To ask the Minister of Education whether the Education Authority provides liability insurance cover for a school, where a child with special education needs is injured while their full-time one-to-one classroom assistant had been instructed to work elsewhere at the time of the incident.

As part of the schools’ funding arrangements, Controlled, Catholic Maintained and Other Maintained schools are covered by the Education Authority’s self-insurance arrangements. A Voluntary Grammar or Grant Maintained Integrated school is responsible for its own commercial insurance arrangements, the costs of which will be met from its Common Funding Formula allocation (i.e. specifically through the Voluntary Grammar/Grant Maintained Integrated Administrative Costs Factor). These insurance arrangements apply to all situations, including the circumstance described in this question.