Debate contribution: Special Educational Needs: School Placements
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 6 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Special Educational Needs: School Placements
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5776856
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Mr Allen raises a number of points. He is right about improving the performance. One area that we have sought to improve has been reducing the time frame for the assessment being carried out from 26 weeks to 22 weeks. That is part of the new regulatory framework that the Education Committee has delayed and did not actually vote through. That has led to a one-year delay in a legally binding framework being in place that will reduce the 26 weeks to 22. It is regrettable that the Education Committee took the approach to delay on that issue. We have already invested more than £100 million in preparing for that new framework, yet the Committee has failed to do its job, and not for the first time. I am also looking to provide additional resources through the enhanced support model for schools. Before you even get to a statement of educational need, we want to create the flexibility in schools to meet the needs of a whole-school population because, by the time you have gone and got an assessment and a legal statement, the system has failed. We should not rely on a legal document, which often is difficult to implement, to provide what our young people need at every stage of their lives. That is what we are trying to do through the new enhanced support model. That would be hugely beneficial.
233 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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