To ask the Minister of Education to detail the number of Early Years Specialists in (i) Northern Ireland; and (ii) East Londonderry, in each of the last three years.

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 provided by the Department of Education (DE). I have taken every action possible to protect Education funding and those frontline services within the DE remit. However, it is simply impossible to protect everything.

My Department’s 2015-16 budget consultation process invited all stakeholders within the Education sector to express their views on the 2015-16 Budget for Education. Over 23,000 responses to the consultation were received, which provided me with a significant basis of evidence to inform my final 2015-16 Budget spending plans.

At Final Budget stage my Department was facing a £97.6m 2015-16 funding gap and to mitigate the risk that insufficient savings would be realised, additional savings were identified which included the £2m budget reduction to the Early Years Fund (EYF). At this stage it was not possible to engage further with stakeholders.

I have endeavoured to minimise the impact of the reductions as far as possible and so I have ensured that funding is available in 2015/16 to enable all 153 recipients of the EYF to receive continued support to the end of the current academic year (i.e. 31 August 2015).

The EYF includes a contribution to Early Years – the Organisation for Young Children (EYO) towards their Early Years Specialist (EYS) team. This contribution is also extended to August 2015.

Specialist Early Years support can be provided by a qualified teacher with specific experience or a suitably qualified and experienced specialist in Early Years provision. EYSs may be self employed and work independently, or be employed by an organisation, or the group in which they provide support. EYSs are not required to register therefore there is no central list containing either the total number of those persons providing such support or within particular areas in the north.

In 2014/15 EYO received £235,000 as a contribution towards the EYS programme which they offer to the pre-school sector. EYO is the only organisation which receives support from the EYF for EYS support. Undoubtedly, however (as with the main Fund allocations) there are groups which are equally as deserving of financial support for EYS provision across the north.

Although the contribution towards the EYS programme in EYO from the Fund may not be available after August, it should be noted that pre-school groups are free, as has always been the case, to choose from where they source their EYS support, or fulfil the function themselves, if they have suitably qualified staff to do so.

Voluntary and private settings providing funded places within the Pre-School Education Programme (PSEP) are required to have support (at least five hours per month) from an EYS.

I have allocated sufficient funding to the Education Authority to meet the projected need for pre-school places for children in their final pre-school year. The cost of employing the EYS is included within the PSEP funding, currently £1801 per child per year.

I fully recognise the importance of Early Years education particularly for our most disadvantaged of children which is why, despite the difficult budgetary position, I have committed over £216m toward Early Years education for 2015/16 to ensure that key services are protected as far as possible.

I will continue to review my budget to establish if a fund can continue beyond 31 August 2015. However any such fund will have to be open to all applicants, not just current recipients and reflect the policy priorities of DE. If additional money becomes available, this funding will be a priority for my Department.