Ms Ann-Marie O'Boyle:

On the question in respect of inclusive education, the committee will be well aware of the rights basis for inclusive education, particularly within the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commented that simply putting a student with disabilities into a mainstream class without an accompanying structural change does not constitute inclusive education. In our research, such as Mind the Gap, we are cognisant of the investment that has been made by the Department of Education in special schools and special classes and that there are two parallel programmes of work - one on making mainstream classes more inclusive and the other on the special schools and special classes part. Our main ask is to have some sort of forward planning as to when these two parallel systems will converge and we might be able to achieve that inclusive model. I will pass on to my colleague to deal with assessment of need.