AQW 32469/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 01/10/2025
Answered On Date: 14/10/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any engagement he has had with special educational needs coordinators on the effectiveness of the Request for Involvement portal.

Answer:

While I have not engaged with Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos), the Education Authority (EA) has engaged as follows:

Multiple face to face familiarisation, feedback and system testing sessions completed in advance of Portal go live;

Live online drop in clinics for all registered SENCo users during the Portal go live period to allow queries to be resolved and feedback provided; and

Beyond go live, the same MS Teams site was retained to allow continuing direct contact between SENCos and the EA Portal team, both in terms of having queries resolved and to provide feedback, which was then reflected in subsequent system updates.