Urgent action needed to combat education cuts

Today’s protests across the UK highlights the dire situation that many young people, parents, caregivers and school staff find themselves in regarding Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in our schools. 

NICCY’s 2020 report into SEN provision – ‘Too Little, Too Late’ – found that the SEN system was under extreme pressure and made 40 recommendations to address these issues. However, 3 years on, our monitoring report found that progress was “painfully slow” and “at risk” due to budget cuts. 

The damage that recent cuts to services for children and young people will have a devastating impact on an already strained system. This was recognised by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recently, who called for the 2023/24 NI budget to be withdrawn and reconsidered “taking all possible steps to mitigate any adverse impact on children’s rights before issuing a revised budget.” 

Every week we are hearing about new cuts which will remove or reduce much needed services from our most vulnerable young people. We urge our politicians to pay attention to today’s protest at Stormont and the outcry from local organisations working with children.  

This cannot continue. The reform of the NI Executive is desperately needed and action urgently taken to combat these cuts.