Debate contribution: Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 31 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

31 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Summer Schemes in Special Schools: Cancellation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5471347

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will not. Sorry, I do not have enough time. The recent crisis around summer schemes in special schools is not a one-off failure. It is a clear example of what the Autism Reviewer describes as a "recurring system pattern", where delivery depends on coordinated action but that coordinated action is not secured in advance. The need for nursing support had been assessed. That has been covered. The value of those schemes is absolutely known. What was missing was the alignment. However, there remain questions to be answered. What has changed since the assessment of previous schemes, and is the same support required for specialist provision in mainstream schools (SPiMS)? That "missing middle", as the Autism Reviewer puts it, is the space between policy intent and lived experience. That, sadly, is where things fall apart. As someone outlined to me yesterday, it is a little bit like doing your knitting on a needle and watching helplessly as the wool falls off that needle. We see that pattern repeated elsewhere. We see it in the ongoing failure to design and agree meaningful post-19 provision. Young people and their families face a cliff edge, not simply because we lack policy but because we lack clear, joined-up delivery and distinct ownership. I am glad that the Health Minister has put that front and centre at the door of the First Minister and the deputy First Minister for their intervention. We also see it when children with special educational needs do not receive their school placements at the same time as their peers. That delay is not administrative; it has a deeply felt human impact. We see it in the gaps in the local growth fund, which risk, once again, leaving some of our most vulnerable young people behind, yet some suggest that that is simply someone else's problem. We must ask ourselves what our role is in all of that. Our role is to ensure that legislation, including the Children's Services Co-operation Act that we passed previously, is not simply admired as a principle but effectively used in practice. Right now, that Act is not being utilised to its full capacity to drive the cross-departmental working that it was designed to secure. That is not simply a rebuke to the Education Minister or the Health Minister; it goes for every one of us in the Chamber. This failure was not deliberate, but if we do not face up to the challenges and move beyond silo working to genuine shared ownership, we cannot escape a difficult truth: our systems will have been proven not to be fit for purpose. We need a new culture. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement outlined a culture, and we need to get back to its spirit, one that leaves no one behind, is honest with families, does not overpromise but absolutely does not under-deliver. Families should not have to come back here and fight weekly, monthly and yearly to get the systems that they are entitled to and that would support them and their children. Those things should already be there. Delivery must be reliable, not exceptional and certainly not unexpected. I ask Members to support our amendment No 2.

532 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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