(UK) NI: $2.3B needed to cover SPED costs

Sept 16, 2025, Irish News: £1.7bn [$2.3B] programme needed to meet spiralling demand for special education

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/17bn-programme-needed-to-meet-spiralling-demand-for-special-education-givan-WCR4BJDCSBGBDJDYZLT6UJQNHQ

A £1.7 billion [$2.3B] Executive-led programme is needed to tackle spiralling demand for special education, Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan has said.

The recent start of the latest school year has seen another struggle to accommodate all those with special educational need (SEN).

Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan addresses the Northern Ireland Assembly on special education provision on Tuesday.

It is set to include new builds and campuses for special schools as well as expansion of specialist provision in mainstream schools creating more than 6,000 additional special school places and 5,000 specialist class places.

During the debate which followed, Mr Givan clashed with the leader of the official Opposition, Matthew O’Toole, after the SDLP representative claimed that large parts of his speech had been written by artificial intelligence (AI).

Mr Givan said 20% (70,000) of pupils in Northern Ireland are registered as having SEN, while the number with a statement of SEN has risen by an unprecedented 85% in 10 years to almost 30,000 pupils.

“In terms of specialist places the number of pupils attending a special school has increased by 47% in the same period (ten years), and the number of children in specialist provision classes in our mainstream schools by no less than 169%,” he told MLAs.

He said his department has invested £110 million [$150M] in the last two years to provide 242 new specialist provision classes, and 98 additional classrooms across the special school estate.

But he said numbers will increase still further for the next decade, describing the scale of demand as “staggering”, with almost 6,000 additional special school places and more than 5,000 additional specialist provision places to be needed.

Mr Givan described being at a “pivotal moment” and urged all the parties across the Northern Ireland Assembly to support his bid for an Executive-led effort.

He said action is needed now, describing a “central challenge facing our education system and our society”.

“This is not a challenge for one department alone, it is a challenge for the Executive as a whole,” he said.

“Today I seek the Assembly’s support for an Executive-led and funded SEN capital investment programme, one that will revolutionise the facilities available to our children and young people. . . .