Following the Public Account Committee’s Enquiry and Report into Special Educational Needs, Roy Beggs MLA has accused the Department of Education and the Education Authority of collectively failing to provide and manage an effective Special Educational Needs system.
Roy Beggs MLA, Ulster Unionist Party member of the PAC said, “There is clearly a need for a rethink the current inadequate SEN process which is failing to address the needs of children and Young People in an effective and timely manner.
During the evidence sessions, I highlighted the failure of EA even to have an awareness of the numbers of children that schools wished to refer to an Educational Psychologist but were not able to do so. As a former primary school governor I know that there is a need for earlier intervention.
It was also concerning that witnesses agreed with me that it was wasteful to have several classroom assistants standing at the back of the same post primary school classroom, not able to help pupils. In addition, despite everyone recognising the problem, little had been done to give schools greater flexibility to enable the extra SEN resources to have a greater impact on the young people’s development.”
