AQW 8272/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 06/03/2024
Answered On Date: 20/03/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education (i) for an update on the Education Authority Special Educational Needs Early Years Framework; and (ii) to detail the amount of hours per day special pre-schools will facilitate.

Answer:

The Education Authority’s (EA) Proposed Framework of Future Provision for Children in the Early Years with Special Educational Needs (SEN) was published for consultation in 2018. It was not finalised and has subsequently been subsumed into the End to End (E2E) Review of SEN.

Specialist education provision for pre-school children is provided in both special schools and in early years and foundation stage specialist provisions in mainstream schools (SPEYFs). The hours per day in both types of provision ranges from 2.5 hours (part-time) to 4.5 hours (full-time).