To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) the schools that have been formally consulted as part of developing the End to End Review of Special Educational Needs; (ii) the number Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators involved in its production; and (iii) the number of families and young people formally consulted.

In informing the scrutiny report recommendations on the special educational needs (SEN) system, most recently the Independent Review of Education and Independent Review of SEN Services and Processes, extensive stakeholder engagement was conducted across the system. The recommendations derived from these reports underpinned the design of the End to End (E2E) Review of SEN, highlighting the importance of integrating stakeholder insights into the reform process.

As part of the E2E Review of SEN, a programme of targeted stakeholder engagement was also completed. At the outset, individuals with an interest in the Review were given the opportunity to register online and specify their area of interest. Engagement events were also advertised on Department of Education (DE) and Education Authority (EA) social media channels.

Officials conducted workshops for key stakeholder groups, including children and young people, to ascertain their views on the support provided to them; with schools to understand how they support children and young people with SEN and how the staff are supported; and with parents/carers about support and advice available, each group was also asked to identify improvements that could be made. Individual school visits were also undertaken to discuss a number of issues and to find potential solutions from the E2E Review of SEN. The majority of school visits were conducted with school leaders and SEN Co-ordinators (SENCos). Officials also met separately with a cluster group of nine SENCos to discuss a number of proposals. Two surveys were also conducted to gather views from key stakeholders, with 270 responses received.