Mr. Dalton Tattan:

I thank the Deputy for the question. We have been doing work on it. The NSCE policy advice dates back to 2015. We agree with the council and we want to move to a needs-based provision for the summer, which would be much more in accord with other reforms we have made across the special education sphere over the past number of years, moving away from categorisation to a needs-based approach. We were doing quite a bit of work on that this year, looking at it in a more activity-based programme, which is, again, in line with what the NCSE had recommended. We had taken that work to a certain point and had had a number of engagements on it with stakeholders and other Departments that also fund or support summer-type provision. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis largely derailed that work. What we have done for this summer is a programme that is an expansion on previous years but we recognise it is not a panacea. It is not what we would ultimately like a summer provision programme to be but it is more equitable than what other schemes might offer. This programme allows other groups to be involved and it has, as far as possible, had regard to that needs-based approach in informing the groups that we came up with as eligible.