AQW 28959/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 19/06/2025
Answered On Date: 27/06/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any consideration he has given to funding Action for Children's, The Blues Programme, as part of the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework.

Answer:

Programmes funded by the Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework are led by the Education Authority and the Department of Health / Public Health Agency.

My department does not promote, nor endorse external services or programmes, with the Framework written in an intentionally non-prescriptive way in respect of the programmes that can be provided for pupils and providing guidance on selecting programmes and services.

Schools have flexibility around the type of support provided for pupils and authority to use their individual budgets to fund external programmes based on their own assessment of the needs of their pupils.