To ask the Minister of Education to detail the number of Boards of Governors that have not completed safeguarding training (i) for the 2024-25 academic year; and (ii) as of the start of the 2025-26 academic year.

The Education Authority lead on Governor training and has advised:

The following figures represent the number of schools where no members of the Board of Governors have yet completed Safeguarding/Child Protection training.

It is important to note that this training is delivered as part of a four-year cycle, rather than on an annual basis. As such, it is not possible to disaggregate the data by individual academic years. In some cases, training may currently be underway but not yet completed.

Additionally, certain training is delivered at school level by the Principal and recorded in Board of Governors’ meeting minutes; however, this information is not routinely submitted to the Education Authority for central recording.

It should also be highlighted that some Boards of Governors have only recently been reconstituted and are in the early stages of initiating their training programme for the current four-year term.