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$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