Latest Updates

It’s good that so many people are becoming more conscious about single use plastics. It’s even better that the environment has catapulted up the political agenda.

Around one in four of us will experience poor mental health during the course of our lives. In more than half of these cases problems start before the age of 14.

If wealth, rather than ability, drives educational achievement, we have to think hard about how we structure society to compensate for this.

It’s great that people are living longer, the flip side is that we have to work for longer too.

Brexit, Welfare Reform and the health service – each is at a major moment for NI policy. But these are not independent issues. Any failures will compound. This could be disastrous.

The announcement that all police custody suites are to get full-time nurses is an important and welcome development.

It’s Volunteers’ Week. Scope takes a look at how people sacrifice their time for a good cause, why this is important – and also rewarding.

One of the more troubling trends in recent times is that whilst the economy is growing most of us are getting poorer.

NICVA’s latest Individual Giving Survey was published this week. As society moves away from cash, so do donors – sort of.

Last week saw the publication of an important report on sectarianism in Northern Ireland 

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are nearly four years old. High-level strategies for the world (or 193 UN member nations) to build a “better and more sustainable future”. Too few people know what they are.

Autism NI warned last week that autism services are at breaking point in Northern Ireland, after the latest prevalence statistics were published by the Department of Health.

A huge number of people in NI frequently feel lonely. It is a problem for people of all ages and in all sorts of situations. The impact on health and wellbeing is enormous.

A major piece of research into the one profession where it is still lawful to discriminate on the grounds of religion has just been published.

The last Stormont mandate was abandoned before it got into stride. However, it still made changes to local policy, reflected in the new Modern Slavery Strategy.

Improving social mobility is a central policy objective of all mainstream political parties.  

The IFS says Universal Credit will lower the incomes of millions of people and that the welfare reform “hits the persistently poor the hardest on average.” But change is possible.

Boards in Northern Ireland are dominated by middle aged and older people. Most of them are middle class men from a managerial background.

Preliminary results are in from Finland’s experiment with a Universal Basic Income. The findings are mixed, interesting, and should arouse everyone’s curiosity.

Northern Ireland is the UK’s poor cousin when it comes to childcare. Fixes to the sector’s struggling financial structure need legislation.