Government departments in Northern Ireland have become increasingly adept at saying they will ‘learn lessons’, correct things when ‘mistakes have been made’ and instigating ‘root and branch’ reports into anything that doesn’t seem to be working the way it should.
All noble sentiments. But the act of saying that things will be done to improve must become more than a magical illusion if anything is really to take a turn for the better.
Reports are not magic wands . But they are, more often than not, the simple step by step recipe for future success.
Why then, are they consistently ignored and not acted upon?
What is the point of commissioning experts in the field to conjure up ways to fix the ills befalling us across society to then leave the words and phrases they have spent long hard hours working towards festering on the shelf?
Professor Ray Jones, Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Kingston University and St George’s University of London is one such expert requisitioned by Stormont.
In 2021, he led a review into how children’s social care operates in Northern Ireland.
When published in 2023 that review made 53 recommendations, including the creation of a dedicated NI-wide organisation with children’s social care at its heart.
Little has moved since. In fact, what has moved is the number of children on the waiting list for assessment — and in the wrong direction to a record 4,000 (June 2024).
“Here we are still waiting for a political decision about the review’s recommendations from 18 months ago,” he said, returning to see the withered fruit of his work, adding it was “a great embarrassment” to Stormont that instead of improving, things had deteriorated.
How many more reports sit full of good intentions which will never see the light of day?
How many have been pruned of the easy things to do, the hard nuts to crack left untouched and out of sight?
And is there any thought given to what departments are trying to achieve by asking for these reports in the first place?
Do they actually want to affect meaningful change with decisions based on the opinions of experts in their field, or do they simply want to be seen to be doing something without the drive needed to do it when the final product is delivered?
How many millions are those reports actually costing with little return on the investment?