Rachel Ferguson - Alliance, Foyle

Rachel Ferguson - Alliance

Mental Health

We are incredibly concerned about the mental health and wellbeing of young people. NUS UK’s Manifesto for our Future found that 46% of students’ mental health has worsened since September 2023. What will you do if elected to tackle the mental health crisis, and safeguard the wellbeing of students and apprentices in Northern Ireland?

Alliance have strong policy around mental health and how we have to treat it like physical health, to do this we need to ensure there is enough money in the budget to reform and sustain our health service, I will continue to highlight the needs to invest in our health service, so we can stabilise it, then look to reform our structures to allow a patient centred service, and ensure early intervention services are implemented across all departments, as mental health is something that touches not only in our health service, but needs support through our Education system, as well as our justice. Below are a snapshot of plans we would like to implement with the efficient funding of the block grant similar to the need model based in Wales. 

Alliance Fighting Fit : 

Such money would be used to support the existing Mental Health Strategy but also for projects including but not limited to:

• tackling specific legacy issues arising from conflict and clerical/institutional abuse;
• supporting projects tackling poverty both as a driver and consequence of poor mental health;
• early referral for mental ill-health;
• more responsive primary care (including hubs with mental health specialists);
• increased community support for mental health, in liaison with local councils, including walk-in centres for young people and “well-being in the community” hubs;
• alternative models – including potentially consideration of extra “Nightingale” hub for people with addictions (rather than an over-reliance on A&E);
• a reformed response to addictions;
• workforce planning integrating mental health – with social care workforce trained to identify and assist in the prevention of poor mental health and promotion of mental well-being;
• a focus on tackling excessive alcohol/drug use;
• a modern Loneliness Strategy, recognising the rising scale of loneliness and the difficulties caused by it (as well as the impact and legacy of the Pandemic);
• clarity on the framework required to identify and charge social media trolls;
• delivery and establishment of a single system of family support hubs; and
• consideration of the potential value of a four-day working week and implementation of statutory bereavement pay, allowing for a vastly improved work- life balance (the question here is whether
five-day weeks really result in more “productivity” and whether this is worth the extra time at work given the toll on mental health).
 

Sexual Health and Education

Our Sexual Health And Guidance campaign has had the most engagement of any of our campaigns in the last two years. Home students from Northern Ireland come to university with very little understanding of safe sex and healthy relationships, which is a huge problem. Whether they are having sex or not, young people must be armed with the tools to make informed decisions about their bodies and their relationships with others. What will you do if elected to ensure that our young people have access to the education and resources they need to make these decisions?

I believe in a standardised, inclusive, high-quality, evidence-based, and age-appropriate RSE curriculum.

The Committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has recommended it at all levels of education and into teacher training. It is important we take steps to implement these recommendations here to ensure the rights of our children and young people are protected.

RSE is about helping children and young people develop healthier relationships and ensuring they are fully informed of their rights under the law. It can also play a vital role in helping them understand the signs of abuse and seek support.

A wide range of children’s rights organisations and charities including the NSPCC, the Children’s Law Centre, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Informing Choices, Relate NI and Amnesty International have also advocated for significant improvements to RSE.

So if elected I Will make sure the RSE curriculum cannot be dismissed by the views of one minister or pulled down by Veto votes, this legislation was progressed through Westminster, so it is imperative of all elected MP's to show their support to making sure the department of Education is held accountable and implement a Evidence based, age appropriate curriculum across all levels of education which will give our young people the tools they need to navigate healthy relationships. 

The Climate Crisis

Time and time again, students have told us how concerned they are about the climate crisis. Many are worried about their future, and the quality of life they can expect to have if this disaster is not averted now. What would you and your party do to tackle the climate crisis?

Alliance is working at every level of government to create a greener, fairer society. In Westminster, Alliance MPs will work in close collaboration with our DAERA Minister to demand the UK Government paves the most ambitious and just path possible to Net Zero.

As an MP I would continue to lobby for a fairer funding model to enable us within the assembly to implement some of the strategies our Party has set out in our Green New Deal manifesto: 

•Transition to a Green Economy that prioritises investment, wellbeing and the planet.

•Create over 50,000 secure green jobs across NI, with targeted bursaries and retraining allowances.

•Provide a universal, affordable childcare system so we can all access new opportunities.

•Legislate for workers’ rights in the gig economy.

•Reform and restore dignity in the unjust social security system.

•Fight for migrants’ rights and to overhaul the Home Office.

•Retrofit all social housing and provide grants to retrofit privately owned homes.

• Invest in our Social Care workforce and ensure care jobs are well-paid and secure.

•Guarantee zero-carbon public transport with better routes right across NI and cheaper fares for disabled people and young people.

•Offer interest-free loans for an electric vehicle and accelerated installation of charging points.

•Establish mandatory agriculture audits to help farmers transition to sustainable farming.

•Ban current and future fossil fuel exploration, including fracking.

•Hold citizens assemblies to place social dialogue and equity at the centre of decision-making.

•Demand tax justice

Housing and the Cost of Survival

One of the biggest, reoccurring problems we hear about through our UUSU Advice Bureau is housing. From sky-high rents to abysmal quality, the student housing market is a shame to us all. It’s seen as a cliché or some sort of rite-of-passage, but when students are living in mouldy, insect-infested houses and living on tins of beans we need to call it what it is; poverty. What will you do if elected to improve the quality of life for students?

Firstly we need to ensure the houses being used for Student accommodation are fit for purpose and that landlords are not doing the bare minimum and charging extortionate rents, this would be an issue we would need to lobby the department of Communities to Introduce a regulatory mechanism for letting agencies and rent control schemes to ensure people are not priced out of the private rented sector.

Israel/Palestine

Students have been paying attention to international policy and conflicts across the globe in recent years, but particularly to what is happening in Israel/Palestine. Please outline your party’s position on the conflict in Gaza.

Alliance is horrified by Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza and the UK Government’s complicity in Israel’s depraved war crimes.

Hamas’s terrorist attacks on 7 October 2023 were abhorrent, inexcusable war crimes that Alliance has condemned in the strongest terms possible. Israel’s response from the outset has gravely and brazenly breached international humanitarian law, leaving Palestinians subject to unspeakable, apocalyptic conditions.

Since 9 October 2023, Alliance has consistently condemned war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas; demanded an immediate ceasefire, an end to the illegal siege, release of hostages on both sides; called out the UK’s blatant double standards in facilitating Israel’s breaches of international law; and called for an end to arms exports to Israel.

The Israeli Government’s acceleration of its illegal occupation and intensification of subjugation of Palestinians in recent years has threatened the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

As a party we are clear that to end the devastating cycle of violence in the region, the Israeli Government must be held accountable for its breaches of international law. This includes ending the 57-year occupation and 17-year blockade of the Gaza strip, and dismantling the systematic discrimination of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied

Palestinian Territories that amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

We stand firmly behind international humanitarian law and rulings of the International Court of Justice, and remain committed to a two-state solution based on existing international law (specifically UN Security Council resolution 242). This includes the recognition of Palestine as a sovereign independent state.