WELB support staff halved in five years

THE number of staff employed to support and develop high quality education and youth services in the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) has been slashed from 101 to just 57 over the past five years, according to figures released by the Education Minister John O’Dowd.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Jun 2012, 11:11 BST

Back in 2007/8 101 people were employed as part of WELB’s Curriculum Advisory and Support Service (CASS) at a cost of £3,395,915.

Now in 2011/12 the number of staff on the support service has been almost halved to 57. It now costs WELB £2,152,848.

CASS is tasked with supporting the Department of Education’s (DE) vision to “ensure that every learner fulfils her or his full potential at each stage of their development.”

Over the past five years the service has cost £16,078,795 in WELB.

The cuts to CASS staff in WELB are reflected right across Northern Ireland although the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB) still has roughly the same headcount now as it had in 2007/8.