Debate contribution: Special Educational Needs Provision: South Down

Debate contribution by Mr Nick Mathison on 14 May 2024.

MLA

Mr Nick Mathison

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

14 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Special Educational Needs Provision: South Down

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4490457

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I also thank Cathy Mason for securing Adjournment debate on what is a very important issue for South Down and across Northern Ireland. I would like to draw attention to the remarks that a number of Members made on the pay and grading review for classroom assistants and on the upcoming strike action that is now facing our schools across Northern Ireland. I think that parents across the whole region, including in South Down, where we know that there are particular pressures, will be very concerned. I hope that, in his remarks, the Minister will be able to address the work that is ongoing on engagement with the unions in order to try to address that impending strike action, as well as the level of engagement with the Treasury to see where we are on securing the necessary resource. There was universal disappointment that the money was not found in the Budget for that vital review. Without the workforce — our excellent support staff — to deliver SEN services, we can make capital announcements and do many, many things, but it does not count for much. As my colleague Andrew McMurray said, it is great to get a new building, but you must have the staff to deliver the service.

I do not want to come across as overly negative, but there are real concerns that, if we do not tackle the workforce issue, the whole agenda for reform of SEN services will be really jeopardised.

I was keen to speak in the debate as Alliance education spokesperson but also as an MLA whose constituency borders South Down and is soon to get a good chunk of South Down. Sorry, Cathy; I am sure that we are getting all the good bits. Following those boundary changes, I will see a lot of the areas that we are talking about come directly into my constituency. There are issues with SEN provision across Northern Ireland, and access to places for September 2024 is under severe pressure. However, South Down has been identified as one of the areas with a particular set of pressures. That was confirmed by the Minister to the Assembly on 30 April in response to a question for oral answer on the matter. I welcome the interventions that we have had from the Minister recently in relation to capital moneys being made available for a SEN capital programme. We have had lots of references to Knockevin Special School, which has outgrown the capacity at its two sites. The Minister also referred to the possibility of an extension at Rathore School, and a lot of children from South Down would fall into the catchment area for that school. I would be keen for the Minister to give us more detail on the timelines for the roll-out of that programme of investment for Knockevin, Rathore and any other schools in the South Down area that may benefit. In the educational space, there are often capital investment announcements and photo opportunities at schools, but then we wait many years for shovels to hit the ground. We know that the budgetary position is challenging, so it would be great to hear from the Minister how he sees the timeline for that investment programme. While capital investment in special schools is welcome and special provision is only one element of a complex picture, wider long-term reform, shaped by the end-to-end review of SEN, must be progressed, resourced and prioritised by the Minister if we are to move off the crisis footing in SEN provision. Anyone who has taken the time to watch the Education Committee recently will know that the debate about whether we are experiencing a crisis is a little controversial. I am not into scaremongering or trying to panic parents, but, whatever language we use, the situation is serious and needs to be taken seriously. Again, it would be welcome to hear from the Minister about the pressures facing medium- to long-term SEN provision in South Down. I thank him for his presence in the Chamber. What assurances can he give on the reform agenda and the end-to-end review? When will we see an action plan arising out of that? There is concern that the review could drag on for many months. We really need to see an action plan on what delivery will look like. Of course, we have that immediate crisis: it is facing us in September, which is getting closer by the day. For parents across South Down and more widely across the region there is genuine anxiety about whether a place will be found for their child and whether that place will be appropriate, which is the crucial consideration. I am aware of the substantial amount of work going on between the EA and schools to establish specialist provisions and the places that are required. I wish them well with that work, and a lot of schools are stepping up to come into that space and try to meet the need. However, families in areas of SEN pressure like South Down should not have their child's placement dealt with as part of an annual rolling programme of emergency response. The Department and the EA must get ahead of the issue. The necessary planning must be done and the necessary investment must go in so that we do not find ourselves in this situation again. I mean that sincerely: I do not want to be in the Chamber in a year's time debating the same issues. I want us to have got ahead of the issue. I want to back the Department and the EA in that work, but we need to see clear actions and see how that will be delivered. We need to see the Department and the EA working meaningfully in partnership with health colleagues. We need to see them planning effectively so that we can, as the Department has rightly called for in recent weeks, get the right support from the right people in the right place at the right time. I think that we are all behind that agenda, and I hope that we can see it rolled out in the weeks and months ahead.

1,031 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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