AQW 46957/22-27

Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast

Tabled Date: 22/05/2026
Answered On Date: 29/05/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any engagement his Department is having with the Department of Health to understand how many children experiencing Emotional Based School Non-Attendance are also on the waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Support.

Answer:

Currently, officials in my Department do not receive pupil level data which allows for the identification of individual pupils who are absent from school due to Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance.

Attendance data available to the Department records the number of half-days missed for which the EBSNA absence code has been used, it does not identify pupils.