AQO 1099/22-27 Oral question to the Minister of Education
To ask the Minister of Education to outline the actions he has taken to improve child safeguarding following the Education and Training Inspectorate's April 2023 report The Preventative Curriculum in Schools and Education Other Than At School Centres.
Asked by Danny Donnelly MLA on 24 October 2024
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 24 October 2024
- Answer due by
- 11 November 2024
- Answered
- 11 November 202418 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Education
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 11 November 2024. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mr Givan
The Education and Training Inspectorate report uses the term "preventative curriculum" to encompass safeguarding practices and the taught elements of the curriculum, such as personal development, mutual understanding and relationships and sexuality education (RSE). The ETI report found that pupil safety and safeguarding practices worked to good effect to safeguard pupils and that educational settings have adequate support from external agencies in responding to child protection and safeguarding issues. To ensure that good safeguarding practices exist in schools, my Department's safeguarding guidance was reviewed and updated in September 2025. Schools and educational settings are required to follow and implement that statutory guidance.
Mr Donnelly
I thank the Minister for his answer. Does the Minister agree with the NSPCC, the Children's Law Centre, the Human Rights Commission and others that ensuring the delivery of quality RSE in schools is a key safeguarding issue?
Mr Givan
I very much agree that the delivery of RSE in our schools is an important safeguarding issue.
Mr McGlone
Minister, drugs education is an important part of the preventative curriculum, yet, despite that, the North has seen a trebling of drug deaths in the past decade. Will the Minister outline whether there is any revision or review taking place in his Department of drugs awareness and education in our schools?
Mr Givan
That is about how the curriculum is delivered. The preventative curriculum in particular is kept under review, and, as issues emerge, we need to make sure that we have the right support for it. The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) has been good at providing material when schools have particular issues, which can sometimes vary. As well as that, the Education Authority can provide support in the protection of children and young people. There are functions that it can use to support schools in those areas. It is vital that we always keep on top of emerging issues, particularly when it comes to drugs. New drugs can enter society, and it is about how we respond to that to make sure that young people are properly informed. That is a role in the preventative curriculum that it is important to keep up to date.