Derry children in disadvantaged areas to lose out due to funding cuts

The centres, including Rainbow Child and Family Centre in Galliagh and Dunluce Family Centre in Ballymagroarty were informed this week that the Pathway Fund, which is funded by the Department for Education, will be cut by June 30 unless additional funding is received. Some centres don’t receive any additional funding so these cuts will result in centre closures at the end of this term.

Jacki Connelly, who runs Rainbow Child and Family Centre, says this funding is vital to enable children in disadvantaged areas, like Galliagh, to have the same opportunities as children from advantaged areas.

She said: “The pathway has been up and running since 2016, but it was the childhood fund before that. 13 organisations across different sectors in the city are hit by these cuts and we all work with children under five, but most are actually under three. The aim of the scheme is to focus on the well-being of the children, strengthening their physical and mental resilience, or to enhance the service and the outcomes for children with additional needs. One of our main targets would be to start to identify if the two and three-year-olds who come in here have additional needs as we’re usually the child’s first contact with any kind of service and that's when you notice what's happening with the children.

“A big part of our work is working with the families. We have our stay-and-play where the families have to come in once in a month and play with their children. It's building the relationship and the bonds between the children and the families, so they can make it a home learning environment as well. That all then means that, when they start preschool, they're on a level footing.

"All the projects who receive this funding are in disadvantaged areas. All the work we do is to make sure that the children from these areas are starting on a level footing. The statistics say that if a child from a disadvantaged area doesn’t attend pre-school and just goes to P1 without attending anything before, that they’re more likely to drop out of school before they’re 16. That’s why all these programmes were started in the beginning – to give the children from these areas a fighting chance.”

The Rainbow Child and Family Centre had prepared 187 letters to post out to families this week to offer places to 54 children and place 133 on the waiting list. The centre may now have to reduce the number of children they can take on next year. The centre already had to use other funding to cover the full costs of their Pathway services because the money they received wasn’t enough. They feel they are lucky, however, as other centres have no other funding and will have to close their doors as a result of these cuts.

“We're really struggling right now already. We didn't get any increase in the salaries or staffing or any other money to cover that. We’re just being hit from every angle and we're really feeling it. We have nine staff and we’re helping hundreds of children with little to no support from the government.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “The Department has yet to receive its confirmed budget allocation for 2023-24 but the indicative allocation from the Northern Ireland Office is extremely challenging and would require further significant reductions across a wide range of areas to remain within budget.

“In recent years, the Pathway Fund has benefited from £2.3m Confidence and Supply monies (annually) which has now come to an end.

“However, to sustain important Early Years services over the next three months, DE has made an interim allocation of funding of £1.05m in respect of the Pathway Fund for the period 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023.

“The Department will confirm the final Pathway Fund allocation following confirmation of the education budget.

“Regrettably, should the interim budget position remain unchanged, it is likely that the Pathway Fund will have to cease at the end of June 2023 if additional funding is not made available.”

An online petition has been set up to oppose the cuts and it has almost 4,000 signatures already. The petition is available at https://chng.it/PbtwJDzBtJ.

The affected organisations are preparing to protest on Thursday, April 27 at 2pm at the Guildhall Square and invite everyone to attend to show support.