No business case for Northlands funding

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood and the Department of Health (DoH) appear to be at loggerheads regarding funding ring-fenced for Northlands Addiction Treatment Centre in the January 2020 ‘New Decade, New Approach’.

Mr Eastwood has heavily criticised DoH’s conduct towards Northlands, which had its core administration and housekeeping funding withdrawn in April.

Speaking to The Derry News, Mr Eastwood asserted unequivocally the DoH had “no authority to reappropriate any of the money committed to addiction treatment” in the city.

“The British Government has given me repeated assurances that the £1 million is for the Northlands Centre and it expects a business case from the Department in order to unlock the NDNA commitment I negotiated with it,” he said.

“I have written to the First and deputy First Ministers to clarify this matter.

“This [NDNA] was an international agreement between the political parties and the British and Irish Governments; it cannot be reneged upon in a solo run by a single Executive department.

“Lives in Derry have been saved by the Northlands Centre. We all know how important this is. Everyone in the city knows someone who has benefitted from its care and support.

“It is time to get it across the line and deliver what Derry was promised.”

Responding to the DoH decision to withdraw its core funding, Tommy Canning, head of treatment at Northlands, accused the Department of attempting to appropriate and redesignate the £1 million NDNA funding.

Mr Eastwood’s robust challenge of the DoH came in the wake of the revelation by Aontú Ballyarnett representative, Emmet Doyle, that DoH had not prepared a business case needed to draw down the £1 million NDNA funding from the British Government.

Mr Doyle said: “At a recent Derry City and Strabane District Council meeting, councillors agreed to write to the Health Minister [Mike Nesbitt] seeking clarity on the status of the business case. In 2022, a former NIO Minister outlined that the British Government was committed to providing the monies as agreed in NDNA and that it was ‘currently awaiting the NI Executive’s proposals for delivering the centre’.

“As a result of the cut to the centre’s core funding recently, I and others arranged a public meeting to highlight the injustice of this action and to offer support as to how we could have this funding reinstated.

“At the same time, Aontú issued a Freedom of Information request to the DoH quoting recent media stories in which referred to a business case to release the £1 million. Aontú asked DoH for a copy of the business case.

“I was horrified to learn in the response I received the Department was ‘unable to supply a copy of the business case requested as no such document exists’.

“How can a document that DoH was supposed to have been working on for the guts of five years not exist? This is a public scandal - money confirmed to be for a vital service in this city requiring, as everyone confirms, a business case, and the DoH simply has not done one. I sincerely doubt that if this was for South Belfast, it would have been waiting anywhere near as long.”

Mr Doyle added that serious questions needed to be asked of the Health Minister and the wider Executive.

“Did ministers know there was no business case being brought forward and simply kept quiet about it?” he queried.

“What is just as shocking is that the FOI response also refers to the intentions of the DoH relating to any substance use funding. It stated: ‘It is the intention that the Substance Use Commissioning and Implementation Plan, and the associated recommendations from the Tier 4 Review, will inform all future funding decisions around substance use related services.’

“That reads to me as if DoH intends to plunder the £1 million earmarked for the city and use it for something else entirely. That is entirely unacceptable and cannot be allowed to happen.

“The DoH and the Executive need to come clean with full transparency now about this issue. What did they know and when? And, why again have we been left in a situation where funding agreed half a decade ago is having to be fought for?”

In response to an enquiry from The Derry News, a DoH spokesperson said NDNA funding “has not been earmarked for any specific proposals”.

Northlands Centre annual core funding withdrawn by the Department of Health

Vital funding cut to long-serving Derry service

Withdrawal of Northlands funding ‘scandalous’

Department of Health also attempting to appropriate and redesignate the £1 million earmarked to support the new addiction centre in Derry

Health Minister to visit Northlands Centre after funding bombshell

Community and politicians challenging withdrawal of core funding from addiction treatment centre

The spokesperson said: “The Department is working with all providers of services to ensure that substance use related support provided across Northern Ireland is consistent, accessible, and value for money. Decision making on investment in health services must be informed by evidence and be responsive to identified commissioning priorities.

“It is therefore the intention that the Substance Use Commissioning and Implementation Plan, which was launched in November last year, and the associated recommendations from the Western Trust Needs Assessment and the Review of Tier 4 Services will inform all future funding decisions around substance use related services subject to additional funding being made available.

“The evidence and information from these reports will allow the Department to discuss proposals further with the UK Government in the near future. Given the NDNA commitment, any such proposal will be focused on addressing specific substance use challenges in the North West. To this end, there will be continued engagement with NIO, as no funding has been drawn down at this stage, and funding has not been earmarked for any specific proposals.”

The DoH response to The Derry News did not explain why it had not yet compiled a business case to progress the NDNA designated £1 million spend, or offer any documentation supporting the decision not to. Neither did it explain what in its view was ‘wrong’ with the original purpose of the NDNA £1 million funding.