Scope Articles

Why NI's budget crisis could easily have been avoided

Our last budget was signed off in January 2016 - but could have made provision for this period of uncertainty

5 May 2017

By mirroring other jurisdictions and including multi-year spending plans in our annual budgets, Stormont could have avoided the tension and uncertainty that is plaguing Northern Ireland in 2017.

What Theresa May has in store for the Third Sector

5 May 2017

Direct Rule in Northern Ireland is a distinct possibility. Scope examines Theresa May’s commitments to Civic Society, and asks what that might mean for the Third Sector.

On a wing and a prayer: faith based charities

27 Apr 2017

Faith-based charities receive a combined annual total of £16.3 billion in funds across the UK, one third of all monies raised by the Third Sector.

How digital technology can help unite a divided society

25 Apr 2017

Professor Roger Austin from Ulster University tells Scope how online interactions can be a huge help to shared education - and allow the educational model, designed to help heal social rifts and increase educational choice, to flourish.

Charity shops and the Rates Rethink

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir brought forward the Rates Rethink consultation

21 Apr 2017

The Department of Finance has been considering a rates liability on charity shops as part of its sweeping Rates Rethink. Scope examines the issue.

English Tories and the union

21 Apr 2017

Back in 2006 the then Secretary of State Peter Brooke said that his government had “no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland.”

Shared Education - inclusive and practical

14 Apr 2017

In the latest in our series on education, Scope speaks with Prof. Joanne Hughes from QUB's Centre for Shared Education, about how sharing can offer practical positives for our local system in a number of ways.

Transforming Your Care and the third sector

13 Apr 2017

Health reform is moving slowly and faces many difficulties - but it is still moving and there are huge opportunities for the community and voluntary organisations to improve people's lives within the changing structures.

An economy for all?

7 Apr 2017

The economy is there to serve the public and not the other way round. Scope looks at the inversion of this relationship and why a revolution in economic thinking could have huge benefits for local people.

Why the political stalemate is bad for our health

7 Apr 2017

The past few weeks have been challenging for the Sector. In past weeks we have looked at some of the consequences of not having a government in place.

Northern Ireland: Anarchy in the UK

31 Mar 2017

This week also saw the collapse of talks aimed at forming a new Executive, without a budget being agreed.

How the peace process was tied to the EU, and what Brexit means

31 Mar 2017

It has been possible to discern a few shards of hope in what has been a difficult and turbulent few days for Northern Ireland. Scope reviews an historic week, firstly Brexit.

Is democracy working for Northern Ireland? Not really ....

23 Mar 2017

The publication of a ground-breaking report into the state of democracy in Northern Ireland this week could not have been better timed.

Accepting redemption is difficult

Are prisons just about punishment, or should we expect more?

22 Mar 2017

In the week Martin McGuinness passed away, Scope examines the nature of redemption by looking at another man's story - double murderer Erwin James, who spoke in Belfast on Monday - and asks what society wants from its prisons.

Why the Hopkins libel case is a wake up call for all on social media

17 Mar 2017

In the second of two articles on important legal judgments in the news this week, Nick Garbutt examines the implications of a Twitter libel case.

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