Fifty-mile round trip a day for SEN pupil, says MLA

Pat Sheehan raised the child's case at the committee but said that it was "not by any means an isolated example"

A child with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has to get a taxi from Downpatrick to a school in west Belfast, a round trip of over 50 miles a day.

That is according to the vice-chair of Stormont's Education Committee, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan.

Sheehan raised the child's case at the committee but said that it was "not by any means an isolated example".

The UUP MLA Jon Burrows also said that one child had a return journey of two hours and 40 minutes by taxi to get to and from school.

Jon Burrows says the journey time is "unacceptable"

Burrows had received that figure from the Department of Education (DE).

He said that journey time was "unacceptable".

Sheehan also said that providing school places for children with SEN had been "another debacle this year".

But the civil servant heading the DE, Ronnie Armour, responded that it had been "extremely challenging," but not a debacle.

Though Mr Armour acknowledged that "we have a long way to go".

'Absolute disaster'

Danny Baker says he's been contacted by families of children who were on reduced timetables in school

However, the Sinn Féin MLA Danny Baker later said school places had been "an absolute disaster," as many children had not been able to start school on time as building work on their classrooms had not been completed.

"Hundreds of children right now are not in school because their place isn't ready," Baker said.

The EA had previously said that 80 children had not been able to start school at the start of September.

But Sheehan questioned whether that figure was accurate.

Baker also said he had been contacted by families of children who were on reduced timetables in school.

"My point is that the EA and the department are fundamentally getting the operational side of it wrong," Baker said.

MLAs on the Education Committee questioned officials from the department on support for children with SEN.

'Similar situations'

In 2021, Stormont's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that children with SEN and their families had been "failed for many years" by the EA.

MLAs on the PAC found "systemic problems" with provision for children with SEN and said there were "elements of dysfunctionality within the EA".

The PAC also questioned whether money to support children with SEN was being spent effectively.

Sheehan raised the issue of transport to DE officials at Wednesday's Education Committee hearing.

"I was talking to a principal in a primary school in west Belfast who has a number of specialist provision classes in his school," Sheehan said.

"There's a child being taxied every day back and forth from Downpatrick.

"Just for the week I'm sure that's costing close to £1000 - how is that value for money?"

Mr Armour said that it was "unacceptable" for a child to have to travel that far to school.

"That unfortunately, I would assume is the necessity of the individual situation and circumstances that that has been required," he said.

"But it's happening all over the place," Sheehan responded.

"All of us as MLAs are hearing from right across the North of similar situations."

Michelle Guy questioned the nature of some of the support offered to children and schools

The EA has made a number of moves to try to improve some aspects of SEN support, including providing more school places.

But the authority recently highlighted a need for 6,000 more places in special schools across Northern Ireland.

Mr Armour told MLAs on the Education Committee that the scale of the challenge to improve SEN support was "significant and requires substantial investment."

The Alliance MLA Michelle Guy questioned the nature of some of the support offered to children and schools.

She cited the case of a child who required literacy support.

"And the support that they got back was some print-outs off the computer," she said.

"To say that that kid got a proper intervention, that they're being helped, would be dubious."

One of the DE officials also admitted to MLAs that around half of statements for children with SEN were not completed within the 26 week target.