Education Minister must take action to arrest failure of statementing and area planning processes, says Lyttle

The Education Minister must take action to arrest the failure of the special education statementing and area planning processes, Alliance Education spokesperson Chris Lyttle MLA has said.

Mr Lyttle was speaking after questioning Education Minister Peter Weir on the issue in the Assembly.

“As of today, 595 children are waiting longer than the statutory limit of six months for their special educational needs (SEN) statement, while 285 children with SEN statements do not yet have a school place for September 2020, including 156 children without a place in a special school,” said the East Belfast MLA.

“These are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and they, their families and the schools need the Education Minister to take action to to arrest the dysfunctionality of the entire statementing and area planning processes that are failing children with special educational needs in Northern Ireland.

“The extent of this failure demonstrates the decision taken by the Education Minister to suspend work on the Independent Review of Education was wrong and must restart immediately.”