Reforming special educational needs

The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Reform Agenda: Delivery Plan 2025-2030, published in February 2025, outlines enabling actions aiming to address inequality in education for children with SEN, a lack of confidence in the existing system, the changing profile of the pupil population, and unsustainable SEN investment.

The Agenda asserts that these issues make reform “urgent and essential”. Regarding inequality, it notes that some children with SEN receive notification of their school placement much later than their peers without SEN, while the education of some is impacted due to a lack of resources.

On the lack of confidence in the system it states: “The system is often described by many parents and practitioners as broken – expert analysis and independent reviews largely agree.”

The Agenda asserts that the Schools Estate is struggling to keep pace with the changing profile of the pupil population. The number of students with SEN or a disability hit 68,240 in 2023/24, up by 29 per cent from 2004/05, while the number of pupils with a statement of SEN rose by 134 per cent.

On the unsustainable investment in SEN, the Independent Review of Education, published in December 2023, said projections of the Department of Education’s (DoE) finances “indicate an impending financial crisis for both education and the Northern Ireland Executive”.

The Delivery Plan, estimated to cost £570 million, states that children with SEN “will receive the right support, from the right people, at the right time, and in the right place”. It outlines enabling actions to achieve this:

Right support

• implement a child-centred graduated response framework;
• build a coherent and targeted approach to early intervention;
• implement child-centred local IMPACT teams;
• reset the statutory assessment and annual review process and support model; and
• support access to the Northern Ireland curriculum for children with SEN.

Right people

• implement an inclusive child-centred integrated workforce planning framework;
• expand the reach of the Middletown Centre for Autism in developing neuro-affirming practice across the system;
• trial an inclusive child-centred inclusion capacity building programme; and
• invest in classroom assistants, teachers, and healthcare professionals.

Right time

• implement a data dashboard for children with SEN;
• deliver pilot early childhood intervention programmes;
• deliver a pilot speech, language, and communications intervention toolkit and programme;
• implement an early intervention programme; and
• implement a transitional support programme.

Right place

• address challenges in special schools and enhance their role in supporting inclusion;
• improve the approach to planning for a changing pupil profile; and
• publish an SEN capital investment programme.

Education Minister Paul Givan MLA says: “SEN transformation is a key priority for the Executive. It is an investment not only for education but for our society and delivering on the agenda will require sustained funding. I am committed to driving forward this agenda during this mandate.”