Debate contribution: Post-19 Special Educational Needs
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 13 April 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Post-19 Special Educational Needs
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5483288
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Absolutely. The delivery unit proposal is in the Programme for Government, and it is there because of some of issues that I have already mentioned. There is frustration that the way that we are doing things at the moment is not delivering in the way that we want. We have all heard the old adage that, if we continue to do things in the way that we have always done them, we are always going to get the same result. We have to change the way that we do business. That requires a lot of boring stuff and process stuff, including, as I said, upskilling to get the right people with the right skills in the right places to deliver on political agreements and the will of this place. It also includes looking at our processes to streamline those and get rid of anything that is unnecessary. It is important in all that and in introducing the delivery unit that it is agile and small and is able to add value. There are lots of lessons to be learnt from the Strategic Investment Board. What once should have been very strategic becomes something that is really about getting to grips in Departments and helping to deliver the nuts and bolts. That is important, but it is not strategic. We need to be careful that the delivery unit does not get pulled in that way and that it remains at the centre and able to come in on a task-and-finish basis and add value to what we need it to do.
260 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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