Sweeping changes to health and education

The biggest shake up in Northern Ireland's local government for three decades is set to be announced by Secretary of State Peter Hain on Tuesday.

BBC Northern Ireland correspondents Dot Kirby and Maggie Taggart outline what they understand to be the main changes proposed in the areas of health and education under the Review of Public Administration.

HEALTH REVIEW

The current four health boards across Northern Ireland look set to disappear and be replaced by one large regional body under the Department of Health.

It could also mean the department itself shrinking in size.

Northern Ireland's four health boards look set to disappear

Also to go will be the 18 hospital and social services trusts, plus 15 local health and social care groups.

The new single body, which will have seven local offices, will carry out some of the current departmental functions plus a lot of the boards' current roles as well.

The seven offices would administer areas based on the same boundaries as the proposed new district councils.

Underneath these will be five agencies actually doing the "hands-on" care - whether in hospital or the community.

What happens to the local health and social care groups is not clear at this stage - but it looks like they will survive in some form or other, and could actually grow in number.

The review had at one point considered combining all the trusts and boards into five super agencies, purchasing and providing all health and social care, probably with a regional forum on which the bosses of the agencies would sit along with senior people from the Department of Health.

That proposal, however, did not attract enough support.

EDUCATION REVIEW

The biggest change will be the demise of all five individual education and library boards.

The RPA proposal is expected to move most of their responsibilities, plus some from the Department of Education to a single main support body.

Northern Ireland currently has five education and library boards

However, the initial plan was to set up another subsidiary body which would be a support to the support!

It seems this idea has not been popular and the government may decide to set up only one composite body after all.

Some other organisations which provide services to schools would also lose some powers to the new body.

The bodies representing Irish medium education, integrated education and Catholic education would become only advisory bodies.

Among those, the most protest has come from the Catholic sector which is reluctant to lose its statutory role.

Voluntary grammar schools are also concerned that they may lose the right to appoint their own staff and for their trustees to make major decisions on their schools.

Education and library boards currently administer budgets, provide training back-up for teachers and employ teachers in controlled schools.

They have headquarters and chief executives in five different locations.

It is not clear where the single support body would be based in the future and how many staff would lose their jobs.

The work on the ground, such as administering pay, grants and loans to students, advising on the curriculum, deciding on statements for pupils with special needs, will still have to go on, so local centres are still likely to exist.

The estimated saving from cutting back on bureaucracy is £80m but this sum is being treated with scepticism by some who think is it an exaggeration.