To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) any currently live (a) policies; (b) strategies; (c) programmes; or (d) action plans, within his Department that have an explicit objective of tackling poverty; and (ii) the stated aim of each policy or programme.

My Department is not responsible for leading the Executive’s work to tackle poverty. It is however currently taking forward a number of initiatives to tackle educational disadvantage and ensure that all children can access a full educational experience. These initiatives include free school meals, uniform grants, the Extended Schools programme, the RAISE programme, the expansion of full-time pre-school education to all pupils and the childcare subsidy scheme.

The provision of free school meals offers a nutritious school lunch to over 90,000 children and young people on each school day. This continues the longstanding approach of providing FSM to those in low-income families that meet the eligibility criteria. This helps to address educational disadvantage through targeted support to families on low incomes to ensure that those children most in need have access to a meal which is suitable as their main meal of the day and therefore are in the best position to access their education.

Similarly, uniform grants are also available to assist families on low incomes to purchase of school uniform items in order that their children are able to access a full educational experience. In addition, I have introduced the School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill which will shortly become law. This will address affordability of school uniforms for parents, as well as comfort and practicality for pupils.

The Pre-School Standardisation Programme intends, over time, to standardise pre-school education session lengths for all target aged children to 22.5 hours per week, with access to a free school meal for eligible children.

In recognition that childcare costs can be a driver of financial stress and poverty risk among working families in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme (NICSS) currently provides a 15% cost reduction for childcare, and is available to families eligible for TaxFree Childcare (TFC). Over time and subject to Executive funding, I intend to increase the NICSS contribution to 40%, and when combined with TFC, this would reduce childcare bills for eligible families by over 50%.

The Extended Schools programme has been fully operational since 2006 and aims to improve levels of educational achievement for disadvantaged children and young people by providing the additional support that they might need to help them reach their full potential. Since 2006, my Department has invested over £180m of Extended Schools funding in order to ensure those schools serving the most disadvantaged areas can offer a wide range of additional services and activities outside the normal school day to help meet the learning and development needs of pupils, their families and local communities.

The RAISE Programme is a whole community, place-based approach to tackling educational disadvantage in 18 localities across Northern Ireland. The strategic objectives for the programme are raising achievement and addressing educational disadvantage; and raising aspirations through a whole community approach to education.