Ms Nuala Doherty:

I will also respond to some of the Deputies' questions. Deputy Kelleher mentioned things being disparate and not joined up, as well as the truancy issue. He wondered whether organisations and agencies were aligned. One of the recommendations from our work is that the local county structure that has been established - the children's services committees - is a mechanism for joining up the various local agencies in a county for planning and co-ordinating services for children. At the moment there are 16 of those in 16 different counties. Our recommendation is that they will be brought out nationwide, which is the Government's policy. Health, education and justice agencies and local authorities are getting together to figure out what is required by way of children's services in a county. They also consider how information can be shared to get more streamlined services.

Parenting programmes are being examined by many children's services committees to see if they meet the needs of a county. They are ensuring that there is good coverage for both universal and targeted services so there is enough for young parents and parents of teenagers. In addition, they seek to avoid duplication, which is one of the core purposes of a structure such as the children's services committees.

My colleague, Dr. Stella Owens, will pick up on the national parenting action plan. Deputy Byrne mentioned the family resource centres and young mothers. How to engage young mothers while their children are being minded is a real challenge. Some of the programmes in the prevention and early intervention initiative had some really good ideas about how to undertake such engagement. Working with parents and their children is seen to be particularly effective in achieving change for children. They had some creative and ingenious ways of engaging with parents. The use of peers can be effective, as opposed to the very professional approach, which can be off-putting.

Deputy Byrne spoke about the Breaking the Cycle scheme. The sequel to that was the school completion and DEIS programmes, which have been fairly well evaluated. They have recognised and shown improvements in literacy and numeracy in the DEIS schools as a result of the decreased numbers and additional supports in schools. In addition, there have been increases in school retention, which have been copperfastened by the recent figures. We compare very favourably with other European countries with regard to the number of children who finish school. There is always room for improvement, but increases have occurred, particularly in DEIS schools.