To ask the Minister of Education whether he will request a further review of Pupil Allocation Numbers for non-statutory settings.

Mr Givan

The EA is responsible for managing preschool admissions processes and ensuring that sufficient places are available to accommodate target-age children. In doing so, the EA takes account of all provision across statutory and non-statutory settings. My Department plays no role in that process. The admissions process is still ongoing, but already 98·8% of children have been offered a place in a setting of their parents' preference, and 92·4% have been offered their first-preference setting. I appreciate that settings are naturally keen to attract as many funded places as possible, especially given the continuing decline in the birth rate, which is placing all settings under pressure, and that must be managed fairly by the EA. The pupil allocation number (PAN) review carried out by the EA at my request last year included a range of measures to improve the process in both the short and longer term, many of which have already been implemented. Details of that are available on the EA website. I believe that there may be scope to further improve the manner in which the EA takes account of parents' preferences while still balancing its relevant statutory duties. The PAN review includes an action to consider alternative PAN allocation models that will enable a range of options to be fully explored with stakeholders and thoroughly tested to ensure effectiveness before any changes are made.

My officials are supporting the EA in carrying out initial modelling to inform workshops to discuss alternative allocation models. That work is at an early stage, but it is intended that the first workshop will be held before the end of this academic year.

Mr Speaker

We move to topical questions.