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11 Sept 2003 : Column 483W—continued

Social Housing

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many new homes for social renting have been completed in North Belfast in each of the last five years and what their locations are. [125837]

Mr. Spellar: House completions, for the last five years in the Belfast North constituency, totalled 889, as follows:

	Number of houses completed
1998–99	181
1999–2000	190
2000–01	192
2001–02	196
2002–03	130
Total	889

A list of locations is provided in the table.

Houses completed in Belfast North constituency

Provider	Location	Units
1998–99
BIH	Glencairn	33
BIH	159–161 Cavehill Road	8
Flax	Rosebank Mill, Flax Street	38
Flax	Ardoyne Bus Depot, Ph1	40
Flax	Thorndale, Duncairn Avenue	11
Oaklee	21 Skegoneill Avenue	5
Triangle	Squireshill Crescent, Ligoneill	12
Woodvale and Shankill	57 Glencairn Crescent	1
NIHE	Carrick Hill	9
NIHE	Downview Gardens	14
NIHE	Lower Regent Street	4
NIHE	Plunkett Court	4
NIHE	Squireshill Park	2
Total		181
1999–2000
Clanmil	30 Cairnshill Park	4
Filor	Lawnbrook, Ph2	26
Filor	Lawnbrook, Ph2b	1
Newington	171 Limestone Road	48
Oaklee	Buncrana Gardens	24
Ulidia	Salisbury Avenue	10
Woodvale and Shankill	Broom/Bracken, Ph2	26
NIHE	Downview Gardens	12
NIHE	Plunkett Court	4
NIHE	Carlisle Road	8
NIHE	Hillman Close	8
NIHE	Hillman Street	3
NIHE	North Queen Street	9
NIHE	Spamount Street	6
NIHF	Wall Street	1
Total		190
2000–01
BIH	Centenary House, Waring Street	40
BIH	Dover Street	8
Clanmil	13 Harcourt, Cliftonville	1
Clanmil	109 Skegoneill Avenue	1
Clanmil	13 Newington Avenue	1
Filor	Lawnbrook, Ph3	30
Flax	Ardoyne Bus Depot, Ph2	14
Fold	Crumlin Road	21
Fold	Torrens, Ph1	18
Habinteg	3 1 Cliftonville Avenue	7
Oaklee	Clifton Park Avenue	33
NIHE	Hillman Court	9
NIHE	Pepperhill Street	5
NIHE	Stanhope Street	4
Total		192
2001–02
Filor	Lanark Way/Kirk Street	26
Fold	Rosewood/Crumlin, Ph2	22
Fold	Alliance, Ph3	32
Newington	Newington Rehabs	10
Newington	Community Gardens, Limestone Road	8
Newington	New Lodge, HAA, Ph2	26
Oaklee	62–76 Cliftonville Road	8
Oaklee	Roe Street/BCC Depot	36
Oaklee	Black's Court, Ph2	8
Oaklee	Dumbarton, Ph2	2
Ulidia	Antrim Road	16
Woodvale and Shankill	20 Mayo Park	1
Woodvale and Shankill	35 Woodvale Parade	1
Total		196
2002–03
BIH	Clifton House, North Queen Street	83
Filor	3 Northwood Drive	6
Flax	211 Old Park Road	1
Fold	Wheatfield, Ph1	13
Newington	Newington, Ph2A	8
Newington	Newington, Ph2B	2
Oaklee	The Maples, Chief Street	12
Triangle	Squireshill Crescent	3
Woodvale and Shankill	8 Crumlin Gardens	1
Woodvale and Shankill	15 Crumlin Gardens	1
Total		130

11 Sept 2003 : Column 484W

Special Educational Needs

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many teachers are employed in North Belfast to cater for children with special educational needs. [127423]

11 Sept 2003 : Column 485W

Jane Kennedy: Under Special Educational Needs Legislation, Education and Library Boards have a qualified duty to secure education for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in a mainstream placement. Therefore the majority of children identified as having SEN will have their needs met by mainstream teachers with, where required, support from a classroom assistant or outside specialist support, such as outreach from special schools, assistance from a behaviour support team, or speech and language therapy help from outside the school. In this sense, all teachers may have a role in providing educational help for children with SEN.

Under Local Management of Schools (LMS) arrangements, mainstream schools have the majority of funding for special needs within their delegated budgets. Schools have discretion as to how the money is spent, e.g. to employ additional teachers for children with SEN. It is therefore not possible to provide specific teacher numbers in primary and post primary schools within the timescale for the question. However, with regard to specialist support services the Belfast ELB provides additional teaching time to assessed pupils within all schools in Belfast for special needs in the areas of learning, dyslexia, behaviour, autism and physical and sensory disability. These services employ an additional 55 teachers.

In all mainstream schools a designated teacher known as the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) will be responsible for the day to day

11 Sept 2003 : Column 486W

operation of the school's SEN policy, liaison with outsiqe agencies etc. This will be in addition to the SENCO's teaching duties. The number of teachers employed in Special Schools or Special Units in the North Belfast Constituency area is:

Special School Teachers—27

Special Unit Teachers —2

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much funding was allocated to meet the special education needs of children in (a) primary and (b) post primary schools in North Belfast in each year since 1997. [127424]

Jane Kennedy: The funding made available to the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) by the Department of Education for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has two components:

the SEN element, managed centrally by each board, which is used to provide classroom assistance, special equipment, disabled access and outreach support services for mainstream pupils as well as to maintain Special Schools and Units. These resources are allocated on an individual basis following the assessment procedures as set out in the Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs. It is not possible to provide details of such resources specifically for the North Belfast Constituency area within the timescale of the question. However, it is known that there are 70 classroom assistants funded by the Belfast ELB in North Belfast schools for individual pupils with SEN at an approximate cost of £500,000 per annum; and

the Local Management of Schools (LMS) component, managed by mainstream schools to assist pupils with SEN who do not require a Statement. Annual expenditure on the LMS Special Needs budgets for schools in the North Belfast constituency area is as follows:

£

	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Primary Schools	537,098	509,494	532,226	538,865	528,00
Secondary Schools	409,850	425,124	450,748	472,005	481,000
Total	946,948	934,618	982,874	1,010,870	1,009,000

In addition, since 1998, around £38 million has been provided to support the introduction of the Code of Practice in Northern Ireland. As well as providing SEN training for teachers and school governors, these funds have helped meet the additional costs of strengthening mainstream provision for pupils with SEN, by expanding outreach and peripatetic teaching support and by providing more classroom assistants. Specific allocations to schools in the North Belfast Constituency area are not readily identifiable in the timescale, but it is estimated that in 2002–03 these totalled approximately £70,000 for primary schools and £50,000 for post-primary schools.

Sports and Recreational Facilities

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much money has been provided to district councils in Northern Ireland for the development of sports and recreational facilities in each year since 1997. [125844]

Angela Smith: Since 1999 the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure (DCAL) has had overall responsibility for sports and recreational development in Northern Ireland. The amount of money both Exchequer and Lottery, provided to district councils in Northern Ireland, via DCAL funding sources, for the development of sports and recreational facilities in each year since 1997 is as follows:

Year	£
1997(13)	2,845,074
1998(13)	1,272,110
1999	1,177,500
2000	230,000
2001	173,000
2002	380,000
2003	(14)0

⁽¹³⁾ Prior to 1999 overall responsibility for sporting and recreational development in Northern Ireland rested with the Department of Education for Northern Ireland while Inland Waterways and Waterway recreations functions rested with the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland.

⁽¹⁴⁾ To date.

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