Questions asked by Stewart Dickson in the Northern Ireland Assembly

I was saddened to learn that Glens of Antrim Potatoes has been placed into administration; my thoughts are with those affected.

My Department, through Invest NI, has been in regular contact with Company representatives since the announcement and has sought a meeting with them.

Invest NI has also been in contact with the Department for Communities, and Causeway Coast & Glens and Mid and East Antrim Council. The administrators, Department for Communities and both Councils delivered an employment support workshop on Friday 25th September to help employees understand their rights, benefits entitlements, help to undertake job searches and signposting to wider support services.

Invest NI is also working with Mid and East Antrim Council and the Labour Market Partnership to identify jobs vacancies within local businesses. A jobs fair is taking place on Friday 2nd October with businesses with vacancies attending alongside Ballymena Jobs & Benefits Office and support organisations.

My Department’s Redundancy Payments Service has been in contact with the administrators to support those applying for statutory redundancy and/or insolvency payments from the National Insurance Fund.

I was saddened to learn of the appointment of administrators to Glens of Antrim Potatoes. My thoughts are with the employees affected by this announcement, their families and the wider communities that will understandably be worried by this news.

Invest NI has been in regular contact with the Company and their accountants and following this announcement is seeking a meeting with Company representatives.

In relation to supporting the affected workers, my Department has been in contact with colleagues from the Department for Communities, Mid and East Antrim Council, the Labour Market Partnership, and the Administators.

An employment support workshop takes place on Friday 25th September at 10.00am at the McEvoy suite in the Ballymena North Business & Recreation Centre, to help ensure affected employees are aware of available support such as careers advice, retraining opportunities, assistance with job searches and signposting to support services.

In addition, Invest NI is working with Mid and East Antrim Council to help identify jobs vacancies with local employers.

My Department will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide assistance where it can.

I fully recognise the potential value of the Best4 Study and remain supportive of efforts to facilitate participation in Northern Ireland, provided that all legal, governance and confidentiality requirements can be met.

To provide context, the proposed recruitment approach would involve the use of prescribing information held on behalf of my Department to identify individuals who may be eligible for the study. As this information was originally collected for the provision and management of healthcare services, any use of identifiable patient information for research recruitment must be carefully assessed against data protection legislation and the common law duty of confidentiality.

Significant work has been undertaken by my Department and partner organisations to explore options for participation, including legal review, information governance assessment and consideration of alternative recruitment pathways. While progress has been made, further work is required to determine whether a lawful, proportionate and practical recruitment mechanism can be established, including consideration of a public interest case and direct patient invitation approaches. One option currently being explored would allow eligible individuals to be contacted directly without their information first being disclosed to researchers.

I appreciate concerns that the study has commenced elsewhere in the UK while arrangements remain under consideration here. Northern Ireland does not currently have an equivalent statutory mechanism to Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 and therefore any proposal must also demonstrate a lawful basis for processing and appropriately address the common law duty of confidentiality. As a result, approaches adopted elsewhere cannot simply be replicated in Northern Ireland.

I have asked officials to reengage with the study team to advise on options for participation, determine the details on number of participants required and confirm how costs will be met. Only once these details are established, and all information governance actions have been undertaken, can recruitment of participants commence. Following discussion with statisticians that have experience of undertaking similar exercises, it is estimated that recruitment of participants can commence in November 2026. My Department will continue to keep progress under review.

The Diabetes Strategic Framework for Northern Ireland was launched in November 2016. Launched in tandem the NI Diabetes Network brings together people living with diabetes, carers, and health and social care professionals working in partnership with Diabetes UK on the design and delivery of better diabetes services.

The Network supports the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Diabetes and is one of a series of initiatives which aims to transform Health and Social Care (HSC) services across Northern Ireland.

My officials are currently considering next steps in relation to the Diabetes Strategic Framework. To assist with this, preparations are underway to host a planning workshop with the NI Diabetes Network in early Autumn.

This event will build on a similar workshop held earlier this year and will focus on identifying future strategic priorities and mechanisms to sustain the effective partnership arrangements developed during the lifespan of the Framework.

My Department does not hold plans for further efficiencies or savings arising directly from the implementation or additional functionality of EpicCare Link.

EpicCare Link provides authorised primary and community care users with predominantly read‑only access to clinical information held within the encompass system to support continuity of care. It does not schedule or deliver clinical activity and provides only limited additional functionality. It is not designed to directly generate measurable financial savings or efficiencies.

While the encompass system as a whole supports a wide range of clinical and operational processes across Health and Social Care, EpicCare Link is a specific component focused on information access and does not in itself drive these activities.

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are central to delivering cancer care across the entire patient pathway contributing to diagnosis, treatment, patient support, prehabilitation and rehabilitation, management of long-term effects, and palliative and end-of-life care. These roles are also important in supporting the delivery of many key actions within the Cancer Strategy for Northern Ireland 2022–2032.

As I have previously outlined, the delivery of the Cancer Strategy, including funding for AHP posts to support this, will require significant and sustained investment. While recurrent funding to date has established an important foundation, substantially increased resources will be necessary to fully realise the Strategy’s intended outcomes.

The number of whole time equivalent (WTE) allied health professional roles that remain on short-term or non-recurrent funding, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust and profession is set out in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of allied health professional roles that remain on short-term or non-recurrent funding.

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) workforce provides critical input to cancer care pathways, with many of the fourteen Allied Health Professions offering practical clinical and therapeutic support to those requiring cancer treatments.

My Department published the Cancer Strategy in March 2022, and it sets out the key steps to achieving the overall vision for improved cancer outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland. It presents a comprehensive and challenging programme of service stabilisation and improvement, reliant on collaborative working and new and innovative approaches to the delivery of care.

Since this, work has been ongoing to review and develop cancer services through the Strategic Review of Radiotherapy Services, the Breast Service Review and the review of the AHP Cancer Rehabilitation workforce. These, and other workforce reviews, will consider the factors identified around increased incidence, increased complexity, and, importantly, improved survival rates when assessing the required workforce levels for AHP services.

My Department does not maintain a central dataset that identifies all Allied Health Professional (AHP) cancer-related business cases submitted across the Health and Social Care (HSC) system since 2016, nor does it gather information on the number of such cases that have remained unreviewed or unapproved over that period.

The development, submission and initial consideration of business cases for service developments are primarily matters for individual HSC Trusts. Trusts are responsible for prioritising proposals within their allocated budgets and for progressing business cases through the appropriate approval processes.

My Department does not hold analysis which attributes changes in clinical activity directly to the implementation of EpicCare Link.

EpicCare Link is designed to support safer and more informed clinical decision-making through improved access to patient information. It provides authorised primary and community care users with predominantly read‑only access to clinical information held within the encompass system. It does not schedule or deliver clinical activity and provides only limited additional functionality.

While the encompass system as a whole supports a wide range of clinical and operational processes across Health and Social Care, EpicCare Link is a specific component focused on information access and does not in itself drive these activities.

Health and Social Care Trusts are responsible for the planning, delivery and reporting of clinical services, including elective surgery, paediatric surgery, outpatient throughput and oncology services. Activity levels are influenced by a wide range of factors, including workforce, capacity, demand and wider service pressures.

My Department does not hold analysis which identifies measurable efficiencies or savings directly attributable to the implementation of EpicCare Link.

EpicCare Link provides authorised primary and community care users with predominantly read‑only access to clinical information held within the encompass system to support continuity of care. It does not schedule or deliver clinical activity and provides only limited additional functionality. It is not designed to directly generate measurable financial savings or efficiencies.

While the encompass system as a whole supports a wide range of clinical and operational processes across Health and Social Care, EpicCare Link is a specific component focused on information access and does not in itself drive these activities.

EpicCare Link is a component of the encompass system which provides authorised users with predominantly read‑only access to clinical information to support continuity of care. While the encompass system as a whole supports a wide range of clinical and operational processes across Health and Social Care, EpicCare Link is a specific component focused on information access and does not in itself drive these activities.

encompass system design has focused on supporting integrated digital workflows, enabling information to be captured once and reused across care settings, thereby reducing duplication and improving the availability of timely clinical information.

There is no expectation that clinicians will routinely undertake tasks previously performed by administrative staff. However, changes to workflows are inherent in the transition to digital systems, with clinicians required to input structured information at the point of care to support data quality and patient safety.

The impact of encompass on clinical workflows continues to be reviewed. Any required adjustments, including the balance of administrative and clinical tasks, are considered as part of the continuous improvement approach.