Debate contribution: Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 31 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

31 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5471146

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This entire situation has been a stain on the Executive and how they do business. We had Ministers blaming each other and arm's-length bodies taking decisions that impact badly on people. We even had officials not knowing what qualifications their staff have. All the while, no one here was prepared to fess up and take responsibility until the people united and sent a clear message that what was happening was wrong. We saw two Ministers doing their negotiations on the airwaves, and they had to bow to public pressure — sheer dysfunction. For all the noise, meetings and accusations, who stood up for the children? The cancellation of summer schemes and, indeed, the problems with the provision for children with special educational needs is not new. The pressures around nursing in special schools have been known about for years. They did not arrive overnight; they did not suddenly emerge in March 2026. That raises a very serious question: where has everybody been? Every single party involved in the Executive is also represented on the Education Authority board. All four Executive parties sit around the Executive table and have reps on the Education Authority board. The minutes of Education Authority board meetings have highlighted that problems were brewing, and all four parties in the Executive and the Education Authority should have known that. All four parties have access to its corporate reporting, governance structures and minutes, and all four should have seen the warning signs. The Education Authority's published papers and Education Committee minutes have repeatedly highlighted workforce pressures, challenges in securing healthcare support and risks to service delivery.

I thank the Member for her intervention. That just speaks to the dysfunction. The public may have representatives who raise matters, but, if they do not get resolved, that is cold comfort to people out there. We cannot pretend that this is a surprise. It is not; it is a failure of oversight, a failure of grip and, ultimately, a failure of the collective responsibility that there should be in the Executive. That is why our amendment points out an uncomfortable reality, but it is also a truth. The blame shifting and the press releases were poor form. Children with some of the most complex needs were used as leverage in a political row. Where was the equality impact assessment on this decision from the EA? Some of the most vulnerable were impacted on by its decision. Were their needs taken into consideration, or was this just a chance to score a political point off a different Minister? What of the Executive? Why were they not recalled to address this? The Executive have power. Ministers could have got round the table, thrashed the problem out and brought solutions. Instead, we saw an amplification of the problem. That is not what people want. They want action, they want solutions, and they want matters to be resolved. They do not want to see grandstanding.

I thank my colleague for raising another important issue that shows the same lack of connection, in that the MO is the same. We should probably have a "Ministry of Problems" for the Executive, but I think that that is just how the Executive are: we never see them address problems. We just see the problems being thrown about in public and people out there being left to deal with the ramifications. Let me bring us back to where this story belongs. It belongs to the children and their families, including the parents who rely on these summer schemes not as a luxury but as a lifeline that provides structure, care, development and respite. Caring for a child with complex needs is relentless: it is 24/7. It is physically exhausting, emotionally draining and often done with far too little support. For many of those families, those few weeks in the summer are the difference between coping and not coping. That is not political rhetoric; it is a reality that is reflected not just in what we hear in our constituencies but in the wider coverage over the past week by news outlets that have highlighted the deep anxiety, anger and distress caused by this decision. Parents described themselves as "abandoned", and families said that they were being "pushed to breaking point". Another point that cannot simply be ignored is that it took public pressure, headlines and families speaking out for action to finally happen. We know that ,on Friday, after the issue had been dragged into the public domain, the Department of Health and the Department of Education suddenly found a way forward. Suddenly, there was a solution and progress could be made. While that is welcome, of course, it raises a deeply uncomfortable truth: if a solution could be found on Friday, why was it not found months ago? What is the solution? What nursing cover will be provided? How will it differ from previous years? Will it be a permanent solution, or will the decision be just for this summer? Once again, we have a dysfunctional Executive presiding over dysfunction, a solution but no detail — more uncertainty. One wonders why families had to go through days of fear and uncertainty. Why did children have to become the centre of a political storm before Departments did what they should have done in the first place, which was sit down and fix the problem? What that tells us is this: the system can work but, too often, it works only when it is forced to do so, and that is not good enough.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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