'The State of the State' in Northern Ireland

Last week saw the publication in Northern Ireland of ‘State of the State 2026’, a UK-wide review by Deloitte and Re:State of how well government is working. The methodology combines a public survey and interviews with public sector leaders, and includes results for Northern Ireland specifically alongside the other parts of the UK (see page 78-88 of report at link below).

The word cloud (see below, on right) summarises responses this year to the question ‘What’s the state of the state in three words?’ . “Indecisive” and “Unfocussed” are the top two in Northern Ireland, with “Potential” coming in third. There is a notable decline from last year (on left), where “Optimistic”, “Encouraged” and “Ambitious” came out strongly, seeming to reflect the positivity that accompanied the Executive’s return now falling away.

The survey of the public in Northern Ireland (n=515) shows their biggest concerns are the NHS and the cost of living, with concerns about immigration rising rapidly and climate change decreasing compared to last year. When asked about satisfaction with different aspects of services, council services and local amenities score highest, with hospitals, healthcare and social care coming out lowest (see chart below). Almost all of the public satisfaction findings, both UK and NI, are worse than five years ago.

The big themes coming out of the interviews with public sector leaders in Northern Ireland are:

Public sector leaders all want to see change and reform, but the challenge is to deliver it, including this insightful quote - “There is a great will to deliver change but not a great will to accept change”.
Interviewees were all clear about the need for decisive leadership in government.
Many public sector leaders were concerned about the impact of excessive criticism on the progress of reform. They also felt that comms about positive stories needed to be much better.
Public spending is unsustainable - reform is essential and urgent to make local services affordable and avoid compounding costs. There is a need to accelerate the pace of transformation and manage public expectations about implications - “Civil Servants believe they can deliver transformation. The problem is it hits a wall when you try to get it through the system.”
There are clear concerns about departmental overspends becoming acceptable and Treasury interventions affecting behaviours - “Are we budgeting now by credit card?”
Interviewees believed strongly in the potential of AI to transform services and gave some examples of this happening. Similarly, there were some good examples of ‘net zero’ policies, but legislative commitments were seen as challenging, with day-to-day pressures often taking priority.
There was general agreement on the importance of the Programme for Government and Investment Strategy, although questions were raised about whether the PfG is really driving progress and about the lack of reporting on delivery so far. Also - “I do not understand why the Investment Strategy has not been published nearly two years after the Executive returned.”
The severe financial facing the Community and Voluntary Sector was clearly emphasised (including current crisis with Local Growth Fund) - “Voluntary groups are an essential part of civic life and practical support in NI - but that importance is rarely reflected in policy or funding.”