NI Assembly – Education Committee Meeting 9 April 2025

A briefing paper was provided in advance and representatives from a number of Sure Starts including Joy Poots, Mervyn Bell, Siobhan Meehan, Tracey Ripley-McElvogue and Penny Ambrose were invited.  They provided the Committee with a briefing outlining the work undertaken by the programme, the challenges faced by several Sure Stars include staff retention, increasing costs and the urgent need for sustainable funding on a multi-year basis. This was followed by a question and answer session.

The Committee agreed to write to the Department of Education seeking, among other things, clarity on any measures around budget sustainability for Sure Starts and their key community and voluntary sector delivery partners in the early years space, and enhanced salary support post standstill, for recruitment and non-attrition of qualified Sure Start staff putting workforce and targeted interventions at the core of strategy. The Committee will also write to the Department to ask for greater clarity around the criteria used by the EA for the allocation of PAN places within pre-school settings.

Representatives from the Department of Education including Paul Brush, Director of Early Years, Childcare & Children & Young People’s Strategy, and Tina Dempster, Head of Early Learning and Childcare Strategy Team, Linda Drysdale, Head of Early Years – Intervention Programmes Team, and Christine Leacock, Head of Pre-School Education Team and lead on standardisation attended to provide the Committee with a briefing followed by a question and answer session.  Discussion took place on the continued development of an Early Learning and Childcare Strategy.  The Department confirmed that a draft strategy is due to be published by this Autumn.

Information on the Education Committee including minutes of meetings and dates of future meeting is available at https://www.niassembly.gov.uk/assembly-business/committees/2022-2027/education/.