2021

New legislation to address bullying in schools

On 4 March 2021 the Department of Education announced that legislation to address bullying in schools will come into operation in Northern Ireland on 1 September 2021.

The Addressing Bullying in Schools Act (NI) 2016 aims to bring renewed focus on this issue for schools and deliver greater consistency and impact in the treatment of all forms of bullying.

The legislation will provide a legal definition of bullying; introduce a requirement for schools to record all incidents of bullying; and require Boards of Governors to take direct responsibility for developing and monitoring the effectiveness of Anti-Bullying policy and practice within schools.

Launch of Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework

On 26 February 2021 the Department of Education and Department of Health Minister jointly launched the Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework.

An investment of £6.5 million (€7.6 million*) annually will be provided to support mental health and wellbeing within the education sector.

The Framework will be supported by a number of initiatives including:

• REACH Programme which provides schools with support to promote good mental health;
• Pilot of counselling service in primary schools;
• the Text-a-Nurse service providing young people with a secure and confidential text messaging service to a school nurse, and
• Wellbeing strategy for school staff to help them take action and invest in their mental and physical wellbeing.

*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.85, ECB, 30 March 2021.

New measures to support children with Special Educational Needs

In December 2020, a section of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2016 which requires the Education Authority to seek and have regard to the views of the child came into operation.

Consultation on Special Educational Needs

On 30 September 2020 the Department of Education launched a public consultation to improve the provision of education for children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

The Minister has also announced funding of £7.5m (€8.7 million*) to deliver a new SEN framework which will provide additional resources for schools.

Proposed changes to the current system will include a defined period in which assessments must be carried out and decisions implemented. Children and parents will also have new rights that will ensure services meet their needs. The Education Authority will be required to publish an annual plan of arrangements for SEN provision and each child with SEN will be required to have a Personal Learning Plan (PLP).

*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.85, ECB, 30 March 2021.

2020

Additional funding announced for ‘Education Restart’

In August 2020 the Education Minister outlined package of funding to help support the safe reopening of schools. The package includes: £17.5 million (€19.7 million*) towards the cost of substitute teachers and other school expenditure; £6.4 million for PPE (€7.2 million*); £5million (€5.6 million*) for school wellbeing initiatives; £3.1million (€3.5 million*) for home to school transport; and £1.4 million (€1.5 million*) to support special educational needs.  The funding is for the first term of the new academic year.

* Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.89, ECB, 02 September 2020.

Expert panel to tackle educational underachievement

In July 2020, the Education Minister announced the appointment of an Expert Panel to examine the links between educational underachievement and social disadvantage. The panel has been established under the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ agreement, which sets out the immediate priorities for the Northern Ireland Executive, and which set out the requirement for an expert group to examine and address links between persistent educational underachievement and socio-economic background, including the long-standing issues facing working-class, Protestant boys.

Formal agreement on teachers' pay and workload

On 28 April 2020, at a meeting of the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee, the Management Side and the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council formally ratified an agreement to resolve the long running industrial dispute of teachers’ pay and workload. In addition to incremental progression within salary scales, which for teachers, is payable by contractual entitlement, teacher salary scale points will be revised as follows:

• With effect from 1 September 2017, a 2.25% cost of living pay award will be paid to all teachers; and teaching allowances will be increased by 2.25%.
• With effect from 1 September 2018, a further 2% cost of living pay award will be paid to all teachers; and teaching allowances will be increased by 2%.

Update to Nutritional Standards for School Food

The Department of Education has launched a consultation on proposed updates to the Nutritional Standards for School Food, to run from 30 January to 27 March 2020. The proposed changes will update the current standards, developed in 2007, to take into account the most recent evidence and up-to-date government guidance on healthy eating.

2019 

Children and Young People’s Strategy 

The Children and Young People's Strategy 2019-2029 was published on 16 December 2019. The aim of the Strategy is to support the rights and improve the well-being of all children and young people living in Northern Ireland, and to achieve positive, long-lasting outcomes.

The definition of well-being, based on that in the Children’s Services Co‑operation Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, states that for children and young people, this includes:

• physical and mental health

• enjoyment of play and leisure

• learning and achievement

• living in safety and with stability

• economic and environmental well-being

• making a positive contribution to society

• living in a society which respects their rights

• living in a society in which equality of opportunity and good relations are promoted.

As this broad definition covers almost all aspects of children and young people’s lives, the Strategy will be delivered by all nine government departments, with the Department of Education having lead responsibility in overseeing effective delivery.

Publication of the Strategy follows a 2016 consultation on a draft strategy for the period 2017-2027 and a 2018 analysis report on the responses to the consultation. Its development and implementation was subsequently delayed due to the absence of ministerial powers.

Supporting Newcomer Pupils

A public consultation seeking views on the Supporting Newcomer Pupils policy ran from 18 June to 15 October 2019. The views and comments received during this consultation process will be analysed and inform the development of a revised Supporting Newcomer Pupils policy.

A ‘Newcomer pupil’ is a pupil who speaks a different language at home than the one used in their school, and who needs extra help to understand the language used in school. The aim of the policy is to welcome Newcomer pupils into school communities, so that they are assisted in their acquisition of the language of instruction, whether it is English or Irish, in an inclusive manner; can access the curriculum in particular; and participate in every aspect of school life.

The current policy has been in place since April 2009, during which time there has been an increase in the number and diversity of Newcomer pupils in Northern Ireland's schools. In the region of 16,000 pupils are currently classed as Newcomer pupils which is 4.4% of the school population. The Department of Education commenced a policy review towards the end of 2017 and has worked with a range of schools, statutory, community and voluntary sector stakeholders, and a broad selection of Newcomer pupils and their parents, to gather evidence of the effectiveness of current support arrangements.

Elective home education 

The Education Authority (EA) ran a public consultation on guidelines for elective home education from 29 May to 21 August 2019. The aims of the draft guidelines include to:

• support parents in ensuring that children receive a suitable education when educated at home
• promote good practice, by clearly defining the legislation, the respective roles and responsibilities of parents, the EA, and schools and any other relevant partners
• encourage working relationships that respect the parent’s duty to educate and their role as decision maker in ensuring their child’s right to an education.

Attendance strategy for education staff 

In April 2019, the Department of Education issued a Managing Attendance Strategy for the Education Sector 2019-2022. The strategy commits education sector employers to seek improved attendance levels across the education sector through:

• proactive management of health and wellbeing - this is about providing effective support to staff through preventative measures aimed at keeping them at work and promoting good health and wellbeing
• support for those who are ill - this is about the provision of a sympathetic, compassionate, understanding and consistent approach to dealing with staff on sickness absence, including offers of appropriate support
• effective management - this is about managing attendance through the application of agreed sickness absence procedures, and the development of systems and information to support effective management.

Developed with the support of education sector employers, the strategy will be accompanied by three annual action plans covering agreed generic initiatives to support improved attendance. Outcomes against each annual action plan will be evaluated at the end of every year. This evaluation will help gauge progress and shape future priorities within the strategy period to March 2022. 

2018 

Teaching workforce scheme to enable older teachers to leave

In October 2018, the Department of Education launched the ‘Investing in the Teaching Workforce Scheme’. This followed a circular issued in April 2018 confirming that, following an earlier pilot, the scheme would operate in financial year 2018/19.

The aim of the scheme, which was funded through the Public Sector Transformation Fund, was to refresh the teaching workforce and provide job opportunities for teachers who qualified in the years 2013 to 2017, by releasing up to 200 teachers aged 55+. The scheme did not continue in 2019/20.

Progress in advancing shared education

The Department of Education (DE) has a duty under the Shared Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 to report, every two years, on progress in advancing shared education. A report was issued on 8 May 2018, covering the period 9 May 2016 to 31 March 2018.

Shared education is defined by the Act as the education together of those of different religious belief, and those who are experiencing socio-economic deprivation and those who are not, which is secured by the working together of two or more relevant providers. The Act confers a duty on the Department of Education (DE) to promote, encourage and facilitate shared education. It also confers on listed bodies (the DE; the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools; the Youth Council for Northern Ireland; the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment; and any sectoral body) a power to encourage and facilitate shared education.

The May 2018 report noted (p.46):

‘Over the reporting period, there has been an increase of 86% in the number of schools and 248% in the number of pupils that are participating in Shared Education. While there remains a significant number of schools that are not yet engaged, numbers of both schools and pupils are expected to increase over the next reporting period as implementation of the Peace IV Shared Education programme, which became operational in late 2017, gathers pace.’

Emotional health and wellbeing audit tool 

On 24 April 2018, as part of its ‘I-Matter’ emotional health and well-being programme, the Department of Education issued a self-assessment audit tool for schools.

The tool is aimed at helping schools to assess how their current processes support the development, implementation and ongoing refinement of a whole school approach to the promotion of emotional health and well-being. It was developed under the auspices of an I-Matter working group whose membership comprised representatives from both the voluntary and statutory sectors and included teachers.

Article last reviewed March 2021.