James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my constituency colleague for raising this important issue.

The school completion programme, SCP, aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to generally improve their school attendance, participation and their retention in education. The SCP is a targeted intervention, aimed at those school communities which are identified through the Department of Education and Skills's DEIS action plan for educational inclusion. The programme involves 124 locally managed projects and related initiatives which operate across 470 primary and 224 post-primary schools. It provides targeted supports to some 36,000 children and young people who may be at risk of educational disadvantage.

The projects within the SCP are each managed and directed by a local management committee, which includes representatives of schools, parents, and other education stakeholders in the locality. The programme's project model approach gives local communities the autonomy to devise innovative approaches to address the needs of young people most at risk of early school leaving. Typically, projects offer homework clubs; breakfast clubs; mentoring programmes; learning support; social and personal development programmes to young people; and out of school supports, including music, art and sports and a range of activities during holiday periods.

As with all major spending programmes, the SCP budget was subject to examination under the terms of the 2011 comprehensive review of expenditure, CRE. This process identified a requirement for savings of 6.5% per annum across the programme over the period 2012 to 2014. In 2014, an allocation of €24.756 million has been provided for the programme.

Since its establishment, the Child and Family Agency has operational responsibility for the SCP, including the allocation of funds to projects within the programme. The process involves local projects developing annual school retention plans with detailed service proposals for the forthcoming school year and the determination of the allocations to be provided on that basis and having regard to the CRE savings requirements. I have been advised that proposals have yet to be formulated by the agency for the funding for SCP projects in the coming 2014-2015 academic year. As an initial step the agency invited all SCP projects to commence planning for the next cycle of the programme within the available funding parameters. The agency has commenced the detailed process of evaluating and approving the 2014-15 school retention plans for individual projects.

It anticipates that local projects will be notified of the outcome of the process and of their allocations for the 2014-15 year in advance of the start of the new school year. The agency will continue to work closely with local management committees, schools and local school completion programme co-ordinators to assist projects through the process. The potential for any changes in the funding allocated to this programme in future years is a matter to be considered in the Estimates and the budgetary process, having regard to the resources available to the Government.

The Deputy may be aware that a review of the school completion programme has commenced. The review is an important initiative in the planning of the future development of the school completion programme. The objectives of the review are to identify best practice in the provision of support to children and young people to assist their retention in school, to clarify roles and responsibilities in the programme and to build on the valuable learning and experience acquired to date. It is anticipated that the review will assist in identifying the reforms necessary to consolidate the programme on a sustainable footing for the future and to ensure available funds are targeted to those services which provide the greatest contribution to educational outcomes for children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. It is envisaged that the review will be completed during the 2014-15 academic year.

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