Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Reilly, who sends his apologies for not being here to debate this important issue.

The aim of the school completion programme is to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and generally to improve school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort. It is a targeted intervention aimed at those school communities identified through the Department of Education and Skills DEIS action plan for educational inclusion. It involves 124 locally managed projects and related initiatives operating across 470 primary and 224 post-primary schools to provide targeted supports to approximately 36,000 children and young people.

Since 1 January 2014, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has operational responsibility for the school completion programme, including the allocation of funds to local projects. The programme is one of three service strands within the continuum of education welfare service being implemented by the agency to support children, their families and schools. The other service strands are the home-school community liaison scheme and the educational welfare service.

In 2014, an allocation of €24.756 million was provided for the school completion programme. The agency has approved local projects' school retention plans for the 2014-15 academic year. The amount provided in 2014-15 for the school completion programme takes account of the savings requirements in the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure 2012-14. The first instalment of 2014-15 funding issued to local school completion projects last September. Further payments, totalling approximately €9.5 million, will issue this month, with a third instalment being paid in May 2015. The estimate for the Child and Family Agency for 2015 is €635 million, which is a 4.3% increase on its 2014 allocation. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs will shortly issue a performance statement under section 45 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. This will include the Minister's priorities for consideration in the development of the agency's 2015 business plan. The business plan will set out the agency's proposed activities, programmes and priorities for 2015, including provision for the school completion programme, in light of the moneys available.

A review of the school completion programme has commenced. The programme has been in operation since 2002 and it is timely that a review of it be undertaken. The review is an important initiative in relation to planning for the future development of the school completion programme. 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 that it is in line with the aims of Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures- the national policy framework for children and young people 2014-2020.

The aim is to ensure that available funds are targeted to those services that provide the greatest contribution to good educational outcomes for children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. The review will, among other things, examine the school completion programme structures and how they can best support an integrated approach to address early school leaving. It will analyse the interventions provided and make recommendations for evidence informed supports designed to secure the best educational outcomes for young people. The plan for the review includes arrangements to capture the views of a range of stakeholders, including staff and all those involved in the organisation and administration of the school completion programme. It includes a survey to gather the views of project co-ordinators and chairpersons of the 124 local school completion programme projects throughout the country, case studies of projects involving staff and participating schools and interviews with national stakeholders who have a direct interest in the programme.

Preliminary information gathered on the programme indicates that it encompasses a broad and diverse range of measures and interventions that have been developed by local projects over the years. It is hoped that following the review we will be in a better position to identify the most successful of these measures and interventions and to share that learning right across the school completion programme to the greater benefit of all the children participating. It is envisaged that the review will be completed during the 2014-15 academic year.

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