To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail the long term plans she has to help further and higher education students recover from the financial, educational and mental health challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, including local students studying in different jurisdictions.

Further Education

My Department provides a range of on-going financial support measures to further education learners. These include Further Education (FE) Grants; FE Education Hardship Fund; Care to Learn childcare scheme; Home to College Transport; Free School Meals / Clothing Allowance; and Additional Support Fund for those with a disability. The combined value of these support arrangements totals £13 million per annum.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, my Department has worked with the FE colleges during the 2020/21 financial year to increase the flexibility of these policies in relation to student support, to make them more accessible. The Hardship Fund extensions and direct free school meal payments into households have been continued into Term 3 of the 2020/21 academic year, with holiday payments to continue until Easter 2022. An extension for grant applications to 29 October 2021 is in place for learners applying for the 2021/22 academic year.

My Department will continue to monitor how further education learners are being affected financially as a result of Covid-19 in the forthcoming academic year and will review existing arrangements when needs are identified.

In order to minimise disruption to education for FE learners, my Department has been working with the sector to identify those learners most at risk of not completing courses and has worked with the Executive to ensure that they can return to on-site learning to complete practical work and assessments this academic year to enable them to progress into further training or enter the job market.

Supporting learner welfare and mental health in post-16 learning is, at all times, a key priority for my Department. FE colleges are acutely aware of the impact of the pandemic and social isolation on the mental health and welfare of their learners, and have a range of learner support services available including resilience training, a free counselling service, Health and Well-being Action Plans, and ensuring safeguarding of all learners by providing them with access to the appropriate guidance and support. A range of college staff are qualified to identify, provide support for and direct learners, who are considered to be at risk, to the appropriate help and advice. This work was stepped up in response to Covid-19 to ensure support is available for learners in this period of challenge. Learner Support teams continue to work with curriculum teams to engage with all learners, including those who may not be fully participating.

I met with the Executive’s Mental Health Champion, Professor Siobhan O`Neill, and shared with her details of what the FE sector is doing to support the welfare and mental health of learners. Officials have had subsequent further meetings with Professor O’Neill to explore how to better support learners in FE, and ensure that mental health support remains as responsive as possible to changing and increasing needs of learners.

My Department is also undertaking a comprehensive review of Student Support in FE, including associated costs. This full review of the collective package of FE Student Support will seek to identify trends and areas of increased need for mental health and welfare support for students, and make appropriate recommendations for improvement, to help address the impacts of the pandemic and beyond.

Higher Education

In addition to the recent £22m which I secured to fund a one-off discretionary payment of £500 to Higher Education (HE) students, I also secured an additional £8.5m to further support HE students. This latter funding is being used to provide hardship support to students in need, with an emphasis on targeting those in lower household income brackets. It also allocates funding to the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to assist with supporting digital inclusion for students, and increasing support for our Student Unions and tackling mental health concerns.

Student mental health remains one of the biggest challenges facing the education sector and has been exacerbated by the recent pandemic. My officials remain in contact with the NI HEIs about this matter and are keeping a close eye on demand for services. Included in the above-mentioned £8.5m of additional support is £530k of funding for specific student wellbeing initiatives in the HEIs.

Financial pressures are often pointed to as a source of stress or cause of mental health strain, and to this end I have secured £1.4m from the NI Executive along with a further £1.4m from the Department’s own budget, in addition to the existing £2.8m budget, bringing the total available for student support funds (hardship funds) to £5.6m.

I would urge any student struggling with their mental health to speak out and seek help. They may wish to speak to their University’s Student Wellbeing Service as a first point of contact. I would also urge any student who is struggling financially to speak with their HEI about how they may provide support, as it is the HEI which administers the hardship funds.

My officials and I will continue to engage with the FE colleges and HEIs to ensure that the needs of students are met for the coming academic year, and where a need for appropriate interventions or additional support is identified, I will seek to bid for any required funding.