social enterprise

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

• Knowsley and Liverpool councils will ‘share’ Knowsley’s executive director of regeneration, economy and skills, Nick Kavanagh, in a temporary move agreed by the leaders of the two local authorities. The arrangement will see Mr Kavanagh spending approximately three days a week in the city council’s offices.

• Ceri Doyle, the Wales director of the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) is leaving to work across the UK as director of strategy, performance and learning. BIG Scotland director, Dharmendra Kanani, will take on the role of England director for the organisation. The roles replace the positions of operations and policy and partnerships directors held by Adrienne Kelbie, who left last month, and Gerald Oppenheim, who will leave later in the year. BLF chair, Sir Clive Booth, announced last month that he intends to leave when his current term of office ends on 30 November.

• Jonathan Higgs is the new chief executive of Raven Housing Trust. Mr Higgs replaces Nicholas Harris who served as the east Surrey organisation’s chief executive for eight years.

• Lucy McTernan, deputy chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, is to leave after accepting the position of chief executive with Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS). Ms McTernan will join CAS in November, replacing chief executive Kaliani Lyle and acting chief executive Susan McPhee.

• Howard Farrand, chief executive of west midlands housing organisation West Mercia Housing Group, has stepped down from his role to pursue other interests. Pat Brandum has taken over as group chief executive.

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

Northern Ireland's legacy of conflict and sectarian divisions has masked growing social problems, according to a think tank.

A report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says the hallmarks of conflict remain an important factor in social breakdown in Northern Ireland, but adds the province faces a set of social problems 'entirely in common' with the rest of the UK.

In the sequel to its Breakthrough Britain report, the CSJ says 12 years on from the formation of the Northern Ireland Assembly it is time to look beyond the Troubles and address the province's 'crippling levels of social breakdown'.

The five drivers of poverty identified in Breakthrough Britain – welfare dependency, family breakdown, educational failure, drug and alcohol addiction, and debt ¬– have been exacerbated in Northern Ireland by sectarian strife, the report says.

It says the legacy of the Troubles has profoundly affected not only its governance, but its communities and individuals.

‘Many of those most profoundly affected by social breakdown have known severe disadvantage and heightened community conflict. As a result, there exists in Northern Ireland a fragility which can be seen in the high levels of interrelated worklessness, alcoholism and depression.’

The report says it has been estimated that around a quarter more people suffer from mental health disorders than they do in England and Scotland.

It adds that some parts of Northern Ireland suffer far worse levels of family breakdown than the national picture and that two-thirds of people have no or low qualifications.

But while this social breakdown may be more pronounced, the report says the fundamental need to tackle the underlying drivers of poverty and interrupt cycles of intergenerational social exclusion remains the same.

The study also finds many instances of outstanding work by volunteers and communities in Northern Ireland from which the rest of the UK can learn, and which place it in a better position to tackle some of the most difficult issues.

The report says the political system in Northern Ireland, primarily concerned with the necessity of delivering political stability, must begin to provide answers to the severe social problems outlined here – with the aim of reversing decades of social breakdown.

Gavin Poole, CSJ executive director, said 'Although social breakdown may be more pronounced in a society marred by a legacy of social division and conflict, the urgent need to tackle the causes of poverty remains the same.'

Quintin Oliver, adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in Northern Ireland, welcomed the report and said unless the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder realted to the Troubles is dealt with, the cycle of deprivation would continue.

He added: 'We have made significant tracks in the peace process and we should address those social issues that are not on the whole any different across these islands.'