To ask the Minister for Communities to detail the process used by her Department to identify and enable identification of partners to take part in the co-production and co-design of policies and legislation; and how they ensure their contacts are kept up to date and current.

Early and continuous engagement with stakeholders is embedded within policy making across my Department. My officials engage with a number of consultative and working groups, consisting of key stakeholders and partners that work with the Department on a regular basis in the co-production and co-design of policies and legislation to ensure the needs of those impacted by our policies are considered at every stage.

Business areas across the Department securely maintain lists of key stakeholders and partners specific to their policy area, as well as referring to general stakeholder lists such as S75 consultees. Stakeholder lists and membership of groups are continually reviewed and updated, and officials regularly involve existing partners in discussions to identify any additional partners that should be involved.

A practical example of this is the ongoing work by my officials to prepare for the development of a suite of Social Inclusion Strategies which includes the new Anti-Poverty Strategy, Disability Strategy, Gender Strategy and Sexual Orientation Strategy in line with the commitments made in New Decade, New Approach and the Executive’s Programme for Government.

I am keen to ensure that representative organisations and groups of interest will be able to make a meaningful contribution to the development and implementation of these Strategies. I will establish processes for stakeholders and their representative groups to contribute to the design and development of the Strategies at all stages, taking account of their views, from the initial production through to monitoring and reporting, based on the principles and practice of citizen and community engagement.

As part of this process, I have agreed to the creation of an Expert Advisory Panel for each Strategy. Potential members will be approached to participate based on their expertise and in-depth knowledge of, issues relevant to the development of each Strategy.

A Co-Design Group for each Strategy will also be appointed to advise on the development and content of the draft Strategies and their supporting action plans. The Groups will be made up of key stakeholders who can represent the views of the relevant sectors. Nominations to the Co-Design Groups will be sought from a cross-section of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations.