Services at Risk
Orchardville joined NICVA and voluntary and community organisations from across Northern Ireland at Stormont this week to call on Ministers to urgently challenge the UK Government’s decision on the Local Growth Fund.
From April 2026, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be replaced by the Local Growth Fund. However, the announced funding model includes a 64% cut to community-based support programmes — a decision that will have devastating consequences for people with disabilities, their families and communities right across Northern Ireland.
Concerns for Service Users
Announced just five days before Christmas, the scale of this reduction places essential employment, skills and wellbeing services at serious risk. Job losses and service closures are now a real possibility, threatening the support that many people rely on to access and sustain employment.
What does this mean?
For those already facing significant barriers to work, the loss of these services will push people further from the labour market and increase pressure on already overstretched health and mental health services. For Orchardville, this funding supports proven, people-centred employability services that help adults with learning disabilities and autism build confidence, secure jobs and thrive at work.
The decision also directly contradicts the aims of the Disability Action Plan 2025–2030, which commits to increasing participation, removing barriers and promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people.
Orchardville Chief Executive
Speaking to the media on the steps of Stormont, Cara Cash-Marley, Chief Executive of Orchardville, said:
“This level of funding reduction will have devastating consequences for the people we support and the staff who work tirelessly to help them into employment. These services are lifelines, not luxuries, and cutting them risks undoing years of progress.”
Orchardville is calling on the Northern Ireland Executive, MLAs and MPs to urgently challenge this decision and work together to protect vital community-based support services — before irreversible damage is done.
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