The community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland "has been abandoned" as vital organisations face huge cuts due to the loss of ESF funding that has provided support to thousands of society's most vulnerable.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, members from the sector warned the UK Government that the loss of vital funding will cripple communities and cost it more in the long run.
Over 1,700 community sector workers are facing redundancy and dozens of organisations are at risk of closure in 12 days due to a nearly 60% loss in funding due to the European Social Fund coming to an end in March and has not been replaced by the UK Government or Stormont.
Read more: How the loss of the European Social Fund will impact society's most vulnerable and marginalised
To date local Departments have declined to fully replace the £13m they previously provided whilst the UK Government’s new UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides only a partial replacement for the current ESF programme.
This loss of funding will particularly impact employability services which help over 18,000 marginalised people annually.
The Community Sector Peer Group, NICVA, CO3 and the NI Union of Supported Employment, which represent over 1,000 community organisations across Northern Ireland held a press conference at the Skainos Centre on the Newtownards Road in East Belfast on Tuesday, where they highlighted the impacts the cuts would have on the most vulnerable in our communities.
A number of service users also described how "they wouldn't be here today' if it wasn't for the support they received from ESF funded courses and programmes, such as Marc Young and Blair Anderson who are now working to provide help and support to others.
Marc, who grew up in the Shankill Road area said that after leaving school he had struggled with university and ended up unemployed for nearly a year as he found it difficult to find a focus in life. However through working with the Start programme run by Include Youth and Alternatives, he is now a youth worker himself and studying at university.
He said: "If it wasn't for the ESF funded programmes that I was able to be a part of, I would not be here today.
"Before it, I was doing nothing. While I did well in school when I went to university I just could not deal with the pressure.
"I then ended up on the brew for six months to a year before I managed to get onto the programme and I had developed a lot of issues with my confidence and mental health, but due to the area I was from I felt that I couldn't portray that to my friends or family.
"If I didn't get that support through the Start programme and Alternatives I wouldn't be where I am today, where I have managed to get qualifications and personally develop and have been working with Alternatives for the past seven years as a youth worker and am even studying at the University of Ulster."
Blair said that she had left school as a young teenager after having a baby at 14 and says she never imagined doing anything with her life and believed she was more likely to end up involved with the justice system rather than anything productive.
But after being given an opportunity through ESF funding she has transformed her life and now works at helping others and works full-time with the Northern Ireland Youth Forum supporting young people.
She said: "I left school in third year after becoming pregnant at 14, so school didn't suit my circumstances at that time.
"Due to the age that I had my daughter at, I became involved with social services and my social worker offered me a place at tech for an education course and I initially laughed at her at first, because that is how I saw my life, I had no hope or goals for the future.
"She persisted with me as I was able to get paid for attendance and ended up going to Stormont and lobbying for EMA for those attending tech and Include Youth, and we ended up being successful.
"In the process of doing that I was offered a work placement with the Alliance and DUP by people who saw something in me that I didn't and that set a fire under me and I continued until I got over 30 qualifications.
"But my support from social services ended at 21 and after this ended I went from having a huge amount of support around me to nothing at all and I actually had a mental breakdown trying to cope with it all.
"I reached back out to Include Youth and they continued to help me and if it wasn't for the opportunities and wrap-around support they provided I don't know where I would be and they have never left me and it keeps me going knowing they are there for me."
Blair said that it is "hard for her to grasp" the loss of ESF funding, because she felt that as the services provided are so vital, they would always be there for people.
She continued: "I never thought that this would be something that these organisations and programmes would have to come up against because the work that they are doing is vital.
"We are talking about the most marginalised and disadvantaged young people that are not exposed to the same opportunities as others, who struggle to access support and services as it is.
"The loss of this funding is not only going to hurt the economy, but cripple young people and their education and take away opportunities that do so much good work. Marc and I are no longer dependent on the benefit system or mental health services anymore and are able to give back to our communities and break the cycle and if you take that away many young people will be lost, with no direction in life."
The costs of supporting someone through a community-based employability programme will vary depending on the complexity of their needs but it can be as little as £600. The costs of unemployment for health, social services and justice budgets are substantially higher, up to £40,000 for someone who falls into the justice system.
A recent review of employment services provided by the Belfast Works consortium led by the Upper Springfield Development Trust found that it exceeded its employability targets by 400% and delivered them at a cost over 50% less than projected.
Rev Andrew Irvine, Chair of the Community Sector Peer Group and Chief Executive of East Belfast Mission said: “It’s a scandal that despite years of forewarning both Westminster and Stormont have decided by their inaction to decimate services which help disadvantaged people get off benefits and into employment. It’s a case of saving pennies now only to spend pounds later.
“While Westminster has shown some flexibility with funding, the lack of purposeful engagement from our local departments has been extremely disappointing. Given that these departments have a statutory duty to provide employability services, I struggle to understand why they are prepared to let these services and jobs disappear.
“These are 1,700 real jobs providing critical services but also around £40m in salaries for the local economy.
“We’re grateful for the overwhelming support from local parties, but with just weeks of funding left it’s fair to say that the community sector feels abandoned by the political process and civil servants in London and Belfast.”
Celine McStravick, NICVA’s Chief Executive, said: “Employability services provided by the community sector have a track record of delivering success which is unmatched by similar Government projects.
“It has taken years for the sector to build up the expertise which lies behind that success – those skills are now at serious risk of being lost and it’s hard to see how they’ll be replaced.
“If a manufacturing firm threatened to close with the loss of 1,700 jobs because of a Government decision, there would be a public outcry. Our groups feel, however, that their jobs and the services they provide are expendable.
“Report after report has demonstrated the community sector’s major economic contribution to Northern Ireland; we need Government to start nurturing rather than undermining the sector.
“At the end of the day, we help provide the services that keep Northern Ireland running, we’re not a ‘nice to have’ – we’re essential.”
Valerie McConville, CO3’s Chief Executive, added: “I hope departmental officials will take this last opportunity to acknowledge the overwhelming political support to safeguard these services and respond with meaningful funding.
“We urge them to reconsider if there are monies available from underspend in other departmental programmes, but more importantly, will they commit to bridge any interim funding gaps caused by delays in the UKSPF becoming operational.
“Longer term, we need local politicians and officials to set out how they view the future of the sector. The current situation where groups are forced to stagger from funding crisis to funding crisis is unsustainable.”
Edyth Dunlop, Regional Manager of the NI Union of Supported Employment, said: “The ending of the ESF Programme without a full replacement programme will not only impact on staff and services but on individuals who are at risk of being further left behind.
"Northern Ireland has the highest rate of economic inactivity and the lowest employment rate for people with disabilities in the UK. It doesn’t make sense to not continue vital services which address this. From 1st April 2023 there will be no pre-employment training for disabled people or those most vulnerable unless actions and decisions are made now.”
A cross-party pledge signed by 65 MLAs is now urging Stormont Departments to step in to help save services.
The MLAs acknowledge that the services provided are “invaluable to the most disadvantaged and marginalised in Northern Ireland who find it difficult to access employment” and that the services will cease if the current groups are not funded adequately.
The MLAs also noted that they have “seen first-hand how successful these services have been in helping the most vulnerable in our society into employment and training, and that they save the public purse money by reducing demand on social care and other pressurised public services.”
In particular, the MLAs urged “Northern Ireland’s Economy, Finance, Communities, Health and Justice Departments to make a meaningful financial contribution to ensure these services can continue to operate to their full capacity, which will in turn significantly help with cost prevention in other aspects of care.”
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