Foyle MLA Delargy: Action plan needed to support children and young people reach their full potential

Sinn Féin Foyle MLA, Pádraig Delargy, has expressed concern at the findings of an audit office report on education expenditure in the North.

The Public Accounts Committee at Stormont heard this week that the audit office report had looked at how how £913m of Targeting Social Need (TSN) and Sure Start funding – which is meant to help parents who have children under four years old and living in deprived areas – had been spent since 2005.

Concerns were expressed by the Committee that the money provided to schools to help disadvantaged pupils was actually being spent effectively, with William Humphrey of the DUP saying, “At the moment, a school may use these funds to 'top up' the general school budget.

“This is clearly inappropriate and is inconsistent with the proscribed rules around other specialist funds such as special educational needs.

“We believe it is vital that the department and indeed all schools should put into place mechanisms to both identify and disseminate best practice so that all children benefit from the TSN and Sure Start funding.”

Mr Delargy also found the report concerning and spoke also of his disappointment that the review of the common funding scheme had been scrapped due to the pandemic.

He said: “The findings of that report are concerning. Now is the time to look at how our schools are funded and how we invest in our children and young people.

“I was disappointed to find out last year that a review of the common funding scheme was shelved due to Covid.

“This Audit Office report should encourage the Department of Education to urgently revisit that review.

“The Audit Office report raised an important point on accountability and how money intended for targeting social need was spent.

“This shouldn't be about burdening our school leaders with more paperwork and bureaucracy, but instead ensuring our schools are properly funded so that money to tackle disadvantage can be spent on exactly that and not filling the gaps left by a decade of Tory cuts.

“What we need now is for the Education Minister to use all of this evidence to put in place an action plan to support these children and young people in reaching their full potential.”

In response, a Department of Education spokesperson said: “Real and significant progress has been made since 2006 in improving educational attainment for all pupils and also for those from disadvantaged circumstances.

“The educational attainment of all school leavers has increased greatly over the period from 2006 -19. The proportion of all school leavers achieving 5+ GCSEs at Grades A*-C, including English and Maths, increased by 18 percentage points, from 53 per cent to 71 per cent.

“Over that same period the proportion of children entitled to Free School Meals achieving the significant benchmark of 5+ GCSEs at Grades A*-C, including English and Maths, increased by an even larger margin of 24 percentage points, from 26 per cent in 2006 to 50 per cent by 2019.

“In seeking to drive forward a culture of continuous improvement, the Department will continue to implement the core school improvement policy, 'Every School a Good School', alongside a range of other departmental strategies and initiatives aimed at supporting our children and young people to fulfil their potential.

“Ensuring our system level policies are underpinned by a focus on continuous improvement is vital. We must also maintain our focus on early years and consideration of how our Early Years work through Sure Start can be extended to measure longer-term educational impact of the programme.

“Work on delivery of the actions associated with the report ‘A Fair Start’ is progressing well with 31 actions underway this year. This is a cross-departmental, cross-sectoral report covering eight Key Areas and 47 actions which will require on-going Executive support, backed up by funding.

“We must recognise the significant financial pressures on the education sector. The Minister has previously stated that Education will require significantly more funding during this budget period to avoid many areas of the Education budget being unfunded or underfunded, both of which would cause a serious and detrimental impact on education services and adversely affect all our children and young people.

“Education holds the key to transforming the lives of our children and young people. Significant additional investment will be required to give our children the start in life they deserve and to ensure they are best equipped and supported to fulfil their potential.”