To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail what steps have been taken to address the correlation between poverty, disability and poor educational outcomes since 2011.

The Executive’s Disability Strategy, “A Strategy to improve the lives of people with disabilities”, includes strategic priorities around support for families / carers with children or a family member with a disability, support for parents and carers with a disability and transition to adulthood for young people with disabilities. Strategic priorities also address reducing poverty among people with disabilities and their families and protecting their right to an adequate standard of living and also increasing the opportunities of people with disabilities to attain skills and qualifications through access to appropriate training and lifelong learning opportunities.

The Department of Education’s school census includes a ‘disability’ variable but the information provided is self-reported and not validated by the Department. However, Special Educational Needs (SEN) is recorded by ‘stage’ and ‘type of need’, though it should be noted that not all persons with SEN will have a disability.

There is a diverse range of SEN experienced by pupils, some of which are, and some which are not correlated with deprivation and underachievement. Cognitive and Learning needs and Social, Emotional and Behavioural needs are much more highly correlated with Free School Meal Entitlement (FSME) than any of the other types of special education need. These specific categories of SEN are more closely related with underachievement, and it is these same groups that display an association with FSME.

SEN provision is matched to the individual needs of the child. The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs sets out a five-stage approach to the process. Some children may move between stages as their needs are met. Some children will have their needs met locally by their own school. Some children will require specialist intervention through the completion of a Statement of Special Educational Needs by the Education Authority (EA).

In order to support pupils’ SEN across the school sectors, there is wide range of training courses available to teachers.

In addition to the block grant funding to the EA for special schools and support in mainstream schools, approximately £4.5m of earmarked funding is allocated annually to support SEN provision in a number of areas.

A range of policies and strategies have been developed to address the correlation between deprivation and low attainment. School funding has been redistributed to target those schools with high numbers of pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Funded interventions have been taken forward to improve outcomes in literacy and numeracy and to improve school-parent and school-community links.