A devastating report published today paints an “unremittingly bleak” picture of the future facing young people in Northern Ireland amid continued cuts to education budgets.
And it is the region’s poorest children who will suffer the most, a group of researchers from Ulster University, Newcastle University, Queen’s University and Stranmillis University College are warning.
Academics have pulled together existing research with the latest facts and figures to paint a vivid picture of “the catastrophic consequences of the cuts to education for children and young people in Northern Ireland”.
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As well as exploring the impact the cuts are having and will have, the researchers have listed each one:
*An end to Happy Healthy Minds
*An end to Engage
*An end to the Digital Devices scheme
*An end to the Baby Book scheme
*A pause on capital development
*28 new school projects paused
*A 40% cut to Free Period Products budget
*A 50% cut to the Shared Education budget
*A reduction in Nurture funding from £70 million to £62 million
*An end to schools coaching programme run by Irish Football Association (IFA) and Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA)
*An end to funding available to Young Enterprise NI
*A pause on a cashless scheme for schools
*A depletion of funding available to Extended Schools
*A significant shortfall in resource for pupils with SEN
*A pause on the recruitment of school crossing patrols
The report’s authors warn that short-term savings being made “will be dwarfed by the costs of poverty, deprivation, and mental health issues in the longer run”.
The “removal of, or deep cuts to, schemes such as those to alleviate holiday hunger, period poverty and the high costs of school uniforms have a cumulative impact on groups which are already disadvantaged, in terms of their experience of education provision”.
The cuts, they say, “will disproportionately impact the most disadvantaged children and young people in our communities”.
Divided up into a number of sections, the research addresses a range of key areas including children and young people in poverty; young people’s mental health and wellbeing; early intervention and development; minority ethnic children and young people and more. In its section on children and young people with special educational needs, Professor Noel Purdy outlines how an SEN system already labelled “unsustainable” is facing swingeing cuts.
Prof. Purdy says a “litany of highly critical reports over the past 14 years have repeatedly confirmed that the SEN system has been showing signs of strain for many years”. The Education Authority’s budget for the transformation of the SEN system is due to be cut by 50% despite the fact that there has been a 24% increase in the number of children with statements over the past 5 years, with hundreds of children awaiting specialist placement for September.
The latest chapter in the SEN tale of a creaking system is the Education Authority’s proposal for mainstream primary schools “to consider opening specialist units for children with severe learning difficulties” as there’s no room left in special schools.
The professor adds: “Such schools would be linked as ‘satellites’ to existing and neighbouring special schools, but significant concerns remain regarding the adequacy of provision, the availability of adequately trained teachers and classroom assistants, and the level of resourcing and support available in these remote locations to meet the needs of children with often complex learning, behavioural and medical difficulties. It seems more than likely that large numbers of children with severe learning difficulties will be unplaced in September 2023.”
And against this backdrop, he says: “Meanwhile, DENI has also announced that the overall funding to schools to pay for Special
Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) has been halved from £22m last year to £11 in 2023-24. This will doubtless result in less substitute cover for schools to release their SENCOs from whole class teaching responsibilities to devote to their already busy role in coordinating the SEN provision across the school.”
Prof. Purdy says in his conclusion that research has shown “that the rate of autism in school aged children in the 10% most deprived areas was 40% higher than the NI average”.
He adds: “The challenges facing children with SEN in NI are therefore immense, and so it is deeply disappointing and short-sighted to hear that funding for the EA’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Transformation Programme (as earmarked funds) has also been cut by 50% in 2023/24.”
Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick of Ulster University, who convened the group of researchers, said: “The cuts to education will undoubtedly increase poverty and hardship for many households in Northern Ireland, but particularly those with the lowest incomes - such as those children entitled to free school meals.
“These cuts are coming at a time when high inflation doggedly persists, with food prices rising at a startling rate. The loss of holiday hunger payments will cause significant harm to children and their families, and there will undoubtedly be children who will not receive the nutrition they need to thrive.
“The high costs of school uniforms will add further stress to finances that are stretched to the limit. Despite the 20% increase in the uniform allowance last year, NI still lags provision in England, Scotland and Wales.”
Professor Noel Purdy of Stranmillis University College, lead author of ‘A Fair Start’, said: “This is a catastrophic situation for the provision of education in Northern Ireland. It is the most punitive budget that has ever been delivered to the Department of Education,
at a time when more support is needed to account for the pressures caused by the cost-of-living crisis.
“The cuts will further exacerbate educational underachievement for those children already identified as having persistent low attainment rates, including children entitled to free school meals, ethnic minority children and children in care.
“Furthermore, the special educational needs system is on its knees and is failing to ensure appropriate access to education for the most vulnerable children in our society. Unless we see urgent transformation, policy progression and real investment, the system faces collapse.”
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