AQW 23373/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 25/02/2025
Answered On Date: 18/03/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail the agreed measures his Department has in place to track the number of children better prepared to start school, as referenced in the Fair Start Report.

Answer:

The 3+ Review introduced as part of the Early Intervention Transformation Programme is a Health-led initiative which provides a developmental assessment of pre-school children carried out by the Health Visitor in the pre-school setting. It is intended to use this source to estimate the percentage of children in their immediate pre-school year at their appropriate stage of development.

The data is still under development and work is ongoing between officials in my department, the Public Health Agency and the Department of Health to assess its reliability and ensure it is robust.