Debate contribution: Educational Underachievement: Parents and Primary Caregivers
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 September 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Educational Underachievement: Parents and Primary Caregivers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5068436
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I echo Mr Harvey's comments. It is vital that we help. I know no parent who does not want to get the best educational outcomes for their children, but, often, they need help to do it. There is support through the extended schools programmes. There is an uplift of around 15% for participating schools in their allocation to offer their parental engagement programming. In the 2025-26 financial year, almost £1 million of funding will be provided for parental engagement under the extended schools programme. When it comes to a bid from the public sector transformation fund for SEN reform, £27·5 million has also been confirmed by the Finance Minister. That will allow us to take forward a number of interventions over the next five years, including projects that will have direct interface with parents and carers. We also have the Sure Start programme, which has been expanded to enable more children and families to avail themselves of that vital educational development. A 10% uplift in 2024-25 enabled 22 new areas to come into that programme, which supports 2,400 additional children and their families. There will be a further 11% uplift in 2025-26, and that will enable the introduction of an outreach provision to additional children and families who have been identified as being in need of Sure Start support and live outside the Sure Start geographical areas.
The Sure Start budget in 2025-26 will be £37·4 million: that is a significant increase. The Book Trust budget will be £75,000: that will help engage parents in reading. The Getting Ready to Learn budget will be £634,000.
265 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: 0.02 (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 (0.85).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.85 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | 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 |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.59 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.30 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.10 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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