To ask the Minister of Education what extra support has been provided in schools for children with increased emotional or behavioural problems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people continues to be a high priority for my Department.

The Framework for Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education, and the accompanying Implementation Plan, has enhanced the support provided for pupils during the pandemic, with a focus on promotion, prevention and early intervention, through an integrated approach between Education and Health.

Supporting strands which have been implemented include the recently launched primary school therapeutic and counselling support pilot, Healthy Happy Minds, a text a nurse service, a new EA Youth Service REACH programme (Resilience Education Assisting Change to Happen), and the CCEA Wellbeing Hub which provides a repository of high quality resources to assist teachers and learners in the area of Wellbeing.

Programmes planned for 2022 include an expansion to the existing RISE NI programme which is a multi-professional early intervention team currently working in primary schools, an enhanced school nursing pilot and a school staff wellbeing project run by the EA’s Education Psychology Service. Approvals are also being progressed for the ‘Emotional Wellbeing Teams in School’, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS led programme) and the EA’s ‘Being Well Doing Well’ programme.

I can confirm that an additional £5m was made available for another COVID Wellbeing Fund for 2021/22 which has provided dedicated funding to address wellbeing pressures arising as a result of the pandemic. The funding has been distributed directly to all schools (nursery, primary, post primary and special schools), as well as EOTAS (Education Otherwise Than At School) and Youth Settings, giving them flexibility in how they support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, and the staff working with them.

To further support emotional wellbeing during the pandemic DE also introduced the Safer Schools NI App, created by the iNEQE Safeguarding Group, which provides a one-stop-shop digital library of age-appropriate safeguarding resources for schools. The availability of the Safer Schools app is helping to ensure teachers, parents and children and young people have the knowledge they need to keep safe online.