IN an article published on 17/03/2026, Pat Sheehan MLA stated that the Education Authority had launched its planned classroom support reform “without consultation one evening via social media”.
It is important to make clear that there is a public consultation on these plans. Plans for this consultation were confirmed in a press release issued on 12/03/2026. It was launched on 24/03/2026 and runs for eight weeks.
The objective of the proposed reform is to produce better outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs.
Plans to reform the current model are not a new or surprise development. They were set out by the Education Minister in January 2025 and form part of the Department of Education’s SEN reform delivery plan published in February 2025.
More recently, reforming the classroom support model was included in the Department’s five-year budget strategy published in February 2026. It has also been discussed at the Assembly’s Education Committee, including at an evidence session with Departmental and Education Authority officials on 18/02/2026.
The day after this session, EA published a briefing paper on the same subject.
This briefing paper did not launch anything. It transparently and publicly set out a long-discussed and previously announced reform, ahead of the planned public consultation.
David Gordon,
Education Authority
