are two morning (one unionist and one nationalist), one evening and one Sunday paper, all published in Belfast. Addresses Northern Ireland Office, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AZ, and Stormont Castle, Belfast BT4 3ST. Department of Agriculture, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3SB. Department of Economic Development, Netherleigh, Massey Avenue, Belfast BT4 2JP. Department of Education, Rathgael House, Balloo Road, Bangor, County Down BT19 2PR. Department of the Environment, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SS. Department of Finance and Personnel, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SW. Department of Health and Social Services, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3SF. Arts Council for Northern Ireland, 181A Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5DU. Fair Employment Agency for Northern Ireland, Andras House, 60 Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7BB. Independent Commission for Police Complaints, Chamber of Commerce House, 20 Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7BA. Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, IDB House, 64 Chichester Street, Belfast BT1 4JX. International Fund for Ireland, IDB House, 64 Chichester Street, Belfast BT1 4JX. Local Enterprise Development Unit, LEDU House, Upper Galwally, Belfast BT8 4TB. Northern Ireland Business Centre, 11 Berkeley Street, London W1X 6BU. Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, 2 Annadale Avenue, Belfast BT7 3JR. Northern Ireland Tourist Board, River House, 48 High Street, Belfast BT1 2DS, and 11 Berkeley Street, London W1X 6BU. Office of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, 33 Wellington Place, Belfast BT1 6HN. Office of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, 33 Wellington Place, Belfast BT1 6HN. Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, 55 Royal Avenue, Belfast BT1 1FX. The Sports Council for Northern Ireland, House of Sport, Upper Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5LA.