Debate contribution: Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 31 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

31 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5471289

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you. Mr Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the debate and set the record straight. I will follow in the same vein as the Chairman of the Education Committee, who set the right tone in holding me and the Minister of Health to account and in seeking genuine information. I will set the record straight on a number of points that have been raised, and, in due course, I will get to the questions that Mr Mathison raised. It is, unfortunately, clear from today's debate that the agenda of some Members who have spoken is to exploit the issue for party political purposes. Mr Sheehan said that a mark of society is how it treats the most vulnerable. Then, shamelessly, Sinn Féin Members abused children with special educational needs for narrow party political advantage. They owe an apology. I trust that Mr Baker, or whoever winds, will apologise on behalf of Sinn Féin for the things that have been said by its Members to use children to pursue their vendetta around Israel, President Trump and the personal vitriol that they have towards me. That is shameless, and it is they who should reflect on being "tone-deaf" in this debate — I see that Mr Baker is smirking from the Back Benches. That is not what Members, those in the Public Gallery or the wider public want to listen to. I will not allow Sinn Féin to cause any more harm to children, so I will not allow interventions from those on its Benches. I will give way to Members outside of Sinn Féin, but, after the way that that party has disgracefully behaved in the debate, not to its Members. Let me say from the outset that supporting children with special educational needs is an Executive priority, as stated in the Programme for Government. As such, it requires the input and support of the whole Executive. All Departments need to be more willing to see it as such and bring their resources to the table for areas in which they have a policy remit and a practical contribution to make. There is a tendency to see this as a Department of Education issue alone and a reluctance to commit more than warm words. The summer scheme situation is an example of that. The Education Authority quite simply cannot provide those schemes safely on its own; it needs the support and investment of others. I cannot stress enough how important summer schemes are for children at special schools and their families. My colleague and good friend Cheryl Brownlee spoke passionately about how much this means to her as a parent of a child who will benefit from this particular scheme. Her words, and the words of those parents and families, should prevail on this issue. In 2025, 33 of 40 special schools offered summer schemes. The majority of pupils attending special schools attend those schemes. The summer is a long time for families whose children cannot access mainstream services. Summer schemes provide many benefits for children, allowing for much-needed social interaction with other children, continuity of learning and a sense of routine. They also provide much-needed respite for families and have been described by many as a lifeline, and that is what they are. I have visited many special schools, including, only last week, Willowbridge in Enniskillen. The contribution —

I am not giving way to any Sinn Féin Members after your behaviour today. The contribution from principals, teachers, SENCOs and classroom assistants is nothing short of extraordinary. I never fail to be impressed by the wonderful job that they do, week in, week out, in going above and beyond the statutory and contractual role that they have and delivering summer provision in recognition of the challenges that parents face. However, that job is getting increasingly difficult. The special school landscape has seen many changes in recent years, including a significant rise in pupil numbers and an increasing complexity of need. Many of the children who attend a special school have complex medical needs that require specialist knowledge and interventions. I am aware of the difficulties that special schools face in adequately addressing those needs, and I welcomed constructive engagement on the matter with the Minister of Health and school principals as recently as February.

Work is under way to develop a new model of care for children with complex medical needs in special schools, involving officials from my Department, the Department of Health, the Public Health Agency and the Education Authority. There is a real urgency to address those needs for the safety of children in education. Through that engagement, however, I am aware that the challenge of addressing healthcare needs is particularly acute during summer schemes. The summer provision is not always delivered by the teachers and classroom assistants who know the children best, a point that some Members had not fully grasped when they said that the same teachers and classroom assistants that deliver term-time provision deliver summer scheme provision. That is not the case. Some do, but many do not, and Members ought to be aware of that. In light of those challenges, the EA had to give careful consideration to the viability of delivering a safe programme of summer activities for 2026. Parents need to know that their children are safe. The EA, which has operational responsibility for special summer schools, had made clear that the level of risk associated with running the schemes, primarily relating to the safety and safeguarding of pupils, was no longer manageable. Are any of us here really going to ask the Education Authority to take a chance with some of our most vulnerable children? Is that what Members are asking it to do? There were also risks to staff and the EA in ensuring safe working practices. Special schools have shown considerable commitment to running schemes in recent years outside term time. However, the EA advised that it was no longer safe to do so.

I will come to that point because there was engagement with Health but an intervention was made by the Health Minister that was critical to making sure that provision would be made available. I will provide more information about that in due course. To address those issues and allow summer schemes to continue, senior leaders in the EA engaged intensively with Health officials, including the Chief Nursing Officer, to secure adequate healthcare provision. I understand that significant work was undertaken by the Department of Health to provide proposals for solutions based on training and support. However, the EA did not view that as mitigating the risks sufficiently. The EA deemed that on-site nurses would be required for summer schemes to operate safely. As Minister, I was not prepared to second-guess that analysis, and I suggest that no other Member would have been. On 24 March, my Department received a letter from the permanent secretary in the Department of Health advising definitively that there was insufficient nursing resource to provide on-site nursing for the duration of the schemes this summer. As a result, the EA, reluctantly and belatedly, concluded that it would not be possible to run summer schemes safely in special schools this year. That decision was based on the risks that I have outlined and not on funding. The decision was very much a last resort. Decisions on running summer schemes are of an operational nature and are, therefore, made by the EA. I would remind those who came here today to criticise the EA, which is seeking to do a difficult job in trying circumstances, that every party on the Executive is represented on the EA board. Indeed, it is obvious to anyone who can count that the largest party represented on the EA board is Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin Member Mrs Mason said that they are not political reps but appointees. They are appointees who are nominated by Sinn Féin. That is the virtue by which they are appointed to the EA board. Regarding timing, the EA wanted, quite rightly, to give the Department of Health as long as possible to consider the request, and come forward with the required support. The deadline to do so was repeatedly extended. I only wish that the confirmation of additional nursing cover had been received earlier, as the decision not to run summer schemes could then have been avoided. Following the EA announcement on 26 March, I intervened to renew efforts to seek additional nursing support. I engaged directly with the Minister of Health on the issue, and I asked the EA to engage further with the Department of Health to explore every possible option to enable as many schemes as possible to proceed. The EA confirmed that it was prepared to deliver summer schemes this year, provided that the Department of Health could supply the necessary clinical and nursing support. After intense and constructive engagement, last Friday, the Minister of Health confirmed that nursing support would be provided at every summer scheme location.

I welcome Minister Nesbitt's intervention on the matter. It should not, however, have taken the intervention of Minister Nesbitt to direct his officials for the correct outcome to be delivered after months of engagements with Health officials —

— but I pay tribute to the Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, for arresting this situation. It ensures that essential clinical oversight will be in place, and it offers a solution in relation to the health risks. Following that confirmation, on 27 March, the EA's chief transformation officer updated special schools on the joint working between Education and Health, highlighting the fact that appropriate nursing provision would be in place for pupils who require healthcare support during special school summer schemes in 2026. The letter also highlighted the point that the EA will continue to work with special school principals to urgently prioritise planning for the summer schemes. While the EA will aim to provide delivery that is as close as possible to the delivery that was offered last year, considerable work is now required across multiple partners, including schools —

— the EA, the Department of Health and trusts. Mr Speaker, I heard Mr O'Toole and Mr Donnelly asking me to give way.

Throughout the process — I had engaged on the issue for a number of months — the EA had outlined the health and safety aspects and associated nursing requirements. At the start of last week, I engaged with the EA on the issue, and my permanent secretary engaged with the Department of Health permanent secretary throughout last week on getting information on the consequences of nursing provision not being available. I was aware of that and was actively engaged in seeking a resolution.

It is an entirely separate issue, but I have communicated with the EA on the continuing nature of the spend until the end of June. That reflects the fact that there has not been an agreed Executive Budget, which means that we are unable to commit to the next financial year in its totality. The position of my Department and the EA remained the same throughout: summer schemes would run if healthcare needs were suitably addressed. That is why the decision announced by the EA last Thursday was taken only as a last resort and when all efforts to run the schemes safely appeared to have been exhausted. I acknowledge that the EA announcement on 26 March was disruptive and that it was difficult for parents and special school pupils. I regret the distress that it caused. On behalf of all involved, I apologise to those parents and pupils. However, I am pleased that we have been able to find a way forward and that the schools that had been intending to operate a summer scheme can do so. That was the outcome that we wanted for families. However, the safety and well-being of children and young people was, rightly, the concern of the EA, as it should be for all of us. Thankfully, the right outcome has been secured. There needs to be a change of attitude across the Executive. We need to change from an attitude of Departments offering the minimum to one where they stretch themselves to provide the best possible provision for those children and their families. I turn now to the wider support for children with SEN. I trust that the issue of the summer schemes has been resolved, but greater challenges lie ahead, for which I will need the support of the House and Executive colleagues. As Members will be aware, I published a wide-ranging SEN reform agenda and action plan last February. That programme seeks to transform how we support children with SEN in our education system from the early years through to when the young people leave school. The five-year delivery plan contains more than 100 actions aimed at improving support across the whole continuum of need: supporting children at stage 1 of the SEN code of practice through providing early intervention; resourcing schools, thereby reducing the reliance on external support; enhancing stage 2 support via the EA's local impact teams; extending the role of the Middleton Centre for Autism; and transforming support at stage 3 for children with a statement of SEN.

All of that is underpinned by a comprehensive programme for training and continuous professional development for teachers and assistants so that we have a skilled and experienced workforce that is collaboratively working with health professionals and the creation of a more inclusive education system. When I set out my ambitions for SEN reform to the Assembly in January last year, I was clear that it could only be delivered with significant and sustained additional funding and sought the support of the Executive to lever in the required investment. That support has not been forthcoming. I have therefore been constrained in my ability to fully deliver on that ambition. My Department managed to secure a portion of the investment required to kick-start delivery of SEN reform through the public-sector transformation board. Funding of £27·5 million over five years, which represents approximately only 5% of the budget required, was secured to deliver on priority actions that focused on early intervention: transformation of the support model for children with a statement of SEN; building a more inclusive education system; and investing in the professional development of the education workforce. The central focus for SEN reform is the proposed enhanced support model for children with a statement of SEN. The EA published its consultation document, seeking views on that model, last Tuesday. However, there has already been unhelpful rhetoric that that is about the removal of one-to-one support for children. That is not what this is about, and that narrative creates fear amongst children and families. The new model seeks to enhance support for children by giving schools the autonomy to determine what is needed to best meet the needs of their pupils, widening the support to a range of professionals and interventions, and recognising that, in accordance with evidence, one size does not fit all. It also addresses the unsustainability of the current model. The pressures on special education placements have been well rehearsed in the Assembly, and they continue, year-on-year. I have delivered more than 2,700 new places in special schools and specialist provision. However, today, we would be well served by speaking honestly and clearly about the SEN capital programme. The programme represents the most structured, strategic plan for special school investment that Northern Ireland has ever seen, but it will remain hollow rhetoric unless it is urgently funded and delivered in full. It has sat, neither discussed nor agreed by Sinn Féin, since September last year. Where, I ask you, is the real commitment to transforming the lives, education and life chances of children with special needs? It is not optional and it is not a luxury: it is the minimum required to keep pace with need and to honour the commitments made to families in the Programme for Government. Sinn Féin Members opposite may want to speak to their party colleagues who are on the Executive. Members will be aware that I wrote to schools in February, requiring their cooperation with EA in creating more special place provision. That was a necessary step. I have also delivered the preschool inclusion fund for children with SEN in early years, providing investment of almost £5·5 million to preschool settings since the scheme was launched in November 2024. I have seen how beneficial that funding has been. In spite of the barriers to delivery, I have been doing all that I can to deliver for children with SEN since I have been in office, often without support from other Departments and having reforms opposed, not because they are wrong but for political advantage. I fully accept that there is much more to do, but I cannot do that alone. I cannot do it without appropriate investment. Sinn Féin Members lambast any changes to service delivery, whilst a Sinn Féin Finance Minister starves Education of funding and proposes a reduced budget. The public see that for what it is. Today, I hope that Members can get behind efforts to provide better support to children and young people with SEN. This situation should have been avoided. Though it was an operational decision by EA, on which every party is represented, there are lessons to be learned. It is also an example that shows that, when two Ministers step in, we can deal with these issues. On behalf of those community groups affected by the local growth fund, I ask: where are the Finance Minister and the Economy Minister? They are not here. There is no recall of the Assembly on that issue. They would not want that. Make no mistake: I will continue to put forward the needs of our children with special educational disadvantage. Those children are waiting, their families are waiting, the staff are waiting, and the system is waiting. I believe that we can make a change. Those families deserve no less.

It is time to fund transformation, it is time to keep our promises, and it is time to act. Only then will we have transformative, fully funded, long-term investment in dignity, inclusion and the potential of every child.

3,046 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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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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