To ask the Minister of Education what contingency plans his Department has developed to address the removal of access to vital services for children, and their families, who currently benefit from Early Years funded projects.

The Early Years Fund was originally established in 2004 to help sustain certain early childhood services in areas of greatest need which were facing funding difficulties when Peace II funding ended. It has effectively remained as a “closed” Fund since then to only those groups that were identified as in need at that time.

The Executive’s Budget has been reduced by the Westminster Government by £1.5bn over the last five years. As a direct result of this reduction there is significantly reduced money to spend on frontline services such as Education. I have taken every action possible to protect Education funding and those frontline services within the Department of Education’s (DE) remit. However, it is simply impossible to protect everything.

I have ensured that budget is available in 2015/16 to enable all current recipient groups to receive continued funding to the end of the current academic year i.e. 31 August 2015.

I will continue to review my budget to establish if a fund can continue beyond that date. However any such fund will have to be open to all applicants, not just current recipients, and reflect the policy priorities of DE.