HISTORY OF THE FUND

The Northern Ireland Police Fund (“the Fund”) was set up in late 2001 as a government response to the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, Patten Recommendation 87, as reviewed by John Steele.

Its remit is to provide support to those police officers injured as a result of terrorist violence, and their families, and the widows, children and parents of officers killed in terrorist incidents.  The Fund has an annual budget of £1.8m per year for the provision of these services.

The Fund is a private company limited by guarantee, with the Chief Executive as Accounting Officer for the funds it receives from central government.  The Fund is currently 100% funded by government.

The inaugural meeting of the Board of Directors of the Fund was held on 30 November 2001.

The Board of Directors meet bi-monthly; there are currently 3 sub-committees of the Board: Finance & Personnel (bi-monthly meeting), Audit (quarterly meeting) and Programme Development (bi-monthly meeting).

The Northern Ireland Police Fund has a mission statement in respect of its work.

Its intent is

 “To make a difference to the quality of life of our clients by providing financial and other support”.

It will achieve this by providing a comprehensive, quality service to its clients. It will be proactive in seeking to identify all its potential clients and to meet their needs through a range of generous schemes designed to meet those needs now and in the future.  The Fund, being mindful of the problems and traumas faced by our clients, will deliver a caring and considerate service, and seek at all times to minimise any unwarranted intrusion into the lives of our clients consistent with meeting the requirements of our schemes. 

The staffing structure within the Fund is as follows:-

Chief Executive

Assessment/Development Officer

Assessment Officers

Administrative Officer

Spend each year

Funding provided to the Northern Ireland Police Fund since its inception is set out below. These figures do not include those monies allocated to the Northern Ireland Police Fund but issued directly to pre 82 widows.

Grants in 2006/07

The Northern Ireland Police Fund has made an range of grants to individuals since it became operational in March 2002.

In 2006/07 the following grants were made to indivudal clients of the Fund:-

Steele review

 In 2004 Government undertook a review of the Fund. This was completed by John Steele The report is available for download from this page. All of the recommendations of the report were accepted by Government and implented where possible.

Conference

In autumn 2005 the Northern Ireland Police Fund hosted a major conference on care in the police community. Under the theme of "Making a difference", the conference sought to improve co-operation between the various service provides, find ways to minimise duplication in service provision and identify any gaps in the services provided. A separate report was prepared for the conference and is available from the Northern Ireland Police Fund. The conference was a great success and has led to further discussions. Many of key outcomes of the conference have been implemented and helps us provide a focus for the further development of support mechanisms. A further conference is planned for November 2007

Handbook

The Northern Ireland Police Fund used the conference held in November 2005 to launch a handbook of organisations involved in care in the police family. It is intended that this handbook will be provided to officers as they leave the police service and provide a single directory of organisations and the services they provide.

The handbook is available as a download on this page.

• Handbook of police care organisations
• Steele Review 2004