End to End Review of Special Educational Needs (SEN)
The End to End Review of SEN has now concluded and on 13 January 2025, the Minister announced his programme for reforming the provision of support for children with SEN.
This webpage will no longer be updated as the End to End Review has concluded. The outworkings of the review will be progressed through the SEN Reform Agenda and updates will be reported on the webpage below.
Background
The Department of Education (DE) and Education Authority (EA) are committed to meeting the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) by ensuring the right support from the right people, at the right time, and in the right place. We know this is currently not the case for many children with SEN in Northern Ireland. All too often, investment has not resulted in improved outcomes for all children with SEN and we recognise that there is an urgent need for improvement.
We have heard consistently from stakeholders about the range of challenges across the SEN system, extending from difficulties accessing services through to the lack of advice and support available to both parents/carers and schools.
Review Process
In order to address these issues, the DE and EA embarked on an End to End Review of (SEN). This allowed us to take an in depth look at the SEN system and make the changes necessary for more effective service delivery.
- For children with SEN, this means that they have the same opportunities as their peers.
- For staff, this means that they feel confident and capable to meet the additional support needs of children in the classroom.
- For parents, this means that they are confident in the system, are communicated with, and have the tools to support their children.
The workstreams taken forward as part of the End to End Review were deliberately selected to address the challenges highlighted by stakeholders, with a view to creating an implementation plan for change. This was not a further review of the challenges; it was a way for us to develop solutions from policy development through to operational delivery.
Your views
Having listened to you, with lived experience of the issues, practitioner views and emerging evidence and research a SEN Reform Agenda and Delivery Plan has been developed. It represents an ambitious and far-reaching Programme for change through a whole system approach to tackling the issues underpinning the existing system of SEN provision in Northern Ireland.
We would like to thank all of you who contributed to the End to End Review through attendance at our engagement events or through the completion of surveys.. As we move forward, progress will be published on the SEN Reform Agenda webpage which can be accessed through the link above.