When the Stormont executive was rebooted in February, we were promised that it was ready to hit the ground running. If it’s done any running since then, it’s been mostly in circles. Only now has it deigned to produce a draft programme for government, one of the most fundamental functions of any administration.
It is a shame that the far-too-long seven months it has taken for the four-party executive to finally haul its big plan into the light of day wasn’t used to lend the document a sense of precision. In too many sections it squeezes a lack of clarity and meaning into the maximum number of words and jargon.
Nor does it contain a comprehensive set of measurable targets. Instead, it details nine broad areas as “immediate priorities”.
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These range from ‘deliver more affordable childcare’ and ‘safer communities’ to ‘cut health waiting times’ and ‘provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing’. While undoubtedly worthy and desirable, they are so obvious and agreeable that it is hard to understand why it has taken so long to reach this point.
The executive then talks about having four ‘missions’: people, planet, prosperity and peace. This will strike many as waffle. To further complicate matters, the ‘missions’ have “been broken down across 10 strategic domains of wellbeing supported by a selection of indicators…” These will be presented on a so-called ‘wellbeing dashboard’.
Instead of gobbledygook like “domains of wellbeing” - a phrase heavy with the dead hand of the civil service and management consultants, and not the sort of thing heard on the fringes of the Sinn Féin ard fheis or the DUP conference - most people would have settled for the executive to instead share solid targets for cutting hospital waiting lists or building new homes, and some idea of how it intends to reach them.
On waiting times, there is a graph showing the alarming increase of patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment, from 77,000 in 2008/09 to 429,000 in 2023/24. If anything, this is a damning indictment of how the public’s lot has worsened under successive executives.
Instead of gobbledygook like “domains of wellbeing” most people would have settled for the executive to instead share solid targets for cutting hospital waiting lists or building new homes, and some idea of how it intends to reach them
The Bengoa review to transform health and social care is almost eight years old, but a lack of political courage means it has never been properly implemented. Can we really expect things to change now?
It is striking that after 80 pages, a mere page-and-a-half, plus a chart, is devoted to ‘funding’. If there has been a historical lack of money at Stormont, there has also been a lack of gumption in how to spend it properly.
If this new programme for government is to amount to anything, that needs to change and we need to see real delivery, fast.
