Lollipop crossing patrol staff recruitment frozen in NI

The recruitment of school crossing patrol staff is being frozen by the Education Authority as part of an effort to save money.

It has encouraged schools to share road safety advice with pupils and parents.

Youth services are also facing cuts to day trips and educational visits.

In a letter to school principals, the authority's chief executive Sara Long said it had identified savings of about £17.8m it could make in 2022-23.

But that is far short of £110m in cuts it is expected to make from its budget by 31 March.

The Education Authority spends the bulk of Stormont's £2.5bn education budget on funding schools, staff, transport, meals, maintenance, youth services and support for children with special educational needs (SEN).

The authority's board previously said it could not make cuts of £110m without "highly unacceptable and detrimental risks" to children and young people.

In his November 2022 budget, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris warned that the Department of Education needed to make significant cuts to its "current spending trajectory".

He said that although education would receive a cash increase of £286m compared to last year's baseline the department would need to take action to live within its budget this year.

The Department of Education has also asked the Education Authority to model cuts of up to 10% of its 2023-24 budget.

The authority's chief executive has now written to schools to outline savings of £17.8m it can make this financial year.

Among the savings is a pause on "the recruitment of temporary and permanent school crossing patrol (SCP) posts".

"Schools are encouraged to share the road safety advice available on [the] NI Direct [website], as well as reinforce parents' important role in their child's journey to school," wrote Ms Long.

"Schools are also reminded of existing guidance that only those employed as a SCP are authorised to stop traffic and therefore indemnified in the event of an accident."

There are about 350 school crossing patrol staff in Northern Ireland.

Ms Long also said the authority would try to save money on school meals.

"We will review menus across all educational sectors with a view to improving the attractiveness of offer, increasing uptake and reducing excess wastage of perishable items," she said.

"The impact on nutritional guidelines will be minimised as much as possible."

Among the other areas earmarked for savings are recruitment freezes for some Education Authority staff posts and restrictions on staff travel.

Ms Long also appealed to schools and boards of governors to "constrain your school's expenditure for the remainder of this year".

In a separate letter, she said Education Authority-funded youth service trips would also be affected.

"All educational visit categories (day trips, residential and international visits) planned by any statutory youth service setting, utilising core funding, will be reviewed and recommended for pause or cancellation until the end of March 2023," she wrote.

"Educational visits planned through external funding, or self-raised funding by children and young people, will remain unaffected."

She added that there would be a reduction in the administration support that the Education Authority could provide to the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.