AQW 40538/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 13/02/2026
Answered On Date: 24/02/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education, pursuant to AQW 38042/22-27, AQW 30309/22-27 and AQW 27512/22-27, to detail the reason why the rollout of a new system for delivering low value maintenance works in schools has moved from a system-wide rollout, to a pilot scheme with no assurance of adoption for all schools.

Answer:

The Education Authority (EA) has advised that the Low Value Maintenance Scheme is initially being piloted due to the complexity of the scheme and concerns about the impact on school leader workload.

Work is already well underway within the EA to implement the pilot programme, with the objective of having all necessary arrangements, including compliance processes, in place before the end of the current school academic year. This pilot will help ascertain the risk and value for money for school leaders and to manage any negative impact on workload for school leaders.

The introduction of the new Term Service Contracts will enable the EA’s maintenance service to deliver a more performancefocused and proactive approach to school maintenance. This enhanced model is expected to address and help reduce many of the concerns previously raised by school leaders.