AQW 44937/11-15

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 22/04/2015
Answered On Date: 11/05/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education, pursuant to AQW 44266/11-15, to detail all relevant stakeholders who were consulted, specifically in regards to cuts to the Early Years Fund, prior to his Department’s announcement.

Answer:

The Executive’s Budget has been reduced by the Westminster Government by £1.5bn over the last five years. As a direct result of this reduction there is significantly reduced money to spend on frontline services such as Education. I have taken every action possible to protect Education funding and those frontline services within the Department of Education’s (DE) remit, however, it is simply impossible to protect everything.

As mentioned previously, my Department’s 2015-16 budget consultation process invited all stakeholders within the Education sector to express their views on the 2015-16 Budget for Education. Over 23,000 responses to the consultation were received, which provided me with a significant basis of evidence to inform my final 2015-16 Budget spending plans.

At Final Budget stage my Department was facing a £97.6m 2015-16 funding gap and to mitigate the risk that insufficient savings would be realised, additional savings were identified which included the £2m budget reduction to the Early Years Fund.

The DFP Review of the Fund (2013) found that the Early Years Fund, which is administered by Early Years – the Organisation for Young Children, has effectively remained as a “closed” Fund since introduced by DHSSPS in 2004, to applicant groups that were in areas of greatest need of support to become sustainable at that time, following the ending of Peace II funding. It is therefore not equitable to allow it to continue in its current form as there undoubtedly are other children equally deserving of support across the north.

I will continue to review my budget to establish if a fund can continue beyond 31 August 2015. However any such fund will have to be open to all applicants, not just current recipients and reflect the policy priorities of DE. If additional money becomes available, this funding will be a priority for my Department.