AQW 34661/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 04/11/2025
Answered On Date: 11/11/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any provisions being made within Local IMPACT Teams to ensure support can be provided to Irish-medium schools.

Answer:

The Education Authority has advised that:

The SEND Local IMPACT Team (LIT) model was based on the total staffing resource which spanned the pre-existing services. The existing contractual terms and conditions for all pre-existing roles also had to be respected during the reconfiguration. As a result, the arrangements for supporting Irish medium schools remains the same in terms of staff with Irish language proficiency being deployed to support Irish medium schools to the greatest extent possible.

Irish language proficiency can and will be considered in terms of the profile of any staffing expansion which is ultimately approved across the LIT network.