Patten Seminar QUB -  10 September 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen

I’m delighted to be here to speak at your seminar today.

Regrettably I cannot stay for all that long as I have an Executive meeting this afternoon and need to prepare for it.

I don’t intend to make any particular points about policing as such but I do believe there is much about the Patten experience that we can draw on to guide other major policy initiatives. And for me the biggest single policy initiative facing us here in northern Ireland is the building of a Shared Future.

Here’s how I see things…

I have responsibility for social development which includes housing and regeneration, but also a much wider remit for how our society and community develop generally.

We’ve had an end to the campaign of violence. Guns have been largely silent for some years now – and I think we are all grateful for that. I hope the remaining work on decommissioning is completed as soon as possible.

We also have an unprecedented degree of political stability, with Unionists and Nationalists locked together solidly in government.

So with the absence of violence and with political institutions solidly in place, you would like to think that our society could move on. That what John Hume called the ‘healing process’ could now begin. Yet, if we are honest, we have moved on very little as a society despite the relative success of the Peace Process.

Look at the evidence…

We still live apart, we are educated apart, we mostly socialise apart – that is just not normal. It may have become our norm, but it is not the behaviour of a normal society.

We have established tolerance and even some respect between our communities, but peaceful co-existence is no substitute for a Shared Future. And if we do nothing about all of this, then the cycle just repeats itself endlessly. And all of our prejudices and fears just get handed on to the next generation. We owe it to the next generation to break this cycle. And the only way to do that is to consciously set out to dismantle segregation and build a Shared Future. This will not come about of its own accord or emerge gradually with the passage of time. We actually have to pursue the goal of normality as major project.

I’m cannot speak for the whole of government and ‘moving on’ is not the sole responsibility of DSD, but it certainly struck me that in housing we could do a lot to reduce the extent of segregation. In this city, not a single peace wall has come down in the 15 years since the ceasefires. For me the peace walls ‘mock’ our claims about the success of the peace process.

Likewise when it comes to urban regeneration, we don’t just need shiny new buildings, we need shared spaces. Anyone should be able to walk through our city or town centres without fear of being attacked because of their political or religious or racial affiliation.

Essentially all of this is about our society developing and moving on. We have to start this conversation somewhere. And as we know the change we need will not happen on its own – we need a plan and a process. I’m the Minister for Social Development – I believe we have no alternative to a shared Future - and that we have danced around the subject for far too long.

So that’s why I’m holding a series of public meetings on this subject. I want to move it up the public consciousness and gather ideas. I want to create momentum from which a process can emerge. I have some ideas of my own but I want to hear all views so that I can feed it back into policy-making and into the Executive.

I recognise that I have limited power as an individual Minister, but I hope to develop a proposition that can win the support of the entire Executive. And that is where Patten is useful.

So how do we apply the lessons of Patten to the building of a Shared Future in Northern Ireland?

Drawing on my own experience of the transformation of policing and also Joanne Murphy’s interesting research there are some key drivers:

The first is leadership: Patten could not have been done without leadership, both internal and external. The same applies to the building of a Shared Future. We will need change-champions in every sector including in particular housing and education. Externally we will need the broadest possible political support – and I can tell you that the visits I have made to Europe and North America over the last 18 months have been arranged with that specific intention in mind. I have been at pains to tell anyone who will listen in Washington, New York and Brussels that the Northern Ireland problem has not been solved and they need to stay engaged.

I expect this external support to become critical down the line in persuading some people here that change – ie a Shared Future – is the only way forward.

Similarly, we need External Change Agents, people who will agitate across all sectors in support of change and act as persuaders of others. I see the Community Relations Council, people like Co-operation Ireland, One Small Step, Trades Unions, NGOs and yes – other political parties, in this role in the period ahead. We need to build the broadest possible coalition for a Shared Future here.

A further key point is resources. Patten was well resourced to do whatever it needed to do. Its secretariat, its research budget, its community engagement budget, its implementation machinery etc was all appropriately funded.

I am prepared to find the money to fund a credible process for advancing the Shared Future project. By that I mean a process that is results oriented and which goes far beyond policy and aspiration. The work I am doing now – stakeholder engagement and public meetings is helping me form a picture of what that successful process would look like.

Patten also succeeded, broadly, in getting the Pace and Sequencing right. As was the case with Patten, there will be times to press ahead with Shared Future and times to consolidate progress made. Again I see several key phases of development in this work beyond the work I am currently doing.

Finally, Patten’s success was copperfastened by a thorough process of oversight. As mentioned earlier, I do not see how we build a Shared Future without strong and respected external endorsement. This is another seam we are currently working on.

Overall ladies and gentlemen, there are some genuinely insightful guidelines in the Patten experience for advancing any major public policy agenda. I intend to use a similar approach in taking the Shared Future agenda forward.

The thinking is still evolving but serious work is well underway. So watch this space. I know I will be knocking on many of your doors in the period ahead.

Thank you.