Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The area based childhood programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department and the Atlantic Philanthropies. It is a time-bound, co-funding arrangement with resources of €29.7 million from 2013 to 2017. It aims to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to improve outcomes for children and families living in poverty in 13 areas of disadvantage and to mainstream in existing services those interventions that have been most effective.

A broad range of interventions have been trialled across all 13 ABC sites and from these, interventions which are supported by the best evidence of impact will be identified and the learning disseminated. My Department committed to aligning all 13 ABC programme grant recipients and ensuring that effective services provided in each area can be supported until mid-2017. We have committed to the provision of an additional €400,000 to each of the three initial sites in Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale, in this context. I know those sites very well in terms of my own professional experience.

I want to ensure that the learning from these effective interventions in the ABC programme is harnessed and mainstreamed into existing services. We are developing plans to enhance prevention and early intervention in children’s services. Future decisions will be informed by an examination of evaluation results already available from previous work, an evaluation currently being undertaken by the Centre of Effective Services and recommendations by a group that is helping to mainstream the learning from the most effective activities. My officials are working to ensure coherent strategic next steps for prevention and early intervention in Ireland. This is an area I have been promoting and committed to for the past 15 years of my professional life.

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