Submission to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive from

The Children’s Law Centre regarding

Places for People, the Rural Housing Policy Review

Introduction

The Children’s Law Centre is a voluntary organisation that was established in 1997. It aims to help young people, their parents and professionals work with and understand the laws which affect children. Although based in Belfast, the centre has a Northern Ireland wide remit.

Current priority areas of work include education and training, legal advice and research, all of which have a rights based approach as their starting point. In addition to working directly with young people, much work is also carried out with adults involved in children’s lives through mechanisms such as training, involvement in conferences, inter-agency work and responses to draft government policy and legislation.

The Children’s Law Centre is founded on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and seeks to ensure that the equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 which relate to children are complied with. We are also working to promote greater awareness among Public Authorities of the implication for them of next year’s incorporation into domestic legislation of the European Convention on Human Rights, with particular reference to children.

The Children’s Law Centre welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to NIHE.

We would like to highlight the following points.

Responsibility for Implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

In 1991 the UK government ratified the UNCRC. This means that it agreed that children and young people up to the age of 18 have certain rights which government and its agents would uphold.

In relation to this submission we would like to draw your attention to the following Articles: Article 2, - Non-Discrimination, Article 12 – The Child’s Opinion, Article 17 – The Right to Information, Article 27 – Standard of Living and Article 31 – The Right to Play. A copy of the UNCRC is attached for your information.

Places for People - Chapter 3 – The Changing Nature of Rural Northern Ireland

In relation to Household Profiles (points 3.6-3.29) we note the lack of visibility of children and young people. As the statistics provided relate to categories such as ‘head of household’, ‘employment status’ etc., children within these households are not discussed at all. For instance, there is no discussion on the numbers of children living in unfit dwellings.

With regard to unfitness levels while the decrease in unfitness levels of 5% since 1991 is to be welcomed, it is unacceptable that 1400 houses per year become unfit in rural areas and that this is twice the rate of urban homes. Preventative action must be taken by the NIHE to stop this occurring, otherwise there may be a case for discrimination against children in rural homes that are allowed to become unfit.

The Children’s Law Centre would like to see agencies such as the NIHE take affirmative action in making children visible in their policy documents. Perhaps the Executive could approach those preparing the census questions so that questions relating to children and housing could be incorporated into future documents and discussions.

Places for People - Chapter 4 – Review of Progress

The piloting of the Latent Demand Test is to be welcomed. The Children’s Law Centre would like to see this test mainstreamed. In particular, we would like to see young people being targeted at an early stage so that the housing demand for the next generation of young adults will be addressed, enabling young people to stay in rural areas.

In relation to working with other agencies (section 4.14 –4.22) it is disappointing that the only mention of liaison with Social Services is in relation to Care in the Community. Young people aged 16 and 17 who cannot live at home, but who have not been through the care system find it very difficult to be assessed as a ‘child in need’ as they should be under the Children (NI) Order, 1995. Many of these young people find the procedures and documentation given them by NIHE staff very difficult to understand and feel discriminated against purely on the basis of their age. There is a need for statutory bodies such as the NIHE and Health and Social Services Trusts to develop more effective ways of meeting the needs of young people who present as homeless to the Executive. This is as much an issue for rural young people as it is for urban young people.

With regard to Community Participation (section 4.19-4.22) it is claimed that ‘improvement in the capacity of rural communities to develop their role in constructing, developing and delivering local development plans and projects has been intense and sustained" and the RCN, RDC and District Partnerships have been credited with this improvement. However, this failed to acknowledge that young people and children are very rarely part of rural community groups and are not actively involved in decision making in their communities. Furthermore, the duty to consult with young people (as expressed in the Children Order and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) lies with the government and its agencies, not the voluntary/community sector. While it is recognised that the Executive sees the need for an improvement in the participation process developing its relationship with existing local groups, as it has committed itself to doing, will not be enough. The NIHE needs to involve children and young people too and have a statutory obligation to do so under the Equality Provisions of the Northern Ireland Act, 1998.

We suggest that the Executive works with those in the formal and informal education sectors and those involved in vocational training schemes in order to involve young people in this process. We would also point out that this needs to be a process, not one-off ‘consultation’ meetings. There is a need to build a proper relationship with young people in order to enable them to fully engage in such a process. The Children’s Law Centre is willing to discuss further with the Executive how this might be achieved.

Places for People - Strategic and Area Planning

With regard to section 5.9 and the ‘wide consultation’ we reiterate our comments above.

Concluding Remarks

As a government agency the NIHE is bound by the Equality Provisions of the Northern Ireland Act, 1998. This means that the Executive must produce an Equality Scheme taking into account how the Scheme will impact on people of different ages. This means young people and children as well as older people.

In the light of these requirements draft policy documents such as Places for People is disappointing, as it does not take account of young people living in rural areas at all. There is no mention on how young people are to be consulted and neither is there any recognition of the right to play which the Executive should be addressing with Housing Associations if they are helping them develop new build programmes.

We presume that the NIHE, as a Public Authority, is keen to ensure that its plans will comply with the equality scheme requirements of the NI Act, which come into force on January 1. Although at this present time the NIHE does not have to carry out a child impact assessment on its plans and policies, it is disappointing to see that this has not taken place with this review, especially given that it relates to future plans.

The Children’s Law Centre would like to see these issues redressed. We are happy to meet with staff from the Executive to discuss these further. We also enclose a summary version of our report ‘Getting it Right’, an examination of the UK government’s implementation of the UNCRC. If you require any further information please contact Children’s Law Centre, Philip House, 123-137 York St, Belfast, BT15 1AB. Telephone 028 90 245704. E-mail: info@childrenslawcentre.org.