To ask the Minister of Education what action his Department has taken to provide Special Educational Needs placements for the 1000 additional pupils places that have been identified.

The significant increase in the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) has resulted in an increased demand for specialist education provision, both in special schools and in specialist provisions in mainstreams schools (SPiMS).

The Education Authority (EA) has statutory responsibility for ensuring appropriate education provision for all children and it is working at pace, in collaboration with managing authorities and schools, to create additional capacity across the education system to ensure sufficient specialist education provision is available to meet the needs of children who require it for the 2024/25 academic year.

My department engages regularly with the EA through a strategic placements group which aims to put in place a more planned, data-informed approach that will facilitate the growing number of learners with statements of SEN and provide the appropriate number of specialist education places needed to create sufficient capacity in the system. Given the immediate pressures for September 2024, weekly meetings between my department and the EA are now being held to seek solutions to address the shortfall in places.