To ask the Minister of Education to detail any departmental resources that have been put towards the work on children missing in education, in each of the last 3 years.

In addition to the resources addressing policy development provided by members of my Department’s Tackling Educational Disadvantage Team, funding has been provided to allow the Education Authority’s Education Welfare Service to create a range of specialist posts as part of a five year programme which commenced in the 2024/25 financial year.

One of those posts will specifically seek to address the issue of Children Missing Education.

A successful candidate has been appointed and is now in post.