A thread on the @CommonsNIAC report today on The funding and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland, with special emphasis on its comments on education.
The education sector in Northern Ireland is confronting considerable challenges, including a growing school age population, increasing numbers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), a crumbling school estate and low workforce morale.
Since 2009/10, school spending per pupil across the UK had consistently been highest in Scotland and lowest in Northern Ireland. More and more schools have been falling into financial deficit. School leaders said they were at the point of desperation.
The 2023/24 Budget allocation for education is a reduction of around £70 million or 2.7% on the previous year. This reduction in the Northern Ireland schools budget contrasted with planned rises in England. Even before the 2023/24 Budget announcement, the Department of Education
said it would no longer be able to provide funding to key programmes supporting vulnerable children & young people, including holiday hunger payments, mental health support & the Engage Programme which funded additional teaching support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds
In the last ten years the Northern Ireland school population has increased by 7.5%, while the number of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has grown by 60%, a trend that is expected to continue.
We heard that children’s needs are not being adequately met. The SEN sector is short of capacity, so children with complex needs may be allocated places in mainstream settings that do not have the required support and staffing in place.
After years of under-investment, education has been struggling to fulfil its statutory duties. Spending per pupil has been consistently lower in Northern Ireland than in England. We are particularly concerned about the future of provision for children and young people with SEN.
The @CommonsNIAC recommends, as did its predecessor committee in 2019, that the Northern Ireland Executive take proper account of the increasing numbers of children with SEN in Northern Ireland when allocating budgetary funding to the Department of Education.
Full report, which includes critical examination of health, justice and the funding arrangements for Northern Ireland, is available at: committees.parliament.uk/publications/4…
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