AQW 38916/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 23/01/2026
Answered On Date: 02/02/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail how the Education Sustainability Taskforce will support wider transformation of the education system.

Answer:

For some time Education has relied on substantial in-year allocations to meet the significant shortfalls in its opening budgets. Whilst the EA has been able to operate within budget in the last two financial years, in the main, this has only been possible because of significant additional, in-year funding totalling c£296.8m in 2023-24 and c£247.7m in 2024-25. 2025-26 is the first financial year in which in-year budget allocations will fail to meet the sector’s financial pressures.

Within this context, the overarching objective of the Taskforce is to support the achievement of financial sustainability within the EA, while at the same time supporting improvements to services. Any savings identified by the Taskforce will form part of my wider reform agenda (i.e. Five-Year Strategy for Financial Sustainability in Education) which will seek to establish a structural reform programme that will oversee the delivery of education reform at scale, including, but not limited to, areas such as an alternative SEN support model for statemented pupils in mainstream schools, home-to-school transport, area planning and enhanced control of schools’ expenditure.

I must, however, stress that even after all necessary transformational change has been implemented and after every possible efficiency has been realised, education will still require greater investment.