To ask the Minister of Health whether Health and Social Care Trusts are engaging with the Education Authority's Local IMPACT Teams to consider merging services.

The Education Authority (EA) and Department of Education (DE) are represented on the Children’s Disability Work Stream 5, which sits under the Reform of Children’s Social Care Programme Board. Both EA and DE have been actively engaged in the Early Help / Family Support Task & Finish group. The initial phase of this work has been completed and a draft paper has been compiled to include a scoping of existing peer supports and training across the region.

A number of recommendations have been made to enhance service provision and address unmet need, and the next stage of this work will be the development of a regional implementation plan. This will involve Education Authority colleagues and will take forward agreed actions relating to more joined up and collaborative working. A presentation on the SEN Reform was delivered to the Workstream on 23rd Sept, and areas for collaboration and working together were identified.