Debate contribution: Support for Young Adults with Learning Difficulties and Complex Needs: Mid Ulster

Debate contribution by Mr Patsy McGlone on 20 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Patsy McGlone

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

20 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Support for Young Adults with Learning Difficulties and Complex Needs: Mid Ulster

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5348939

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas le hEmma as an tseans a thabhairt dúinn. Is ábhar iontach tábhachtach í an díospóireacht Atrátha.

I welcome the Adjournment debate and the opportunity to highlight our concerns at the lack of support for young adults with recognised learning difficulties and complex needs in Mid Ulster. For all young people and their families, the transition to adulthood is one of the most important and potentially stressful times in their lives. For young adults with learning difficulties and complex needs, that is particularly true. They may face changes to their education, employment, housing and health services. Added to that is their expectation of greater independence and the challenge of navigating complex systems of support. Their families will have concerns about all of those areas, with the added worry of how their loved ones will cope with the changes and what will happen to them when they are on their own. Many of those young people face a cliff edge as they reach 18 or 19 years of age, with few clear, meaningful pathways for them into adulthood. We will all have been contacted by families and carers of young adults in those circumstances. It is truly essential that support services be readily available and accessible during that time. However, in a rural constituency such as Mid Ulster, that is not the case. Living in a rural area can result in those young people feeling and becoming isolated, despite the best efforts of some. There are fewer clubs, groups and inclusive community spaces to help to build that sense of independence. Mid Ulster's limited bus schedules are infrequent and often do not fit with college timetables and make it difficult to access services and supported employment opportunities. Key services are often based in Belfast or Derry, meaning that there will be delays in accessing them, and long and tiring trips to do so, even with access to a car. Underfunding and staffing pressures in the services that are available also mean that access is inconsistent. I pay tribute to the members of staff to whom Emma referred, who, when they are there, drive their service as best they can and truly live their lives as a vocation.

There are, however, problems in finding appropriate roles with employers in rural areas such as in Mid Ulster. Shortages in specialist provision can often mean that young people are placed in settings that do not meet their needs. While South West College and Northern Regional College offer some support, they may not have the resources or the staff to support complex needs, and the poor provision of broadband in some of our rural areas can limit access to online learning or remote support. Young adults with complex needs frequently experience anxiety, depression or behavioural challenges, but rural mental health services are stretched. I am presently dealing with a couple of cases where supported accommodation is a requirement. The pressures and difficulties within the household have led to a situation where two young adults in the house require supported accommodation. Those are very difficult circumstances for that family. There is a provider that has refurbished accommodation in Cookstown. It has four units for supported living. On the last occasion that I had a conversation with a senior employee from the trust, four would not even look at it: there were at least 12 people with special, diverse needs who required supported accommodation, where families could not provide that support, and where additional support, supervised support and living accommodation was required. Those are the pressures that people and families are under. Those are, inevitably, the pressures that young people, once they become 18, find themselves under, without a lot of the safety net that was heretofore with them. There is also a shortage of joined-up planning in education, health and social care, creating a real danger that the lack of coordination between agencies in the transition between school and adulthood can leave young adults without continuity of care during that particularly vulnerable time. Those problems are caused, fundamentally, by a long-term lack of investment in rural provision. As well as the need for increased, long-term funding in all those areas, a new model of support for young adults with recognised learning difficulties and complex needs is required. Support services need to be reassessed, with families and young adults involved in so far as they can be in the new design, evaluation and commissioning process. There must be improved transport links and accessibility to support in our rural areas; better provision and better coordination of those local services; better planning and collaboration between agencies to improve the transition to adulthood for the young people concerned; more employment and training opportunities through supported partnerships with local employers; and the development of a rural version of Project SEARCH, based in Mid Ulster, alongside employment pathways in our local, small-scale enterprises. None of those solutions is a quick fix — I accept all that — but they are necessary if we are to properly support all the young people in our society, particularly those who are most vulnerable and those who fall outwith the safety net that is there for many others.

864 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:16 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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