Roadmap For Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary Of .

Roadmap for Social Inclusion2020 - 2025Summary of Ambition,Goals and Commitments

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsTaoiseach’s ForewordIreland’s economy and society are changing rapidly. We have made significant progress overrecent years putting the country on the right track and both our economic prospects andinvestment in public and social services are on the rise. For these reasons, we have seensignificant reductions in the rates of poverty, child poverty, deprivation and social exclusion,particularly since 2014.We want to build on this in the coming years. Now is the time to set ourselves a new set ofambitions for the Ireland we want to see by 2025.The Roadmap for Social Inclusion seeks to identify those challenges, which confront us, and toput in place firm actions across Government. We believe that the commitments set out in theRoadmap are realistic yet ambitious and our agenda is clear: to make Ireland one of the mostsocially inclusive countries in the EU over the coming five years.To this end, the Roadmap moves away from a focus solely on incomes. It outlines specificmeasures and goals, which can capture progress across many aspects of social inclusion:housing, healthcare, childcare and social integration. The Roadmap aims to set us on a coursefor real change and delivery in those areas which matter most to our citizens and which canunderpin a better quality of life for all.Finally, this cannot and will not be simply a static document to be re-visited intermittently.Rather, our aim is to ensure that this is a living strategy and one that develops and grows overtime as we come to understand what is working, and perhaps what is not. It is our firm intentionto recalibrate our actions and commitments over the next five years so that we can be sure thatno opportunity is wasted.Leo VaradkarTaoiseachJanuary 20202

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsMinister’s ForewordThat we have made substantial progress in tackling poverty and social exclusion in Irelandover recent years is clear but yet questions remain. What will progress in future years looklike? How will we get there? How will we drive the changes we wish to see? The Roadmap forSocial Inclusion was developed after an extensive period of consultation and sets out to provideanswers to these questions.In its look and feel, the new Roadmap represents a move away from its predecessors. In thepast, such strategy documents could be seen as, in effect, a detailed repetition of actions andplans across each Government Department. In this case, the document is more streamlinedand is intended to provide an overarching structure for the various social inclusion and povertyreduction approaches set forth in each Department’s own sectoral strategy.It will be a five year strategy with an independent mid-term review to facilitate an evaluationof the impact of the Roadmap commitments. It will be implemented through annual actionplans outlining the key actions for each year allocated to each agency/Department covering allaspects of social inclusion.The value-added of the Roadmap lies in the provision of a framework for the activities of thevarious Government Departments. In the current climate, each Government Departmentaddresses poverty reduction and social inclusion in their own strategies. The role of theRoadmap is to provide a broader framework for this work and to set the medium-term directionon a whole-of-Government basis, identifying the inter-linkages and dependencies across thevarious stakeholders.The Roadmap presents 7 high-level goals, 22 targets and 66 unique commitments. The focusof the Roadmap is on building social inclusion, using an expanded approach that moves beyondthe traditional focus on income poverty. This strategy reaffirms the Government’s long-heldcommitment to reduce the national consistent poverty rate to 2% or less and to do so over theperiod up to 2025.It also incorporates a variety of pan-European targets covering housing, healthcare, childcareand social integration. The Roadmap recognises that certain groups within society are atgreater risk and presents cohort-specific targets for people with a disability and children.The Roadmap commits the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection toexamine and develop proposals for Government to set a formal benchmark and institute aprocess whereby future changes in pension rates of payment are explicitly linked to changes inthe consumer price index and average wages.Finally, the Roadmap establishes a robust framework for monitoring and reporting progressthat will hold Government to account and also inform the renewal of existing, and thedevelopment of future, sectoral strategies.Regina Doherty, TDMinister for Employment Affairs and Social ProtectionJanuary 20203

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsAmbition for 2025To reduce the national consistent poverty rate to 2% or less of thepopulation and,To make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive States in the EU7 High-Level Goals466 Commitments, including:1Extend employment opportunitiesto all who can workImprove employment services for long-termunemployed people and marginalised groups.2Ensure work pays – fair pay,fair conditions for workersTighten enforcement of employment conditions.Continue development of the minimum wage.3Provide income securityfor older peopleBenchmark pension rates to salaries and inflation.Establish a pension rates commission.4Support families reduce child povertyPrioritise increases in family related payments.Introduce and extend new family supports.5Reduce poverty among peoplewith disabilities – help them tomaximise their abilityReform structure of disability related welfarepayments. Enhance employment supports forpeople with disabilities.6Build inclusive communities –encourage active citizenshipProtect all-Ireland schemes and services post-Brexit.Implement National Broadband Plan.7Ensure that all people haveaccess to quality servicesImplement Sláintecare.Reduce food and fuel poverty.

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsFocused actions covering: Older peoplePeople outside employmentWorkersFamiliesPeople with disabilitiesCommunitiesDriven through 66 commitments: Welfare rates Wages Employment creation Education and training Employment supports Family and early learning and care supports Services for people with disabilities Community developmentTracked against 22 Targets covering: Poverty (including child poverty) Deprivation Income Distribution Housing Health Early Learning and Care Social Participation/Active Citizenship5

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsFull List of Commitments6

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsResponsibleDepartmentsTimeline Ensure that progress in respect of Future Jobs Ireland;Enterprise 2025; the Apprenticeship Action Plan;and the Further Education and Training Strategyis monitored and reported as part of the Roadmapmonitoring programme.DEASP; DBEI; DESOngoing2Develop and publish a new Further Education andTraining Strategy for the next five year period from2020, ensuring that it includes specific provisions tosupport socially excluded groups access training andeducation support.DESQ1 20203Develop and publish a successor employment servicesstrategy to PathWays to Work, with a focus onincreasing labour market participation and improvingemployment transitions.DEASPQ1 20204Review existing programmes as part of the newemployment services strategy, to cater for the needsof marginalised groups/ socially excluded people.DEASP; DESQ1 20205Convene the Labour Market Advisory Council to adviseon the development of a successor plan to PathWaysto Work.DEASPQ1 20206Develop a communications campaign to highlight theability of people to retain key welfare benefits whentaking up employment.DEASPQ4 20197Implement an additional two weeks paid parentalleave in 2019 and extend this to seven weeks over thesubsequent three years (see also commitment 29 below).DJE; DEASPQ3 20198Implement the new National Childcare Scheme,launched in November 2019 (see also commitment 30below).DCYAQ4 2019No.Commitment17

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and eline 9Undertake a Carers Needs Assessment within acommunity healthcare organisation to assess the needsof family carers across all care groups.DoHWork tocommencein 202010Introduce a new statutory scheme of regulation forhome care designed to support family carers andintegrate with other health and social care services.DoHWork tocommencein 201911Examine options to further support carers who wish toincrease their level of engagement with or transitioninto full time employment, education or training.DEASPQ2 202012Establish a statutory code of conduct for thedetermination of the employment status of workers.DEASPQ1 202013Build and expand the focused inspection teamestablished to investigate, and prosecute asappropriate, instances of false declaration of workersas self-employed for social insurance purposes.DEASPOngoing14Enforce legislation providing for the application ofinterest charges on late payments of social insurancecontributions where a worker was incorrectly declaredas ‘self-employed’.DEASPOngoing15Commission, with the support of the Labour MarketAdvisory Council, a study of trends in employmentarrangements in Ireland.DEASPQ2 202016Develop and run a communications campaign toincrease awareness of in work income support paymentsfor families on low incomes.DEASPQ4 201917Institute a biennial review of the earnings thresholdsused to qualify for in-work income supports for familieson low incomes.DEASPQ3 2020

Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 - 2025 Summary of Ambition, Goals and CommitmentsResponsibleDepartmentsTimeline Continue to target a reduction in poverty amongchildren and families on low incomes as part of theannual budget process.DEASP; DPEROngoing19Establish and report on a new target in respect of ChildPoverty, to improve Ireland’s ranking from 20th to atleast 5th for the EU SILC reporting year of 2025. Thiswill be equivalent to reducing the percentage of childrenunder 18 years of age at risk of poverty and socialexclusion from 23.9% to 16%.DEASPQ1 2020 –Q4 2025 20Set and report on a new target to further improveIreland’s EU ranking for ‘in-work poverty’ from 3rd to2nd by reducing the rate of in-work poverty’ to 2%.DEASPQ1 2020 –Q4 2025 21Review options for improving the financial managementcompetence and literacy / access to financialmanagement for people on low incomes and report toGovernment with a proposed approach.DEASP; DES;DRCDQ2 202022Finalise an approach for benchmarking pensionpayments for Government decision.DEASPQ1 202023Subject to Government decision, develop and prepareany necessary changes to legislation to give effect to abenchmarking approach.DEASPQ1 202024Apply the benchmark in adjusting Pension changes forBudget 2021.DEASP; DPERQ4 202025Consider and prepare a report for Government on thepotential application of the benchmarking approach toother welfare payments.DEASPQ3 202026Continue to train GPs and primary care teams in themanagement of dementia under the Primary CareEducation, Pathways and Research in Dementia(PREPARED) project.DoHOngoingNo.Commitment189