Q213 Mr. Dave Anderson: May I take you back to the education action zones? We asked the people from Belfast area partnerships about them and in their view they were announced but nothing further happened. Is that a fair comment?

Angela Smith: It is but the announcement today will help. It was not that nothing happened; perhaps everyone was not kept as well informed as they should have been. A lot of work was undertaken: £2 million was provided to each Board area to bring forward plans. Two costed proposals for each area were given to the Department. Looking at that now, it has been overtaken by this new fund which the Secretary of State announced finally today in the Budget; it was announced in the draft Budget a few weeks ago. So we can now extend the benefits from those areas much wider than we would have done otherwise. From today we can go back to schools and give more information out, but the final budget announcement was made today.

Q214 Chairman: Will they still be called education action zones?

Angela Smith: Probably not; we might not call them that. It does not really matter particularly what we call them.

Q215 Chairman: A degree of consistency and intelligibility is always commendable in government.

Angela Smith: And possibly wishful thinking sometimes. Cynicism in one so young. What will be achieved will be that the outcomes will be very consistent with education action zones, but it will be wider than the two proposals we would have looked at for each Education and Library Board area.

Q216 Mr. Dave Anderson: Just to be clear, did anything actually happen? Did anybody go in, because they do not say they did?

Angela Smith: Yes, £2 million was earmarked and was put in and the Boards have had staff in place working up proposals. It is just that it came to us that we could do more, so the proposal was to have two in each Board area, but, with the announcement of new money, we can do more and extend it further.

Q217 Chairman: Our witnesses told us that nothing happened for three years. You have effectively confirmed that.

Angela Smith: Work was ongoing at Board level, as I understand it.

Q218 Chairman: Come on.

Angela Smith: A level of bureaucracy which can give money direct to schools would be more effective.

Chairman: Mr Anderson has highlighted a very important point. Do you want to pursue it any more?

Q219 Mr. Dave Anderson: I do, because it links into the whole feeling we had when we were over there that this was a most depressing time because people just felt hopeless. We asked about Costello and we really pressed them on this and people said the truth was that it meant nothing to them, it would not change what was happening to their children. That has to be an indictment. How will it help them?

Angela Smith: One of the things is the package I have mentioned of £28 million and £33 million. The other one is having a much better policy on sustainable schools in the longer term.

Q220 Chairman: Is this new money?

Angela Smith: This is new money. People in Northern Ireland have paid a 19% rate increase to pay for this and that money is going into these two new packages.

Q221 Lady Hermon: Does that go to individual boards?

Angela Smith: No, it will go directly to schools; the money will go directly to schools. It is very important that we have the minimum level of bureaucracy delivering this service for young people. I have been to some of the same schools as you have and I have come away with the same feelings. One of the things I have instigated in the Department is a sustainable schools policy and I hope to be able to announce that in the not too distant future. It is not about small schools, it is about the sustainability of schools which have surplus places in the longer term. Unless we address those kinds of issues, so we get more funding direct to the front-line and do not fund empty desks in schools but fund pupils and fund teachers, those problems will continue. So I should say that we are doing two things: one is looking at the sustainability of schools in the longer term; the other is providing extra money in those areas of greatest need to provide a wrap-around service across departments which most addresses the needs of those schools. I have met with the schools, I have met with the heads, I met the Shankhill Principals' Group not so long ago and asked them what their needs were, what would make a difference. That is how we can make a difference with the money we are putting in.

Q222 Mr. Dave Anderson: Does your Department have responsibility for adult education or work-based learning, that sort of thing?

Angela Smith: Not the Department of Education, but one of my other departments, the Department for Employment and Learning. It was interesting, talking to some people recently on those particular areas: if young people miss out on the education system it stays with them throughout their lives and we should start getting young people involved at this age. In one of the schools I visited, the Downshire School I mentioned earlier on, you have a new school which is an amalgamated school and as part of that school they have an adult education centre and they have a mother and toddler group, so you are bringing in the community as a whole. Part of the new money we are talking about there for the next two years will be for things like parenting support. Some of the schools I have visited have already had the parenting co-ordinator, where a member of staff has worked with parents on their parenting skills and helped parents give the support their children need. I know we are sometimes accused of being a nanny state, but if you speak to parents who have had support and have received parenting skills, they will tell you how much they value them and how much of a difference being able to give the best support to their young child has made to them.

Q223 Mr. Dave Anderson: Some concerns have been expressed to me by some of the young people over there that there are going to be changes to some of the work-based funding. May I write to you on that for some clarification?

Angela Smith: Drop me a note on that. It is not the Department of Education, but with one of my other hats on I shall be happy to get back to you on it.

Chairman: We shall let Mr Anderson follow up on that.

This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT