To ask the Minister of Education to detail the due process and Departmental guidelines regarding consultation procedure; and why there was no separate consultation prior to the announcement of significant cuts to his Department's Early Years Fund.

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.

While there was no legislative requirement for public consultation on the draft Budget I was keen on hearing the views of stakeholders across the education sector with a view to building a consensus on mapping the way forward for education. My Department’s 2015-16 Draft Budget consultation document was published and launched for public consultation on 26 November 2014 setting out my initial assessment of the impact of the Draft Budget 2015-16 for the Department of 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 and help shape the final Budget outcome.

In reaching final decisions on the 2015-16 Budget allocations, I:

Focused on protecting frontline services as far as possible, promoting equality and raising education standards;

Secured the continuation of specific programmes that reflect the Department’s statutory responsibilities;

Continued to tackle social disadvantage; and

Ensured that support for children with Special Education Needs is prioritised.

On the 13th January 2015 there was an assembly debate specifically on the Education budget. The majority of MLAs voted to protect school budgets as a priority. During this debate I pointed out that education was much broader than the classroom.

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.

I fully recognise the importance of Early Years education particularly for our most vulnerable children which is why, despite the difficult budgetary position, I have committed 11.4% of my 2015-16 Resource budget to Early Years’ Provision to ensure that key services are protected as far as possible.