Member's statement: Special Educational Needs Services: Downpatrick
Member's statement by Mrs Cathy Mason on .
- MLA
- Mrs Cathy Mason
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 23 April 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Special Educational Needs Services: Downpatrick
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4484984
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I am very concerned that Downpatrick has been identified as one of the areas that is under the greatest pressure with regard to special educational needs. That is extremely worrying.
Too many young people and their parents are being failed by the current system. Each of us will have had anxious and worried parents come through our office doors at breaking point, because, after sitting on waiting lists for months, sometimes years, they have been told that there is no place for their child. That is not acceptable. Young people with special educational needs and their families in South Down and across the North must have access to properly funded first-class services. We have consistently called for an overhaul of the SEN system to ensure that it meets the needs of children and families. We ask the Education Minister to work alongside the Health Minister to transform special educational needs provision so that it delivers for children in Downpatrick and across the North.
163 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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