To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQW 35934/22-27, to detail (i) the amount of the £2.4 million investment announced in October 2024 that was allocated to South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust for early intervention within Severe Learning Disability programme; and (ii) how this funding has been allocated.

During October 2024, I had announced additional investment aimed at improving the range of services for children with disability (CWD) across the region. The identified priorities included; increasing short breaks capacity, expanding family therapeutic and behavioural supports, and enhancing residential care.

The additional investment provided to the Children with Disability Service was made following an increased demand for family support, short breaks, residential care and transitions support across services for children with disabilities. The South-Eastern Health and Social Care Trust was awarded approximately £2.4m annually to fund the development of the identified priorities.

In relation to the query pertaining to the ‘amount of finance that was allocated to South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust for Early Intervention within the Severe Learning Disability programme’ - the allocated funding was not specifically allocated to the Trust for Early Intervention. Furthermore, the term Early Intervention is often used as an umbrella term, which may be used to describe a number of services across a number of Directorates and Departments.

The South Eastern HSC Trust can detail the areas of spend relating to the CWD Ministerial Investment, some of which may be interpreted as Early Intervention Services. There were approximately thirty areas of spend, however the main areas that the CWD Ministerial Investment has been used to enhance in the South Eastern HSC Trust have been summarised by the South Eastern HSC Trust to have been as follows:

Residential Short Breaks.

Expansion of Community Short Breaks.

Expansion of Pre-School Support.

Additional Learning Disability Nurses.

Additional Autism Workers and Support Staff.

Recruitment of 6 Senior Support Workers for Community Teams.

Managerial Support.

In Year Funding for Redwood Children’s House to November.

The South Eastern HSC Trust has stated that they incurred additional spend through the expansion of Community / Voluntary Contracts, Staff Training, Child Sensory Equipment, and Recruitment Campaigns. The South Eastern HSC Trust has reported that up to an additional 70 staffing posts have been or are in the process of being recruited into the Learning Disability Service to enable the expansion of services in line with the priorities identified.