Debate contribution: Special Educational Needs: Capital Investment

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 16 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

16 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Special Educational Needs: Capital Investment

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5110913

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Last week, I wrote to ministerial colleagues to ask them to support detailed proposals for ring-fenced special educational needs (SEN) capital funding of around £1·7 billion, separate from the main Education capital budget. Today, I appeal to Members of the Assembly to back me in that call. Over the past 18 months, I have set a clear and determined strategic direction to address one of the most pressing challenges facing our education system: the urgent requirement for special educational needs placements and the long-term transformation of SEN provision across Northern Ireland. It is not a challenge for one Department alone; it is a challenge for the Executive as a whole. As a Government, we are united in our commitment, as outlined in the Programme for Government (PFG), to work together to better support children and young people with special educational needs. We have pledged to transform our education system to deliver high-quality, efficient and sustainable services for every child with SEN. Today, I seek the Assembly's support for an Executive-led and funded SEN capital investment programme, one that will revolutionise the facilities available to our children and young people. The choice facing the Executive is stark. Without decisive action across government, the system risks failing the very children whom it is meant to protect. Our special schools have reached capacity. Many are housed in outdated and deteriorating buildings, spaces that lack adequate therapy rooms and fall short of the standards required to deliver modern, holistic care. All straightforward special school solutions have been exhausted. The vast majority of special schools have no physical internal or external space for further development, and new special schools and dual-campus sites of existing schools are therefore required across Northern Ireland. That is alongside the continued provision of specialist classes in our mainstream schools. Those small, dedicated classes provide higher levels of support, a modified curriculum and reduced class size compared with a standard mainstream class. That infrastructure is stretched to its limits, while demand for specialist facilities continues to surge. We are at a pivotal moment, a fork in the road. Working closely with my Department, the Education Authority (EA) has today published comprehensive plans to expand, modernise and transform our special schools estate. However, that vision can be realised only with significant dedicated capital investment. Without an Executive-funded programme, we will remain trapped in a cycle of emergency planning, unable to provide the specialist facilities that every child deserves. The facts are stark and urgent. Over 70,000 pupils in Northern Ireland are registered as having special educational needs: that is 20% of our children. The number of pupils with a statement of SEN has risen by an unprecedented 85% in 10 years to almost 30,000 pupils. With regard to specialist places, the number of pupils attending special schools has increased by 47% in the same period, and the number of children in specialist provision classes in mainstream schools by no less than 169%. To meet that need, my Department has invested £110 million in the past two years to provide 242 new specialist provision classes and 98 additional classrooms across the special schools estate. That is a huge achievement, but make no mistake: this is not the peak. Those numbers are set to increase year-on-year for the next decade. The scale of demand is staggering. Almost 6,000 additional special school places and over 5,000 additional specialist provision places will be needed. However, this is not just about numbers, it is about need, and the complexity of those needs is deepening. Our children require more tailored and innovative solutions. School staff need the right environments and resources to deliver the high-quality education that every child deserves. Let me be clear: I cannot plan, build or deliver the facilities that children need without additional annual earmarked capital funding from the Executive. It is not a marginal issue; it is a central challenge facing our education system and our society. We must act now. The pattern of increased need and investment requirements is not unique to Northern Ireland; it is a challenge echoed across the British Isles. In the Republic of Ireland, for example, no fewer than 16 new special schools have opened since 2019 to cope with the significant growth in pupils requiring a special school placement. There is also an annual requirement of around 400 additional special provision classes as the need for SEN placements there has doubled in five years. That is a clear signal of the scale and seriousness of the issue. Those figures reflect a broader truth: the rise in special educational needs is not a temporary spike. It is a sustained and accelerating trend, and it demands a strategic, well-funded response. Northern Ireland must not be left behind. We must match that momentum with our own commitment to investment, innovation and transformation. The Education Authority, in close partnership with my Department, has developed comprehensive and forward-looking plans to expand the special school estate and increase SEN places in mainstream education. Those plans are not aspirational; they are actionable, but they require more than departmental will. They require Executive endorsement and support as a flagship investment programme. Only through such a funded programme will we move from a reactive emergency approach to a sustainable position and fulfil our Programme for Government commitments. Last year, I tasked the Education Authority with developing detailed plans of action for each of our 40 special schools. Today, those plans have been published. They represent a blueprint for transformation that will revolutionise our special schools estate and reshape how we deliver placements for children with special educational needs. The plans set out the short-, medium- and long-term capital works that are essential to meet the increasing need for special school places. As I noted earlier, over 6,000 additional places are required over the next decade. The plans therefore include the expansion, enhancement and restructuring of the special school estate. They also aim to ensure that the necessary specialist accommodation and equipment are in place to enable pupils to develop the vital skills required to enhance their life beyond education and to provide opportunities for them to access the workplace. The SEN-related capital works currently in planning have a present-day value of £430 million. They include new builds for Sperrinview Special School and Knockevin Special School; a second campus for Ardnashee School and College; two Belfast special school campuses; and 10 extension and refurbishment projects for special schools through the school enhancement programme. To deliver on our Programme for Government commitments, we must also urgently proceed with the projects outlined in the plans of action, as well as with the expansion of specialist provision classes. The next phase of the SEN capital investment programme will deliver 400 additional special school places through the expansion of five existing projects; new investment at 12 special schools to create over 2,000 places; three additional multi-school campuses in Belfast delivering over 1,000 places; three new campuses across Northern Ireland providing 700 places; and over 500 new specialist provision places in mainstream classes. I have submitted detailed proposals to the Executive for ring-fenced funding that is separate from the main Department of Education capital budget. In total, the SEN capital investment programme has a £1·7 billion investment need over the next 10 years. The urgency, however, is not just for the long term but immediate. We face a capital funding crisis next year that must be addressed without delay. The stark reality is that I cannot do this alone. The current education capital budget simply cannot absorb the level of investment required. A single new 500-pupil special school costs around £90 million. That is one third of my Department's annual capital budget, which is already stretched to its limits. It is fully utilised to ensure that schools across the estate remain open and safe, as well as to fund the ICT infrastructure and transport fleet that enable access to education for thousands of children. Those are not discretionary spends; they are essential to the daily operation of our education system. It is simply not possible to suspend all capital works across the school estate for a decade in order to redirect funding towards SEN infrastructure. That would jeopardise the integrity of the entire education system. The conventional education capital budget cannot carry the weight of modernising and expanding SEN provision over the next 10 years. Alongside the urgent need for SEN placements, I am faced with an ageing estate. Many schools built in the mid-20th century are now reaching the end of their useful lifespan and are no longer fit for purpose. Maintenance and minor works are currently restricted to emergency and statutory interventions only. As a result, we have a 15-year backlog of planned maintenance that is estimated to cost in the region of £800 million. Of the 74 major capital projects for schools, 21 are paused owing to the restricted capital budget position. Of the 72 school enhancement projects that have been announced since 2017, only eight have proceeded to construction. The capital need outside specialist SEN provision is significant and pressing, yet the pressure for SEN placements continues to escalate. The cost of emergency SEN placement provision has risen from £9 million in 2019 to a projected £85 million next year, which is an 850% increase in just six years. Let me be absolutely clear: the Department of Education budget cannot sustain that trajectory. If we do not act, the school estate will continue to deteriorate. We will face significant disruption to children's education, and, inevitably, schools will close and children will be unplaced. That is why I am calling for a dedicated Executive-led SEN capital investment programme, not as a luxury but as a necessity. We must invest in the future of our children, and we must protect the integrity of our education system.

I fully recognise that the Executive face difficult decisions. Every Department has capital needs. Every sector is under pressure, and the capital budget, as we all know, is finite. However, meeting the needs of children with special educational needs is not just another departmental priority; it is a cross-government priority and responsibility. It is a moral and societal imperative that transcends portfolios and party lines. Those children are not abstract statistics; they are individuals with potential, promise and the right to an education that meets their needs and nurtures their strengths. That is why I have submitted proposals to the Executive for the establishment of a new Executive-led and funded SEN capital investment programme that will be a strategic long-term commitment over the next 10 years. It is the only viable path forward. Without that dedicated programme, I cannot progress to the next phase of our SEN capital investment strategy and we will remain trapped in a cycle of emergency planning and reacting to crises rather than building for the future. To conclude, I ask Members this: what is more important than meeting the needs of our most vulnerable children and young people? It is not merely an educational concern but a societal obligation. Members have rightly expressed their concerns at the emergency planning approach to SEN placements. I ask all political parties to support me in the Assembly. This is not an issue for the fractures of our politics. I ask Members to support that ring-fenced capital investment. Let us choose not division and delay but delivery and determination. As an Executive, let us demonstrate our commitment to equity, inclusion and social justice and to building a better and fairer Northern Ireland. The transformation of SEN planning requires dedicated, earmarked funding. It cannot be resourced from a budget that is struggling to keep open a crumbling and ageing school estate. Let us resource the specialist facilities that will equip and empower our children so that no child is left behind, no dream deferred and no future forsaken. Alternatively, if we fail to invest adequately in specialist facilities, educational inequality will deepen and remain for another generation. We must move from patchwork solutions to purposeful transformation. We must invest not only in buildings but in hope, opportunity and the dignity of every child who relies on us to get it right. Let us be bold and united. Let us deliver the future that our children deserve.

The Chairman makes an important point, but, before you can get to that engagement and to making sure that things work, the Executive need to take a decision in principle. All parties, including the Member's party, Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party, are on the Executive. The Executive need to take a decision in principle to endorse the paper that I have submitted with the strategic plan. My approach to providing the long-term strategic plan that Members have rightly called for and that I have commissioned needs to be endorsed and supported by every political party on the Executive. That is the only viable pathway forward. It absolutely needs to have the confidence of our school principals for us to make the provision, but we need to take that decision. I have engaged with the NAHT on it, and I welcome its intervention and willingness to engage at this early stage rather than having to respond in May or June. The union has taken a welcome step, and I commend the union for that approach. Of course, I will work with it as we seek to build that confidence, but, first, that decision needs to be taken in principle by all Executive parties around the table.

I do not accept that characterisation of the Audit Office report on the value-for-money assessment. That is a side issue. I met the Finance Minister, John O'Dowd, only a number of weeks ago. I explained the critical nature of the budget not just for resource but for capital and highlighted to Minister O'Dowd the need for the Executive paper that I have now taken forward. I welcome the Finance Minister's engagement with me. He welcomed the approach that I am taking and gave a commitment that he would engage positively in looking at the request that I make in the Executive paper. However, what we now need is not just words or sentiment but tangible decisions and actions on that costed plan. We have master planned every special school. This morning, I have corresponded with every principal. We have provided details of the plans that we have for their schools. The plans for Members' constituencies are available for them to look at. We know what we need to do. I know what the Executive need to do. I trust that the other political parties around the Executive table know what they need to do.

I thank the Member for his question. Obviously, details are now available for Members to look at. I will resist the temptation to go into detail on every individual school in their constituencies that Members may want to raise, because that presupposes that a decision will be taken first of all on the principle of the Executive-led scheme that we need to take forward. We can get into the granular detail of what we will do in every constituency only on the basis that we have secured the support of the Executive. Work is obviously being taken forward on the basis of decisions that I had previously taken in respect of schools. I can advise the Member that the business case in respect of the first Belfast special school has now been submitted to my Department and is going through the approvals process, so any potential dates will be subject to receipt of business case approval as well as the necessary statutory approvals. However, the current delivery programme indicates that construction would commence in 2029 with provisional completion of the whole project in 2032.

2,627 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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