Debate contribution: Early Learning and Childcare Strategy
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 23 February 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Early Learning and Childcare Strategy
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5400036
Read the official Assembly record
Text
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer questions 2 and 9 together. With the agreement of my Executive colleagues, I released the draft Executive early learning and childcare strategy for public consultation on 17 December last year. The consultation will run for 14 weeks and will close on 24 March. I attended a meeting of the all-party group on early education and childcare on 2 February to set out my ambition for the strategy and had the opportunity to listen and respond to the issues raised at the meeting by fellow Assembly Members and stakeholders from the early learning and childcare sector. At a departmental level, a mix of online and in-person public consultation events is taking place in the evenings to facilitate parents and childcare practitioners, with sessions planned for Belfast, Londonderry and Enniskillen.
In addition, my officials are currently taking forward a comprehensive engagement plan that will reach sector representative organisations and early learning and childcare providers, as well as workers and parents. It will create a forum to hear relevant views and opinions and to encourage responses to the consultation questionnaire. A number of separate meetings have also taken place at the request of sectoral partners such as the Northern Ireland Childminding Association, Early Years, Altram and the Education Authority's preschool education group. Further sessions are planned with PlayBoard NI to take on board the views of Children in Northern Ireland (CINI), the school-age sector organisation, to explore how it sees the proposals impacting on the lives of children and young people. There will also be a separate event held that is specifically for young people. Once the consultation period has ended, a thorough analysis of the responses will be undertaken to inform the final version of the strategy, which I will bring to my Executive colleagues for agreement, along with a draft implementation plan for the timely delivery of the priority actions. All that I can say at this stage is that the timing will be wholly dependent on the quantity of consultation responses received and the complexity of the issues that are raised. I am, however, committed to bringing the final strategy to the Executive as quickly as possible.
365 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).
- 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 | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.40 | No |
| 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 | 0.83 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.11 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.06 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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