Latest Updates

New research shows how the cost of living crisis is beginning to impact people in Northern Ireland.

Another year’s transfer tests have just finished – will there be many more? Or, with the Independent Review of Education due to wrap up in the Spring, could academic selection at age 11 be headed for the scrapheap?

One of the most toxic debates of recent times is that around immigration. It was a central issue in the Brexit referendum. And it still rages today. It is time for a calmer, informed, honest discussion governed by facts.

The pandemic served to emphasise the full potential of digital connectivity.

In Northern Ireland, carers are over four times more likely to be chronically lonely than people in general. Loneliness can be devastating - carers need more support.

Just one in four blind and partially sighted people of working age are in employment, according to a new report which explores how that shocking statistic can be rectified.

For too long, childcare in Northern Ireland has been treated as an afterthought. As inflation hits its highest rate for over four decades, the pressure on both providers and parents is coming to a head.

Later this month hundreds of delegates will gather for the all-Ireland Healthy Planet Healthy People conference.

The idea that your child could face bullying is quite terrifying. Surveys show lots of children experience bullying. However, there are ways adults can help.

Ireland is a place where the past and the present are entwined. In the north grievance and counter-grievance dominate politics and many of those grievances go back centuries.

A new report from the Education and Training Inspectorate found that most schools are falling short of targets for PE. That needs to change, along with many other things, to halt the decline in kids’ physical play.

A two tier health system is emerging in the UK where those with money get preferential treatment.

Reforming Northern Ireland’s health system is essential. The need for change is urgent. However, without changing how we discuss this need, we are making something that is already difficult that much tougher.

Here is a simple, straightforward policy ambition that all political parties in Northern Ireland could sign up for tomorrow. 

An independent panel has recommended that Stormont bolsters social security. This advice is in line with the third sector’s consensus – including recent reports from Save the Children and Parenting NI.

The Belfast Charitable Society is a very special organisation.

Northern Ireland’s mental health services have a lot of catching up to do – but, while the road is long, progress is happening with cooperation between statutory services and the third sector.

Three dangerous and demonstrably false myths continue to generate debate long after they have been discredited.

A group of organisations helping the Department for Communities draw up an anti-poverty strategy released a report this week. Could it form the basis for an ambitious, long-term strategy to minimise or even eliminate poverty in NI?

As food, fuel and housing costs rise, pressure grows on households. The third sector is on the frontline of helping people – however, it faces its own pressures. Politics is supposed to help but right now it’s getting in the way.