Executive package aims to curtail SEN placement challenges
The Department of Education has announced a package which aims to curtail the demand for school places among students with a special education need (SEN) statement.
As of 16 August 2024, 41 children with special educational needs (SEN) statements in Northern Ireland were awaiting confirmation of a school place for the 2024/25 academic year. In July 2024, this figure was 120.
This follows a 2023 independent review of special educational needs (SEN) which asserted that the SEN system needs to be “re-aligned and reformed to move from a process-system driven to a child-centred approach which meets the needs of children with SEN”.
The review explains how, in addition the vast increase in SEN-statemented pupils, that the overall number of pupils in Northern Ireland schools has been growing steadily since 2017, with almost 341,000 pupils registered in the 2022/23 academic year in primary, post-primary, and special schools.
Speaking in April 2024, Minister of Education Paul Givan MLA announced the SEN capital programme which is an annual ring-fenced resource maintenance and equipment programme for special schools.
The programme further increases provision of specialist provision in mainstream school classes, extension of existing special schools to provide additional places, and a new special school provision.
Givan further announced that the capital programme will cumulatively amount to a cost of £500 million over the next 10 years.
The Education Minister has asserted that the programme is a “wide-ranging programme of significant and sustained capital investment” which will lead to the development of school facilities to support children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) across Northern Ireland.
Speaking in the Assembly on 30 April 2024, Givan described the programme as “the biggest step change to capital planning in education for a generation”, with an “ambitious and far-reaching programme of investment” in facilities for children with SEN, which he claims will “transform the education and lives of our most vulnerable children and their families”.
Givan continued: “It is simply not good enough that many of our most vulnerable children are being educated in ageing facilities, too often without adequate equipment and resources. Our special school staff, who work with our most vulnerable learners, need and deserve facilities that match their skills and expertise.”
Under the programme, funding will be available for the construction of up to eight new schools over the next 10 years. Whether this is sufficient to meet future demand is unclear as, although there is consensus within the education sector that the number of SEN-statemented pupils will increase, the scale at which this increase will take place depends on a number of variables, making projections difficult.
The Department of Education has clarified two of the sites of new schools to be constructed based in Sperrinview and Knockevin, and confirmed that capital planning was in place for a second campus of Ardnashee Special School.
The capital programme also provides for new builds for a number of existing special schools, an extension and refurbishment programme for special schools, accommodation for specialist classes in mainstream schools as well as additional maintenance and equipment funding.
Outlining a four-point capital investment “masterplan” with the stated objective to “benefit every special school in Northern Ireland,” Givan added: “I have put in place an annual £5million maintenance programme for special schools as well as £4 million to provide equipment grants to both special schools and schools with specialist provisions, to ensure they have the right resources to support their pupils.
“We are rightly proud to have wonderful special schools across Northern Ireland and we know the life-changing impact that a successful special school has on pupils and their families.”
The Minister concluded: “Our hopes and ambitions for our children with SEN should be the same as for any other child. This programme of capital investment is wide-ranging and necessarily ambitious and will transform the special education provision in Northern Ireland.”
In response, Sinn Féin spokesperson for children and young people Danny Baker MLA called on the Education Minister to explore a “SEN first” strategy meaning that children with SEN would form part of a school’s planned enrolment numbers and would ensure they are prioritised.
”By doing this we could provide assurance for parents, clarity for schools and would ensure the proper support required for children with SEN is in place from the beginning of term,” he said.
