Paul Givan
Lagan Valley · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“The EA's enhanced support model has been out for consultation. The Member's party is the largest political grouping on the Education Authority, so his party supported the model's being consulted on.”
“Protections around strike action and action short of strike are firmly established in statute for all workers, including teachers. If the Member is referring to the Education Inspections Bill, let me be clear: nothing in that legislation removes or undermines that right.”
“The issue was covered at length at the Education Committee. The position is still not where it ought to be. When I came into office, the position that I inherited was much worse than it is today.”
“It is an area that I have had to navigate, as have many previous Education Ministers. Industrial relations is an area that needs ongoing work. I have outlined how we can address it, but I come back to saying that, when workload was undefined, trade unions struggled to specify the challenge.”
“That is not a fair characterisation. In fact, I was with Justin McCamphill, the leader of NASUWT, at the launch of the curriculum reform, at which he commended me for it and said that he thought that it was good. I have sat in many a meeting with trade union representatives during which they have said, "This is a good initiative.”
“That is exactly why there is a 16-week consultation period, rather than the normal 12 weeks or the minimum eight weeks; to allow the public and teaching profession to very much engage in that curriculum, which I commend to all Members.”
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“They are life-saving instruments that can give children, staff and visitors the chance to survive a sudden cardiac arrest and continue to live a healthy, active life. Creating safer and healthier environments for our pupils is a top priority. We must prepare for the unexpected. Our schools must be equipped to respond to emergencies swiftly and effectively, because, when it comes to lives, every second counts. The funding will undoubtedly save lives. I am proud that we are taking this important step for the health and safety of our society.”
“All school defibrillators will be registered with the Circuit, the national defibrillator network, which provides NHS ambulance services with vital information about the location of defibrillators across the United Kingdom so that they can be accessed quickly to help save lives. In that way, school AEDs will become part of the community's emergency response infrastructure. <BR /> <BR />I am delighted to announce this life-saving investment. Together, we can create a future in which no life is lost simply because help did not arrive in time. All schools in Northern Ireland will have access to that vital, life-saving equipment by the end of the current academic year. The importance of defibrillators in schools cannot be overstated.”
“We will be working closely with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service as we roll out the initiative, and I thank it for its support and advice.”
“<BR /> <BR />By raising awareness of the importance of defibrillators, we aim to make cardiac emergency an issue that schools are actively prepared to address. Having defibrillators in every school will provide a lifeline during moments of uncertainty, and I hope that knowing that help is close at hand will give our pupils, teachers and parents peace of mind. Today's investment is not just in schools: I hope that it will have a broader impact by providing vital equipment to our wider society. It is about building stronger and healthier communities. The defibrillators will protect visitors to schools, including local communities that use school facilities.”
“CPR and awareness of the use of defibrillators have been mandatory elements of the school curriculum since 2022. To support the delivery of those elements of the curriculum, my Department has developed the community of lifesavers education programme in partnership with the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), the Education Authority (EA) and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. That programme provides professional learning for teachers and resources and training equipment for schools. Over 500 teachers have been trained under that programme. In recent weeks, I also launched an interactive phone app that aims to build children and young people's confidence in developing vital CPR skills.”
“<BR /> <BR />Over 600 schools still require defibrillators. A significant number of schools have already invested in defibrillators themselves. I assure those schools that my Department will fund the batteries and pads that are needed for the ongoing maintenance of their equipment. We will also fund replacement defibrillators for those schools when their current equipment needs to be changed. As we roll out the initiative, I urge every school to embrace this opportunity to enhance safety on their site. <BR /> <BR />Let me be clear: we cannot predict when a medical emergency will occur, but we can ensure that we are prepared. The initiative is not just about providing equipment; it is about building a culture of preparedness that complements our work in the school curriculum on CPR and awareness of defibrillators.”
“<BR /> <BR />An automated external defibrillator (AED) saves lives by restoring the normal heart rhythm. Studies show that when a defibrillator is used within the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest, the chance of survival increases significantly. In fact, when CPR and defibrillation are provided promptly, survival rates can increase by as much as 70%. AEDs are cost-efficient, safe and easy to use, and they do not require specialist training. Having AEDs available in all schools will, quite simply, save lives. That is why I am investing over £700,000 of the funding from my new curriculum-led programme in the purchase and installation of defibrillators in all our schools, making sure that every school, from nursery to post-primary level, is equipped with that live-saving technology.”
“If the issue is at my end, I apologise. I am not sure whether the issue lies with the Department or the Assembly, but I am sure that your investigation will get to the bottom of it, Mr Speaker. <BR /> <BR />I am proud to announce a significant new initiative to fund and roll out defibrillators to all schools in Northern Ireland. The initiative is crucial for the safety and well-being of our society. The importance of having defibrillators in schools cannot be overstated. It will help to protect the lives of our young people, school staff and visitors. The initiative is designed to address the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone without warning. Whilst we know that it is more likely to occur in adults and older people, the heartbreaking reality is that young people are at risk too.”
“Every Member who spoke highlighted the excellence that they have witnessed when they have visited schools. As Minister, I am keen to support the reform that our families and schools have been calling for. I know that Members will continue to advocate for their constituents and, rightly, hold me to account as I seek to deliver on the reform agenda and support our young people.”
“It is a priority that planning for special educational needs provision progress to a stronger strategic footing to ensure that the growing numbers of learners with special educational needs have timely access to appropriate education placements that meet their need. The strategic approach that I have set out will consolidate around my special educational needs and disabilities reform agenda and delivery plan. That will set in train a process to deliver and secure a better future for all our children with special educational needs and disabilities across Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Our schools are leading the way in supporting and making provision for our children and young people and their families. I am immensely proud of the work that goes on in our schools.”
“Education cannot do that alone. <BR /> <BR />Provision is not just about how we support our children but about where they go to school. Our schools need to be those vibrant hubs that are welcoming and safe places for children so that their well-being and learning can be promoted. It is clear that the school estate has suffered through a lack of investment and planning, and my statement to the Assembly in April indicated the biggest change to capital planning in a generation. I committed then to an ambitious, far-reaching, long-term plan that will require sustained and increased capital investment of around half a billion pounds over the next decade to rebuild and reconfigure the school estate across Northern Ireland in order to ensure that every child and young person is happy, learning and succeeding in their educational journey.”
“Included in that will be a clear plan for the delivery of transformation across the education system in order to ensure that all children with special educational needs and disabilities have access to high-quality education through the delivery of the right support from the right people at the right time and, importantly, in the right place. That will mean significantly reforming our approach to how we support children, young people and their families. <BR /> <BR />At a recent event, a parent asked, "Who is preparing the community for my child?" We must take a whole-child, family, school and community approach in order to ensure that we improve outcomes for our most vulnerable children. Working closely with colleagues across the Executive, local government and the voluntary and community sector, we will tackle those issues.”
“In that, I commissioned EA to do the work of finding out what provision we can enhance for every single special school in Northern Ireland and whether they require school enhancement programmes. As well as identifying where eight new schools need to be located in Northern Ireland over the next 10 years, we commissioned that piece of work, and EA will provide an update to me on that shortly. <BR /> <BR />The end-to-end review of special educational needs has now concluded, and I will shortly set out my reform agenda for special educational needs and disabilities. I assure Members that that is a delivery plan, not another review. I am clear on that. We need a delivery plan, not more review.”
“I commend Castle Tower and the wider special school sector for their daily work in supporting our children and young people with the most complex of special educational and medical needs. That goes alongside the mainstream, where colleagues have embraced the opportunity to establish specialist provision to reflect the growing and changing needs in their local community. <BR /> <BR />The Education Authority works closely with sectoral partners and schools to build capacity into the entire system for the future, and it has been asked to submit proposals for any required extension of special schools. That will now be taken forward under the school enhancement programme. Members will remember the statement that I made in the House on the new capital strategy for special educational needs, which is a 10-year strategy.”
“I am pleased to say that 23 of them indicated a willingness to establish new or further provision for September 2025 and beyond. The Department and the Education Authority will work with schools in North Antrim and other localities on the creation of specialist provision in order to meet future demand across all areas. I appreciate the Member's commitment to securing sufficient special education provision in North Antrim. The EA has identified that as an area that has pressure for additional places both in special schools and specialist provision in mainstream schools. <BR /> <BR />A number of Members mentioned Castle Tower School. I assure the Member, and all Members, that I recognise the challenges that are in North Antrim.”
“The statutory annual review for children and young people, with the statements of special educational needs process, has recently commenced. That will inform the EA's planning assumptions for September next year. Strategic area planning that is in line with the projected need will be key to ensuring that there is sufficient special education provision for future years, and the Education Authority is working on an operational plan that prioritises special education. <BR /> <BR />The Department recently carried out a survey across all mainstream schools, seeking their views so that it could understand their readiness to establish specialist provision. Mr McGuigan asked questions about schools in North Antrim in particular and what we are doing to support them. I can confirm that 49 schools in North Antrim responded to that recent survey.”
“That is why, shortly, I will meet the Minister of Health and some principals of special schools to discuss why that change is happening. I agree with the Member when she says that being in the school setting and then receiving additional medical support is critical. Why take a child out of school when you can treat their needs in school? There are increasing medical complexities for young people in special schools. Mr Frew spoke of the concern that many principals have about not having the expertise. We look to other Departments and the trusts to support us in that. <BR /> <BR />By September of this year, we had created over 1,450 new places. They were established to meet the needs for specialist placements, yet the picture for September 2025 and beyond remains very challenging.”
“I have visited a number of schools to which he invited me and schools that other MLAs asked me to visit. However, some of the most impactful visits that I have had were to special schools. While I have witnessed the impact of specialist provision in mainstream schools, special schools are exactly what they say: they are special and unique but they are very challenging environments. <BR /> <BR />Sian Mulholland, a Member for North Antrim, mentioned the issues around health support and therapies. I have witnessed the benefit of speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and nurses being available in special schools. That highlights the necessity of other Departments and trusts working with the Department of Education and the Education Authority to meet the need. It is a concern that I have about the withdrawal of services.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank Mr Crawford for securing the debate and for speaking to these important issues. I join Mr Gaston in commending Mr Crawford and paying tribute to his volunteering work and particular interest in this area. I thank all Members for their contributions to the debate, and I will just lay out some of my responses to those. <BR /> <BR />Since I was appointed, this has been one of the main areas that I have been focused on in what I can do to improve the lives of all children and young people. I have prioritised better support for special educational needs — Members have recognised that — to make sure that we are aligning with the Executive priorities in the draft Programme for Government. <BR /> <BR />Mr Frew highlighted some of the issues that we are trying to resolve.”
“It is very much my intention to have that work completed by the autumn of 2025 so that we have a comprehensive strategy. However, it is the immediate action taken by the Executive, and by me as Education Minister, that is showing a tangible benefit for hard-working families, and I am determined to continue to build on the progress that we have made.”
“Based on the data collected since September relating to 13,000 children who are currently registered, we know that the average net cost for families per child is about £400 per month. Some families are paying more, some less, but, for the first time, we have reliable data to estimate the average net cost. We also know that about 90% of children accessing the subsidy incur childcare costs of less than £700 per child per month after accounting for the financial support from the subsidy scheme. All of that is helping to provide us with a clear picture. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) commissioned a survey, which issued on 4 November. The findings and data that are being collected will help to inform the strategy that I am going to take forward.”
“The Minister wrote to me on 1 August, offering to lead on a scoping exercise in conjunction with Invest NI, the Department of Health, the Department of Education and wider stakeholders to develop a clear picture of the business support requirements in the childcare sector. The Department for the Economy is leading on that, and I look forward to further engagement. <BR /> <BR />Finally, I turn to the work being done to collect data that is necessary to inform policy development, and this speaks to the issue of informed policy. Whilst there is a lot of anecdotal evidence on childcare costs and usage, we have very little robust statistical data that is representative of the population as a whole, and that has hampered policy development. Core to that is data being collected from providers through the childcare subsidy scheme.”
“Sure Start can be assured of the priority that I have given to it in the strategy. Of course, the Executive want to do multi-year Budgets, and that would provide greater security. However, given that I have made it a priority to support Sure Start, we were able to give permanency to just over 20 areas where it operates that had been extended temporarily. I absolutely recognise the importance of Sure Start. <BR /> <BR />The motion calls for financial support for childcare providers. The package of measures announced in May included proposals to establish a targeted business support scheme for providers that were in significant financial difficulty and in areas where demand for childcare exceeded supply. I have been engaging with the Department for the Economy on that area.”
“Three lists, with a total of 107 potential candidates, have been published on my Department's website and are undergoing consultation. Final announcements on the first settings that are due to transition are planned to be made before the end of the calendar year. Far from making only one intervention, I have made many interventions. <BR /> <BR />I will give way to the Member.”
“I would like to highlight one more area, and then I will give way. <BR /> <BR />As well as supporting Department of Education early years programmes, we have been able to boost some programmes that other Departments administer. Those include the Department of Health's early years and childcare provision for children with additional needs and disabilities, and support for the expansion of its approved home childcare scheme. Funding has also been provided to the Department for Communities to train more childminders through labour market partnerships. A third area of progress relates to the standardisation of the preschool education programme. The Education Authority is well advanced in identifying the first preschool settings that will transition to delivering at least 22 and a half hours of preschool education per week from September 2025.”
“<BR /> <BR />When intervening on his colleague, Mr O'Toole made a comment about our needing to make more than one intervention. A second area of progress that I will highlight is our investment in a range of core early years programmes. Those that have benefited include Sure Start; the Pathway fund; Toybox; non-statutory preschool providers; the Irish-medium preschool support service; PlayBoard; and the Bookstart Baby programme. That investment has helped to secure vital services for some of the most vulnerable and has enabled those programmes to provide pay rises to their staff while maintaining and, in some cases, expanding front-line services.”
“With there being a limited budget, the focus this year has rightly been on working parents with children who are below primary-school age. That group typically faces the highest costs due to its reliance on longer childcare hours. The scheme also targets parents — they are mainly mothers — who are at the stage of making decisions about whether to return to work following maternity leave. Childcare costs can be a significant barrier to that. The scheme is set up in such a way that means that we could easily expand it if there were a case to do so and if the Executive made the required funding available. I will give that careful consideration. That gets to Mr Durkan's question of, "If the Minister had more, would he do more?". Absolutely I would do more.”
“By way of example, a parent with two eligible children could save up to £668 on their monthly childcare costs, which is a reduction of 32%. Over a 12-month period, that represents a total saving of £8,000. That is a significant step forward from where we were just nine months ago when I last stood here to respond to a similar motion on 12 February. Having listened to parents and providers, it is my intention to bid for funding to sustain the scheme beyond the end of March 2025 until a longer-term strategy is in place. <BR /> <BR />I appreciate that there have been calls to increase the subsidy and to extend it to others, such as parents with school-age children. I will consider those options over the coming months.”
“Let me summarise what has been achieved. First, I implemented a Northern Ireland childcare subsidy scheme that provides eligible parents with a 15% reduction to their childcare bills. The uptake for the scheme has exceeded our expectations. To date, nearly 13,300 children and 1,550 providers have registered, with reductions already having been made to bills since September. The mover of the motion indicated that £1 million of savings had been provided, but that is £1 million a month. In the first two months alone, the scheme saved parents £2 million on their childcare costs, with a further £2 million having been saved through the tax-free childcare scheme. The combined effect of those schemes has been to save working parents in Northern Ireland over £4 million in the past two months alone.”
“I note the comments made by my colleague in Lagan Valley, the Alliance Member: "This has been decades in the making. We have been waiting for years for this to happen". I thank Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party for supporting the £25 million allocation to this budget. Members may wish to look closer to home when it comes to what priority was given in the Executive to this issue. A strategy, while necessary to provide a blueprint for the longer term, would not have delivered the immediate benefits that were, I knew, urgently needed.”
“<BR /> <BR />When I took up this post in February, I said that I would bring forward an early learning and childcare strategy that would support child development and make childcare more affordable and accessible in order to enable parents to work, and I remain fully committed to doing so. However, strategies take time to develop and implement, and I realised that action was needed immediately. That is why I secured an additional £25 million of Executive funding in May to implement a package of measures in this financial year. That investment is making a real difference to thousands of children and families across Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />I welcome the Finance Minister's support in the form of that £25 million. I also welcome the Ulster Unionist Party's support for that being included.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the debate on a motion that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of children and families across Northern Ireland. I very much welcome the motion before us, because it brings into focus something that is important to many people in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />I absolutely recognise the importance of quality early learning and childcare provision in giving children the best start in life and supporting parents, particularly women, to enter or remain in the workforce. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the quality early years and childcare services that exist across Northern Ireland.”
“Colleagues asked about the consultation on the terms of eligibility for free school meals, and they should see that coming out in the coming days. I intend to put that out for consultation so that we can have more engagement around that area.”
“We will find a way to seal them. <BR /> <BR />This is something that should bring us together to take action in a collective effort. We want to make that difference for children and young people and their families, and I look forward to each of us playing our part in developing the school uniform legislation and delivering the anti-poverty strategy to provide the best means of tackling poverty, including food poverty. I look forward to support for the work that I can do to bring that legislation through, working with you to do that. <BR /> <BR />I thank Members for the way in which they have engaged in the debate. We are making progress, and I want to be able to make much more progress. Collectively, as an Executive, we will make the case for further funding. I assure Members that I want to make progress on both issues.”
“I look forward to working with you all in progressing the legislation to make a difference for the families who are in most need of our assistance. <BR /> <BR />In doing that, perhaps, we will extend the schools' mobile phones policy to the Assembly.”
“<BR /> <BR />I can update the House that I therefore plan to bring a paper to the Executive in the coming weeks seeking agreement for my officials to formally instruct the Office of the Legislative Counsel to draft a Bill about school uniforms. It is my intention that the Bill will give statutory effect to the guidance on school uniforms. With the support of my Executive colleagues, I intend to bring the legislation to the Assembly as soon as possible in the coming months. It will then be for the due process to be followed, including scrutiny through the Assembly stages.”
“The general online survey had seven questions with a free-text response, and that generated over 4,000 comments. My Department will continue to analyse the responses, in addition to the 19 stand-alone reports from interested organisations. <BR /> <BR />The online survey results show strong support for the introduction of the cost-control measures that some Members referred to. It is important that I take into account the view of all stakeholders in considering the most effective methods of cost control before coming to a decision on the best solution on that important issue. It is also clear that there is strong support for school uniform policy guidance to become statutory. Just over 77% of online respondents agreed with the proposal that schools should be legally required to comply with departmental uniform guidance.”
“Between June and September, my Department undertook a 14-week consultation on proposals to reduce the cost of school uniforms. There were just under 7,500 responses to the consultation, and I plan to publish a summary of those findings in the coming weeks. The online element of the consultation received 3,444 responses, the majority of which supported the proposals that were being consulted on. The Education Authority Youth Service engaged with children and young people on my Department's behalf, and a specific survey was done with young people through youth groups, education other than at school (EOTAS) centres and children's individual school C2k accounts. That resulted in responses from just over 4,000 children and young people, with cost and comfort emerging as the key priorities in those responses.”
“The fact that Northern Ireland has not been treated in the way in which it should be is a poor reflection on the United Kingdom as a whole. We need to get that additional resource. We have made progress on the fiscal framework. The Finance Minister has led on that, and I have supported her, but there is more work that we need to achieve. That will allow all our Departments to do more. <BR /> <BR />I will not stand here and blame the Minister of Justice or the Minister of Health for not being able to do certain things. I understand the pressures that they face, because I face them. I only ask for colleagues to reflect on the financial pressures on me, which are the same as those on their ministerial colleagues, as we seek to take it forward. <BR /> <BR />I will make progress on school uniforms.”
“That is not often reflected by their colleagues in the Assembly, who then push me for the very thing that I am prioritising and their colleagues may have challenged me about. <BR /> <BR />Mr Gaston made a really important contribution. I do not blame the Finance Minister for not giving me the funding that I need. I did not get what I needed in the monitoring round. That is not the Finance Minister's fault. I made the case, and I argued for it. I have received an allocation, and I will seek to work through that. However, as an Executive, we have been underfunded. It goes back to April 2022, the definition of "need" and the approach that was taken in Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland, not for the first time, was treated as the poor cousin in the United Kingdom.”
“<BR /> <BR />As the anti-poverty strategy is developed, it will be for the Executive to agree how food poverty, including child food poverty, is tackled. They will also have to decide which Department should take forward the holistic actions to address food poverty and, importantly, whether they are prepared to fund those actions. <BR /> <BR />Members, I have been there. I have campaigned on issues and often said to Ministers, "It is your responsibility to get the funding. I am bringing the issue to you and advocating for it". Members are right to do that and challenge me on it. Sometimes, we forget that, apart from a few, 90% of us are in the same Executive. I make that argument internally, and Ministers from other Departments push back on some things that I want.”
“I can. In that meeting, I expressed the view that a particular strand needed to focus on child food poverty. I have talked about whether, in addressing child poverty during the holiday periods, we can access community facilities or open up a school during term time, so that we ensure that the interventions that we want to make are for that specific purpose. I go back to the point that the Chairman of the Committee made: how can we make sure that our intervention achieves what we want it to achieve? I want the Department to be part of the solution. That is why I am positively engaging with the Department for Communities. We can bring options that will help to address the issue of child food poverty, specifically during the holiday periods, as the Member mentioned.”
“Mr Durkan used the same commentary when he said that the issue is "fundamentally about poverty". He is right. The Executive should make it a high priority in the anti-poverty strategy to seek to explicitly tackle food poverty across all our society and not seek to isolate child food poverty in particular. To seek to do so solely for school holiday periods is to miss an opportunity to tackle the issue more holistically.”
“We agreed that child food poverty, including that which is experienced during school holiday periods, would be considered as part of the development of an anti-poverty strategy that the Department for Communities leads on. I welcome his standing up of the cross-departmental working group on the anti-poverty strategy, and I echo the sentiments that the Minister for Communities expressed in a recent debate on child poverty in North Belfast. He said:”
“While my Department continues to support school-age children during term time having access to healthy, nutritious meals, initiatives to tackle holiday hunger or support with food outside of term time are more closely aligned to social welfare support for families. Therefore, it is appropriate that the Executive take a wider decision about how they are going to tackle food poverty across society. Holiday hunger for children outside of term time should be an important part of that decision. I want to be part of the solution. I am not passing it on to somebody else; it is a wider issue that the Executive need to address. I met the Minister for Communities about the issue in September.”
“While the Department of Education was identified as the interim lead Department, the previous Executive agreed that a wider strategic decision on the way forward to tackle food poverty, including holiday hunger, was required. That included the identification and resourcing of a lead Department. The ring-fenced funding that was previously made available to my Department to undertake those payments on behalf of the Executive ceased in the 2023-24 Budget, which the then Secretary of State set. With no ring-fenced funding in place, the permanent secretary had no practical alternative to discontinuing the scheme in March 2023. <BR /> <BR />We all agree that no child should go hungry.”
“<BR /> <BR />My Department also continues to support school-age children through the provision of free school meals to low-income families that are in receipt of certain benefits. Holiday hunger continues to be an important issue. It is one that many Departments have been seeking to address for a number of years. The pandemic exacerbated food poverty across all society. In recognition of the challenge that many low-income families face during school holiday periods, in 2020, the previous Executive decided to establish a school holiday food grant scheme. That was funded by the Executive to provide payments to cover the cost of food during school holidays for pupils who were entitled to free school meals.”
“The broader point is how we ensure that funding that is provided for a specific purpose is spent on that specific purpose. I could make that same argument about holiday hunger payments: there is no guarantee that payments that went into a bank account were spent on providing food outside of school term time. I agree with what the Member said. How do we ensure that that additional funding is used for the purposes for which it is designed? That is a valid question. It is one that I will also pose to Members: can we guarantee that holiday hunger payments went into feeding children? We know that, in school settings, that is exactly what it is used for, but we cannot guarantee that that funding was used for that specific purpose. By the way, I have no doubt that, in the vast majority of cases, it was, but we cannot guarantee that.”
“For example, the targeting social need policy provides £75 million to schools through the common funding formula. That provides for a wide range of interventions to support schools with the additional costs that they face in educating children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. There is also £8·1 million for the extended-schools programme, which supports over 400 schools, 200,000 pupils, 80,000 parents and 30,000 community representatives. The interventions are wide-ranging and include breakfast clubs and after-school activities.”
“<BR /> <BR />In respect of how many families struggle with food poverty, particularly during school holiday periods, I recognise how difficult it continues to be for those families who are on low incomes and those for whom making ends meet is a daily struggle. As an Executive, we must ensure that we do whatever we can to support those families with the range of pressures that they face. <BR /> <BR />I have spoken on a number of occasions in the House of how the Education budget falls far short of what is needed to deliver on a number of my key priorities. However, my Department still has a range of other policies and interventions in place to support children who may be impacted on by social disadvantage or poverty. We have worked hard to protect those interventions, as far as we could, given the challenging current budget.”