Debate contribution: Special Educational Needs and Disability: Investment and Transformation
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Frew
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 26 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Special Educational Needs and Disability: Investment and Transformation
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4231254
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Principal Deputy Speaker, everybody struggles with these titles. I think that we should go back to referring to Mr or Mrs Speaker.
"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members."
This quote is used very often by many Members, including me, but it is attributed to Gandhi. It is absolutely right. Here we have a number of boxes ticked: children; our most vulnerable in society; and children with special educational needs. Yet, we fail them, and we fail them badly. Not only do we fail the children but we fail the parents and all the other family members who then struggle, either with education, social issues or pressure at home. What will we do about it? What will the Assembly do about it? I am sure that every one of us deals daily with those issues in our constituencies. I can tell many stories about work that I have completed, and they are heartbreaking. One family that moved into my area of North Antrim from another part of the Province struggled to get their child into a special educational school. I pay tribute to the special educational facilities that we have — the schools that we have. In my constituency, we have the first-class Castle Tower School, which is one of the most modern schools in our stock in Northern Ireland. Yet, it had to open a second campus in the old, disused Ballee High School building, where I was educated. Other schools outside my area cater well for the educational needs of some of my constituents. Those include Riverside School in Antrim town; Roddensvale School in Larne; Kilronan School in Magherafelt; and Sandelford School in Coleraine. The list goes on and on. Those schools do sterling work in really challenging environments, and they do their very best for the children. I hear nothing but good reports when we get children placed in those settings. They deserve to be in those settings, because every child deserves an education. Can we say that we are delivering that at the present time? No, we cannot. That is why the debate is so important. It is one thing debating these things and talking about them, but when are we going to see action on catering for those children? There are 149 children who are not being placed, and they are not being placed because of their needs. It is not because there is no provision or no places; it is because of their needs. That is absolutely and totally wrong. Are we catering for and looking after our most vulnerable? No, we are not. We are failing so many people, and that has to stop because we are failing not only those children but their wider family.
Yes, I will.
The Member makes a valid point, because I preach in this place about reform and about how, if we just worry about budget lines and are asking for, requesting and demanding more money to throw at a system that is failing, we will throw that money down the pan. I assure you that those parents of special needs children, for whom that pound in their pocket is just as valuable as anybody else's, will be giving that money into taxation and it will not serve their purposes one bit. In fact, it will be wasted money. They would be able to spend the money far better than any Department. One of the issues about the Programme for Government that I keep going on about is that we have a classic example of where a Programme for Government can pick up something like this and actually make a real difference. It is not a matter just for Education. Health has massive issues in this in that it can pick up these children when they are very young and identify their needs before they even get anywhere near the school path. Yet, we go for years with children not being statemented. A statement is a very important thing nowadays. What if we gave those children support before they are statemented, so that they do not need to push and battle so hard to get a statement? Why is the support not there at the earliest stage? Of course, the pressure on schools to statement children in P1, P2, P6 and P7 becomes a completely different equation. That is not fair on the school, and it is certainly not fair on the child. We need to do this better.
Thank you very much.
756 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.92).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.06 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.92 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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