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.

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 2008/09

In 2008/09 the following grants were made to individual 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 implemented 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 was held in November 2007 under the theme of “next steps for care in the police family”. This sought to build on our earlier work and identify what more the police care organisations could do to support the officers seriously injured by terrorist violence.

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.

 SCOPING STUDY ON THE NEED FOR A CONVALESCENT HOME/TREATMENT FACILITY IN NORTHERN IRELAND

At the NIPF conference held in Autumn 2007 it was suggested that the Fund should revisit whether there was a need for a convalescent facility for the wider police family in Northern Ireland which had been raised in the original Steele report in 2000.

As a result the Board of Directors of the Fund decided to commission a report into the possible need/demand for a convalescent home. Consulting with all the main bodies involved in post service police care and those organisations who represent those widows, ex officers and their families as well as looking at practical issues such as funding and the type of services any facility could deliver a report has now been produced and is reproduced in full as a download above.

The report has been studied by the Board of Directors of NIPF who will carefully consider all the recommendations and have noted the other observations made by the report author.

While it is clear from the report that there is no demand for a convalescent home in Northern Ireland a number of the other matters will be taken forward over the coming months and where appropriate updates will be provided via this web site.

The views expressed in the report are those of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Northern Ieland Police Fund

• Handbook of police care organisations
• Scoping Study into need for a convalescent home
• Steele Review 2004