Debate contribution: Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 31 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Eóin Tennyson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

31 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5471087

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Over the past week, families of children with special educational needs have been put through a disgraceful and entirely avoidable ordeal. The decision to cancel summer schemes at special schools, only for it to be reversed fewer than 24 hours later, has caused widespread distress, anger and confusion, and rightly so. Those schemes are not optional extras; they are a lifeline for families, providing structure, routine, support and social interaction for children with additional needs and disabilities and offering much-needed respite for their parents during the nine-week summer break. To pull the rug from under those schemes at the last minute, without warning, consultation or a contingency plan, was an appalling dereliction of duty by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education. It left families abandoned, scrambling for alternatives that simply do not exist, and school leaders were left in the dark. To make matters worse, the announcement slipped out just as the Assembly entered recess: a clear attempt to avoid scrutiny or accountability in the Chamber, knowing full well the chaos that would ensue for families. What happened next was that Ministers hid behind officialdom, passing the buck and pointing the finger at one another whilst parents cried out for real leadership and action. It is, of course, a relief that common sense has since prevailed, but it should never have taken the backlash from concerned parents or a recall petition from Alliance to drag Ministers back around the table. The fact that it did and that a resolution was then magically found within 24 hours exposed just how shambolic and blasé the approach to those vital schemes has been. The issue of nursing provision in special schools is not new. The concerns about the delegated scheme are well known. It is also not simply the preserve of summer schemes. The Departments, by the Minister's own admission, had been engaging on those issues for months. Officials, schools and families have all been raising concerns repeatedly for years. Met with a brick wall, my colleague Nick Mathison, as Chair of the Education Committee, stepped in to facilitate a meeting between principals and the health trusts back in 2024. He facilitated a further meeting with the two Ministers later that year. Lofty promises and commitments were made about reviews and action, but, clearly, nothing has changed. Parents of children with special educational needs are at breaking point. They are forced to fight every day for every scrap of support that they need throughout their child's life, from diagnosis to securing school places, accessing respite and planning a post-19 future for their child. Every delay, barrier and blockage places more strain on families who are already stretched beyond their elastic limit. The latest debacle is not merely an administrative failure or an operational decision, as the Minister claimed. It is yet another blow to families who are exhausted from battling the system at every turn and whose children always seem to be the first to lose support and the last to find out. The issue is a microcosm of a system that is failing children with special educational needs and their families in our society. Yes, the U-turn is welcome, and, yes, families are relieved that the schemes will now go ahead, but that relief does not erase the harm. It does not ease the anxiety or replenish the confidence that has been so heavily diminished. It also does not answer the fundamental questions. Who made the decision? Why was cancellation of those vital schemes on the table in the first place? When were the Ministers aware? Why did they sit on their hands? Why did they not intervene earlier? Why were the Education Committee and the Assembly not notified? Why, on Thursday, was it not possible for schemes to proceed safely but, suddenly, on Friday, it was entirely possible to make them safe? What will the provision look like this year for those families? Will the nursing cover be sufficient? Will the Ministers ensure that there will be no repeat of this saga in future years? What steps will now be taken to address the issues in nursing provision that have been occurring for years, and how can the confidence of parents in Ministers' ability to deliver wider reform to the SEN system be rebuilt, given the shambolic way in which this situation has been handled? Parents deserve answers to those questions. They deserve accountability and a fulsome apology in the Assembly today from both Ministers. Anything less, including resorting to the usual bluster, deflection and political attacks to which we are so accustomed in the Chamber, will speak volumes to the families who are in the Public Gallery today. They do not want more buck-passing, more blame and more political point-scoring in the Chamber; they demand full transparency about the decision-making process around those schemes. The Assembly has been recalled to give voice to the frustrations felt by parents, schools and the wider public, who are horrified by how the ordeal has been handled. We must send a clear message today that the rights of children with additional needs are not optional or secondary, that such support cannot be switched on and off by Departments as and when it suits and that those children's families should never again be used as pawns in a game of political chicken between two Ministers. We need guarantees, not a vague assurance, that the mistake will never be repeated, and we need a clear cross-departmental commitment and a plan to ensure that nursing provision, staffing and SEN support are stable, sustainable and protected. That is the least that families should be able to expect from two Departments that, collectively, receive over 71% of the Executive's Budget. SEN children and their families deserve consistent, meaningful support, not chaos, not confusion and not, frankly, the incompetence that we have witnessed over the past week. No child in our society should ever be an afterthought. They deserve Ministers who get it right the first time. I commend the motion to the Assembly.

1,015 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:16 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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