§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on what basis SEELB provides a greater number of funded pre-school places to the statutory nursery school sector than to the private/ voluntary sector in Newtownards; and for what reason the playschool at Londonderry Primary School has not attracted any funded places. [149612]
§ Jane KennedyIn Newtownards there are currently 234 pre-school places in statutory nurseries and 136 in settings in the voluntary and private sector. Of these, 52 statutory places and all of the voluntary and private places were created by the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme. The planning of pre-school provision and the allocation of voluntary/private sector places is a matter for each Board's Pre-School Education Advisory Group (PEAG), which identifies shortfalls in funded pre-school provision at local area level. The intention was that new places created under the programme for Northern Ireland as a whole would be broadly on a 50:50 basis between the statutory and voluntary/private sectors, though at local level the ratio varies considerably, depending mainly on the level of provision prior to the programme. In Newtownards, most of the statutory provision pre-dated the expansion programme.
The number of pre-school places which the South Eastern Education and Library Board's PEAG is funding in Newtownards is already sufficient to satisfy the demand from the parents of children in their 462W immediate pre-school year. It is not necessary, therefore, for the PEAG to introduce additional providers such as the playschool at Londonderry Primary school.