To ask the Minister of Education to detail the scope of the Education Sustainability Taskforce.

The Taskforce for Future Financial Stability of Education (the Taskforce) comprises of the Department’s Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretaries and Finance Director; the Education Authority’s (EA) Chief Executive and Chief Officers; and Department of Finance Education Supply officials.

The overarching objective of the Taskforce is to achieve financial sustainability for the EA and thereby the education sector as a whole, while supporting improvements to services. This will include, though not necessarily be limited, to:

assess the comprehensiveness of the EA’s Category 2 savings measures approved by the EA Board and submitted to DE and determine whether any additional savings proposals should be incorporated into this savings category;

develop a workplan to advance work on these items – including identifying areas where policy review or legislative change is necessary;

review the financial implications of any parallel reform or transformation work taking place in the EA (in particular, the Special Educational Needs Transformation agenda);

subject to Ministerial approval, take forward recommendations outlined in the Independent Review of Baseline Schools Funding Report; and

review in detail all EA budget lines and the services currently offered:

develop an understanding of why the underlying services are needed and method of delivery;

conduct benchmarking exercises to assess EA services with other organisations, sectors or jurisdictions;

identify options for alternative delivery models; and

evaluate these options and make recommendations.

and

ongoing review of existing savings and efficiency measures.