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NICON Election Briefing 2027

NICON publishes election briefing to inform debate before the next NI Assembly election

  • Delivery and performance

  • Governance

  • Leadership

  • Improvement

Read the briefing $NICON Election Briefing 2027 10.2 MB

NICON, in collaboration with its members, has developed an election briefing to inform the debate around health and social care policy.

The briefing represents the collective view of NICON’s members. Their views were gathered via an online survey and a series of in-depth focus groups.

The briefing is intended to inform party manifestos, public discourse, political debate, and the future Programme for Government (PfG) as we approach the NI Assembly and Local Government elections in May 2027.

NICON’s members have three key election asks:

1) Collective political bravery and leadership to support the focused implementation of the Reset Plan.

We are calling for:

a) A stable funding environment, prioritising a three-year funding cycle to support planning and investment in capital and transformation.

b) Investment in the neighbourhood model and in partnership-based approaches that work alongside people, communities, and local organisations to improve health and wellbeing.

c) A strategic approach to valuing, supporting and transforming the workforce.

2) Investment in an innovative ‘all of government’ approach: An all of government approach should be the foundation for the next Programme for Government, prioritising health in all policies, which brings an explicit focus on addressing and reducing health inequalities, building on or using Marmot principles. 

3) An NI-specific strategic framework on partnering with the public: We support the development of a cross-governmental framework that sets out principles for a ‘do with’ asset-based approach towards partnering with the public in health planning and wider decision making. This should focus on shifting mindsets and system/organisational culture rather than replicating existing models.

The election briefing was launched on Wednesday 7 October 2026 at NICON’s annual conference and exhibition, ‘NICON26: Reset for all | Action by all’.

The full briefing is available via this link. A shorter one page version of the briefing, highlighting the election asks, is available here.

If you have any questions about the election briefing, please email contact@niconfedhss.org.