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Written question asked by David Lidington (Conservative) on Wednesday, 15 November 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 November 2006. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 November 2006 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Education Funding

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) whether the element of the children and young people funding package intended for counselling, speech and language therapy and educational psychology will be distributed through payments to school heads in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement;
Answer

Funding from the Children and Young People Funding Package (CYPFP) for these purposes is not distributed directly to schools, and is allocated on a financial year basis, rather than in academic years.The CYPFP is providing for a counselling service to be delivered to schools. The allocations are £1.65 million in financial year 2006-07 and £1.8 million in 2007-08. The contract for delivering an independent counselling service was recently awarded to Contact Youth, a NI voluntary youth organisation. Payments for the delivery of the service will be to Contact Youth in respect of sessions delivered in post primary schools.£4 million from the Children and Young People’s Funding Package was allocated to each of the four Health and Social Services Boards in 2006-07 and they have established nine multi-disciplinary teams to work in schools and other early years settings. In meeting the needs of their populations the boards are employing 15 additional speech and language therapists to work in the teams throughout Northern Ireland and they will work in collaboration with existing services. A further £4 million is available in 2007-08.Funding from the CYPFP is not being used to deliver additional educational psychology services.Funding allocations beyond March 2008 have not yet been agreed and will be decided at the outcome of the comprehensive spending review 2007, which is currently underway. It is not possible to give a firm commitment to funding for any program beyond 2007-08 until the CSR is completed and baselines are set.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
100705; 453 c129-30W
Session
2006-07
Subjects
Northern Ireland Schools
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk