To ask the Minister of Education to provide an update on the work her Department is doing to develop policy in accordance with the aims of the Children’s Services Co-operation Act (Northern Ireland) 2015.

The Children’s Services Co-operation Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 (CSCA) places a duty on the Executive to adopt a children and young persons’ strategy setting out how it proposes to improve the well-being of children and young people. The Children and Young People’s Strategy (CYPS) was approved by the Executive on 10 December 2020 and was published in January 2021. The CSCA requires the first report on the operation of the Act to be prepared by the Executive not more than 18 months after the date on which it adopts the CYPS. The first report is due in June 2022. A draft Delivery Plan setting out how Departments will work cooperatively during the initial 3-year period 2021-2024 to deliver the outcomes within the CYPS has recently been agreed by the Executive and will issue for public consultation in January 2022.

All actions within the Department of Education Business Plan for 2021/22, and those of its Arm’s Length Bodies, are linked to the eight wellbeing outcomes within the CYPS and, by extension, to the CSCA.

My Department has also issued guidance to other departments explaining the content of the CSCA, the duties it places on Children’s Authorities and the approach they are expected to adopt when developing policy.

Some recent and ongoing areas of work taken forward in accordance with the aims of the CSCA include the Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework, the Transition of Young People into Careers (14-19) Project, the Strategy for Looked After Children, the Direct Payment in lieu of Free School Meals and School Holiday Food Grant Payment Schemes and the Executive Childcare Strategy.