Introduction
This strategic document reflects the key issues and priorities identified by the NCBI Board, staff and service users, which will shape and drive NCBI’s development into the future.
This strategy contains six goals, which derive their consistency from NCBI’s vision;
‘For people who are blind or vision impaired to have the same opportunities, rights and choices as others to fully participate in society.’
Themes, key activities and supporting actions are assigned to each strategic goal to guide us in the effective implementation of this plan and also to provide the basis for measurable outcomes.
Heretofore, NCBI has responded to the increased demands and expectations of stakeholders by developing new initiatives and by restructuring or improving the capacity of existing services. The combination of increasing numbers of people requiring our services and the demands that will be made from statutory and funding agencies for higher accountability have made it necessary for NCBI to develop a more systematic, considered and structured blueprint to manage the future.
Implementation of this strategic plan will take place over a five year period beginning in early 2007. In terms of planning and forecasting, this is a relatively long time. As with any strategic plan, this document draws on work already in progress and will initiate projects which will extend beyond 2012. It will be supported by annual business plans which will outline the resourcing strategies required to support its effective implementation.
This strategic plan is intended to provide a framework for our organisation’s development into the future and, as such, attempts to predict and plan for the likely realities facing the organisation over the next five years. These include a changing political, economic and social climate, major technological advances, as well as an increasing number of people accessing NCBI services.
Should recent trends continue, NCBI’s service user base is set to increase significantly because, in addition to more people presenting with age-related sight conditions, NCBI now offers services to people who have not yet reached the point of being registrable as ‘blind’.
The next part of the introduction presents an overview of the trends, forces, and events likely to have a social, technological, economic, environmental and political (legislative) impact on people who are blind or vision impaired in Ireland and on their services over the next five years.
Social Factors
Demographic changes significantly influence the way in which society is organised and consequently impact on the lives of people who are blind or vision impaired and on the nature of services required.
Those factors most likely to impact in the future are
- the increasing age of the population.
- the rise in immigration.
- the increase in the number of people moving to cities and towns.
Increasing Age of the Population
Increased longevity is the greatest achievement of the twentieth century, one which is welcomed and celebrated. However it brings with it a number of challenges, particularly when it is accompanied by a decline in health or an increase in disabling conditions. It has long been established that age is a risk factor in certain eye conditions. A study carried out by NCBI to identify the trends in relation to eye conditions which led people to register between 1996 and 2003 showed an increase of 113% in those experiencing age-related macular degeneration (accounting for 25% of the registered number in 2003). Glaucoma represented 12% of the register the same year. As of the beginning of 2007, there are no treatments on the horizon that might significantly reduce the numbers experiencing sight loss.
As NCBI works with ever increasing numbers of older people who are registered as blind, as well as those with low vision, the size of the organisation’s database of service users is increasing at an estimated rate of 12% year-on-year.
Based on past growth in the number of NCBI service users, as well as demographic trends, 25,000 blind or vision impaired people are likely to be availing of NCBI services by 2015. This does not take into account the estimated increase in the number of people aged over 65, by as much as 200% over the next 30 years and 300% over the next 50 years.
Rise in Immigration
The number of immigrants coming to Ireland from in excess of 110 countries presents new challenges to NCBI. This potential new service user base, whose first language will not be English, will include those with a pre-disposition to conditions such as glaucoma. We will also potentially be working with families of children who are likely to have incurred sight loss from diseases such as Rubella - controlled up to now in Western society by immunisation programmes.
Increase in the number of people moving to cities and towns
As younger people move to towns and cities in ever increasing numbers, they leave behind, in rural Ireland, parents who will face an old age without immediate family supports available to them. The creation of near ghost towns and villages, where people are only found in the evening, or at weekends and holiday periods, means that there may be little support from neighbours in times of need. It also poses difficulties for the providers of personal social services as there is a reduced pool of people from which to recruit those who could work as home helps and personal assistants. These factors, combined with poor public transport and a reduction in local services such as Post Offices and banks, serve to further isolate older people in rural communities. Consequently, older people, some of whom are vulnerable, may experience minimal social contacts and have a limited social network.
Technological Factors
Technology has in many ways revolutionised the way in which we live our lives. Its usage has permeated every aspect of life, from work to home to school to leisure. IT is playing an ever-increasing role in facilitating the independence and inclusion of people who are blind or vision impaired.
As technology is a bridge to participation in society, it also can be a barrier to inclusion. Good practice amongst the providers and managers of the pathways to digital information and communications must be fostered and supported to ensure that their services are accessible to people who are blind or vision impaired. The informed application of technology by businesses and service providers alike will ensure that their services are universally accessible
In addition, technology must be seen as a work tool, occupying a more central position in NCBI’s planning and delivery of services. We must learn to predict and cope with technological changes that could fundamentally alter the way in which NCBI works and provides key services.
Economic Factors
In a climate where the competition for resources is keen there will always be difficulties in getting funders to recognise what services should be offered by NCBI and for which NCBI should receive full statutory funding. Persuasion by way of lobbying may need to be conducted in company with other organisations working in the area of vision impairment or blindness. Health-funded services for people who are blind or vision impaired are perceived by NCBI as being low in funding priorities relative to other disability service categories. Also, the compartmentalisation of funding streams within the health sector is leading to inequities which will worsen in time if not addressed.
The restriction of funding for disability related services to people under the age of 65 adversely effects people with vision impairment in later years. NCBI believes that government should pay particular attention to ensuring that older people with significant sight loss access the necessary services and that as an organisation we are not limited in this service provision through lack of funding.
As a voluntary organisation, NCBI will continue to require an income from fundraising. In so doing, NCBI must strike a balance between the financial needs of the agency and its attempt to create a more enlightened view of people who are blind or vision impaired.
Competition in the area of fundraising is becoming more intense, with innovation and novelty having to contend with obvious public fatigue. There are over 8,000 charities registered with the Revenue Commissioners which engage in fundraising and contend for public attention.
NCBI aims to continue to manage our donor and fundraised income to pilot innovative schemes, to fund research and to manage capital projects in the form of new facilities that will offer new services.
If statutory funding falls short for agreed core services, and if donor and fundraised income need to be applied to the delivery of existing services, it is not inconceivable that NCBI will be confronted with the need to make difficult choices in order to achieve balanced budgets.
Renewed effort must be put into the re-organisation of local fundraising in tandem with the growth of local volunteer programmes. The current reliance on overseas events will see income decline as competition from other charities increases in an area of fundraising in which NCBI once led the way. Our innovative talents must be refocused towards rebuilding simple as well as complex systems of income generation for NCBI.
Environmental Factors
NCBI operates in an environment where a range of statutory and voluntary organisations provide health and personal social services to people with disabilities, including people with vision loss. This environment is constantly changing and evolving. NCBI recognises the value of working in partnerships and in the effective coordination of services. We will seek to avoid unnecessary duplication of services as well as unproductive competition and will work towards the development and management of positive working relationships with other organisations working in the area of vision impairment and blindness.
Generic service providers may also compete with NCBI if they believe that some of their provisions can achieve better economies of scale for people who are blind or vision impaired.
NCBI will have to respond to the reality that there are service providers in the community who will be in a position to supply components of services to people who are blind or vision impaired. NCBI must provide a bridge for service users to these services and develop relationships with their providers to ensure that services become and remain user friendly to people who are blind or vision impaired, as they may extend the quantity of services available to this segment of the population.
Political Factors
Legislative changes within the last decade have brought an acknowledgement of disability as a social issue with the consequent recognition of the lack of inclusion of this sector of the population within our society. Some of the legislative enactments which impact on people who are blind or vision impaired are the Equal Status Act 2000, The Education of People with Special Needs Act 2004, National Disability Strategy 2006-2016 and the Disability Act 2005 as well as the HSE Reform Programme.
During the currency of this strategic plan we will also see the enactment of regulations governing charities. NCBI welcomes this last development as being long overdue but acknowledges that regulation brings with it uncertain times while the legislation is being interpreted into practice.
NCBI recognises that the exclusion and disadvantage experienced by people with disabilities are as a result of the social, economic and material barriers created by the world in which they live and must be challenged if people who are blind or vision impaired are to have the same opportunities, rights and choices as others to fully participate in society. We have a significant role to play in advocating for the removal of these barriers with public relations and ‘lobbying’ being the primary tools for the achievement of this goal.
The foregoing concludes the brief analysis of the main factors likely to be of concern to NCBI as we move forward. The future will present both challenges and opportunities. The challenges must be managed so as to become surmountable, while the opportunities must be evaluated as potential new avenues of work for NCBI.