AQW 35546/22-27

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 14/11/2025
Answered On Date: 01/12/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) the (a) number; (b) location; and (c) capacity, of Learning Support Units in post-primary schools serving South Belfast, broken down by school management type; and (ii) the number of places currently available within the Controlled sector.

Answer:

The Education Authority is responsible for the development of specialist provisions. The location of these provisions is determined by the level of identified support required for pupils. Based on this assessment, a need for behavioural and Autism/social communication specialist provisions was identified within the South Belfast area.

There are currently two schools with these types of provisions in South Belfast. There is behavioural specialist provision in St Joseph’s College, a catholic maintained school, and an Autism/social communication provision in Breda Academy, a controlled school. In the 2024/25 academic year, enrolment in these units was 29 and 8 pupils respectively.

The Education Authority is aware of the high demand for places in the Belfast area and continues to engage with schools to discuss establishing provision to create further capacity for September 2026.