To ask the Minister of Health to detail, out of the total number of children and young people with disabilities previously resident in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust area who were taken into residential care, how many had previously been assessed as being on the edge of care in each of the last five years.

Within the past 5 years the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust has received 19 children with Severe Learning Disabilities into care. The term edge of care was introduced by the Department through the A Life Deserved Strategy (DoH:2021), however, this field has not been entered into the regional ‘Understandings the Needs of Children in Northern Ireland’ assessment framework. It would be accurate to state that all of those children received into care would, prior to entering care, have been on the edge of care, unless there was an unknown or an acute set of circumstances that necessitated a care admission.