West Belfast education scheme at risk due to funding cuts

The Department of Education said it was facing "an extremely challenging budget outcome for 2023-24"

A scheme which provides counselling and English and maths support to more than 2,000 children and families in west Belfast is at risk due to funding cuts.

The Full Service Community Network (FSCN) is part-funded by the Department of Education (DE).

It is also funded through the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools.

The scheme has eight teaching staff who provide direct help to schools, families and pupils in the greater Falls area of west Belfast.

Another education scheme in west Belfast - the Sharing the Learning programme - is also set to lose its funding from DE on 31 March.

The department said it was facing an extremely challenging budget outcome for 2023-24 and needed to make significant savings.

Northern Ireland's budget watchdog has said Stormont departments are facing large cuts in the new financial year.

The NI Fiscal Council says departmental spending is set to fall by 6.4 per cent in real terms in 2023/24.

There have been warnings that education bodies, in particular, could need to find substantial savings.

The scheme provides additional support for disadvantaged young people

The FSCN has been running since 2008 and is funded to provide "additional support to help improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people".

It receives £385,000 a year from DE.

It provides a counselling service to pupils and families in primary schools, early-years support in nursery schools, and English and maths support for pupils in primary and post-primary schools.

The FSCN also gives extra English-language lessons to pupils who are newcomers, asylum seekers and refugees.

Sophie Cocault from the FSCN, for instance, provides one-to-one help and small-group lessons in English for pupils at a number of schools including St Louise's College on the Falls Road.

But she does not know if she will be able to continue that help, or will have a job, after Friday.

"I can't say to them I'll definitely be back with you next week," she said.

"It's a really difficult situation to be in. The children are making amazing progress and they're settling really well, and we don't know if we're going to be able to keep providing this service."

Staff from the network provide support for more than 100 asylum-seeker and refugee children

Staff from the network also provide lessons and homework support in after-school classes for more than 100 asylum-seeker and refugee children and families run by Conway Education Centre.

The manager of the centre close to the Falls Road, Pauline Kersten, told BBC NI that their work was vital.

"They have trained teachers and teachers with additional extra skills like speech and language that provide support to our refugee and asylum seeking families," she said.

"One member of the team also provides wellbeing sessions for young people.

"Most of the families have had horrendous journeys to get here and often trauma affects the way children can learn.

"These wellbeing sessions are extremely valuable for these children to express their emotions, talk about their concerns and get the support to deal with that.

"If members of the Full Service Community Network were not available to us, we would have to reduce the number of young people we could take in."

'Absolutely scandalous'

One staff member from the FSCN also supports pupils in Irish-medium schools in the area.

The principal of Coláiste Feirste in Beechview Park, which has about 900 pupils, said if the support from the FSCN ended it would be absolutely devastating for some pupils.

"At a time post-Covid when what's really facing pupils is not the exams, but all the other supports around that, they missed out on a couple of years of that social and emotional development," Mícheál Mac Giolla Ghunna said.

"That's our focus at the minute and to remove that type of support at this particular time is absolutely scandalous."

The scheme relies on £385,000 in annual funding from the Department of Education

A spokesperson for DE said: "Like other departments, the Department of Education has yet to receive its confirmed budget allocation."

"However, current indications are that DE will be given an extremely challenging budget outcome for 2023-24 and it is likely that the Department will need to make significant savings from 1 April 2023."

"The department is currently considering the potential consequences of a range of scenarios. However, funding decisions cannot be finalised until the budget is confirmed."

"The department will communicate budget outcomes as soon as possible."