£1.7bn programme needed to meet spiralling demand for special education – Givan

A £1.7 billion Executive-led programme is needed to tackle spiralling demand for special education, Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan has said.

The recent start of the latest school year has seen another struggle to accommodate all those with special educational need (SEN).

Speaking in the Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Givan urged MLAs to back his proposal for a £1.7 billion Executive-led SEN Capital Investment Programme.

It is set to include new builds and campuses for special schools as well as expansion of specialist provision in mainstream schools creating more than 6,000 additional special school places and 5,000 specialist class places.

During the debate which followed, Mr Givan clashed with the leader of the official Opposition, Matthew O’Toole, after the SDLP representative claimed that large parts of his speech had been written by artificial intelligence (AI).

Mr Givan said 20% (70,000) of pupils in Northern Ireland are registered as having SEN, while the number with a statement of SEN has risen by an unprecedented 85% in 10 years to almost 30,000 pupils.

“In terms of specialist places the number of pupils attending a special school has increased by 47% in the same period (ten years), and the number of children in specialist provision classes in our mainstream schools by no less than 169%,” he told MLAs.

He said his department has invested £110 million in the last two years to provide 242 new specialist provision classes, and 98 additional classrooms across the special school estate.

But he said numbers will increase still further for the next decade, describing the scale of demand as “staggering”, with almost 6,000 additional special school places and more than 5,000 additional specialist provision places to be needed.

Mr Givan described being at a “pivotal moment” and urged all the parties across the Northern Ireland Assembly to support his bid for an Executive-led effort.

He said action is needed now, describing a “central challenge facing our education system and our society”.

“This is not a challenge for one department alone, it is a challenge for the Executive as a whole,” he said.

“Today I seek the Assembly’s support for an Executive-led and funded SEN capital investment programme, one that will revolutionise the facilities available to our children and young people.

“The choice facing the Executive is stark, without decisive action across Government, the system risks failing the very children it is meant to protect.

“Our special schools have reached capacity, many are housed in outdated, deteriorating buildings, spaces that lack adequate therapy rooms, and fall short of the standards required to deliver modern holistic care.

“All straightforward special school solutions have been exhausted, the vast majority of special schools do not have any physical internal or external space for further development and new special schools and dual campus sites at existing schools are therefore required across Northern Ireland.”

He added: “We are at a pivotal moment, a fork in the road.

“Working closely with my department the Education Authority has today published comprehensive plans to expand, modernise and transform our special schools estate.

“But this vision can only be realised with significant dedicated capital investment.

“Without an Executive-funded programme we will remain trapped in a cycle of emergency planning, unable to provide the specialist facilities that every child deserves.

“I cannot plan, build or deliver these facilities children need without additional annual earmarked capital funding from the Executive.”

Responding, Stormont Education Committee chairman Nick Mathison said he welcomed the focus on special education but questioned whether the 500 new specialist provision classes can be delivered given challenges to date.

He also pressed Mr Givan as to whether he will respond to the National Association of Head Teachers’ call for urgent talks on SEN provision.

Mr Givan said that before getting to that engagement, a decision needs to be taken in principle by the Executive to endorse his strategic plan.

“The endorsement and support for the approach that I have taken to provide the long-term strategic plan that members rightly have called upon, and I commissioned, needs to be given support by every political party on this Executive,” he said.

“It is the only viable pathway forward.”

Meanwhile, Stormont Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole claimed a “large portion” of Mr Givan’s speech in the chamber was written by AI, and asked the minister to confirm that.

Mr Givan responded: “What an example of a useless Opposition.”

He added: “We come to this chamber to speak on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society, to talk about children who have complex medical needs, that need to have our support, and a clear plan as to how we can come up with that support, and the leader of the Opposition, the alternative to this Executive, fires a cheap shot around the use of artificial intelligence.

“Those listening to the contribution of the leader of the Opposition will come to their own conclusion about the utter lack of capacity that they have just outlined.”