- The £102.6m funding represents the final allocation of the £235m transformation fund, provided by the UK Government as part of the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive package in 2024.
- This package will support six Executive projects across health, communities, finance, and agriculture.
- The largest single allocation, £42 million, is dedicated to the ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme which will replace over 45 million annual paper prescriptions with an instant digital transfer.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn MP has announced the release of £102.6 million by the UK Government to support public service transformation in Northern Ireland.
The latest funding marks the final allocation of the £235 million transformation fund provided to the Northern Ireland Executive as part of the restoration package in 2024.
The major new package, announced by finance minister John O’Dowd, will support six Executive projects across health, communities, finance, and agriculture.
Some £42 million will go towards the ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme. This project will replace paper-based prescriptions with a digital process that will enable the electronic transfer of prescriptions to community pharmacies across Northern Ireland. This is expected to dramatically improve services by replacing the manual processing of over 45 million paper prescriptions a year with instant digital transfer.
Speaking as the funding was announced, the Secretary of State said
This £102.6 million investment is a significant milestone for Northern Ireland, and a clear signal of this Government’s commitment to supporting the Executive to deliver better public services for the people of Northern Ireland.
At the heart of this funding is a simple goal making public services work better for the people who rely on them every day.
The full allocation of the £235m transformation fund is supporting the framework to transform service delivery for the long term.
I look forward to seeing the results of all successful projects in the months ahead.
Matthew Patrick MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office said
We promised to work with the Executive to transform public services and that’s exactly what we’re doing. From transforming access to prescription services, to giving children and families the support they need to thrive – this Government is funding real change for people in Northern Ireland.
I am also proud that this Government has been able to secure the largest ever devolution settlement for Northern Ireland, and an additional £750m in Barnett consequentials through the Budget and Spring Statement. These funding streams, alongside the transformation fund, provide the opportunity for the Executive to deliver the changes that public services need to ensure that they work for the people of Northern Ireland.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Background and further project information
- The funding comes following the recommendations of the Public Sector Transformation Board.
- The Board, comprising officials from the Northern Ireland Civil Service and UK Government, supported by independent experts, provides recommendations to the Finance Minister about allocation of £235 million ringfenced funding.
- The transformation funding is part of the broader £3.3 billion Executive restoration package for Northern Ireland.
The six proposals recommended by the Transformation Board and being funded are;
- £42 million for the ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme, delivering electronic prescription transfer and a new digital platform for community pharmacy clinical services, expanding access to care and bringing treatment closer to patients’ homes.
- £29.2m, for the Together for Families project. A new partnership between the Department of Health, The National Lottery Community Fund and the Voluntary and Community sector which will establish a regionwide, tiered model of early help to ensure families can access the right help, at the right time and in the right place. The National Lottery Community Fund will contribute an additional £30m to the project – its first strategic investment of this kind in Northern Ireland.
- £16m for Department for Communities’ led Pathway to Work and Wellbeing proposal, this investment will deliver a redesigned Health and Work model in partnership with the Department of Health and Department for the Economy, offering stronger integration between employability and health services to support more people to find and sustain employment.
- £6m for the Department of Finance’s Digital Workplace programme, to modernise records and information management across the Civil Service, to reduce duplication and manual handling, helping to support faster access to information and freeing up staff time for citizen-facing activity.
- £4m for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ Bovine Tuberculosis Research Project to deliver a first of its kind regionalised pilot, working with partners across Ireland, to redesign the control of bovine tuberculosis. A Shared Island Fund investment of approximately £5.6m will also be used to support the Bovine Tuberculosis Research Project.
- £5.3m for Department of Finance’s NISRA Data Linkage programme to deliver the capability to safely link data across departments in support of evidence-based policy making improving outcomes and better targeting of public services.
