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

I thank the Deputies for giving me the opportunity to update the House on the supports provided to children and young people by the school completion programme, SCP, in the north Clondalkin area. I will first give Members some background information on the programme. The SCP is a targeted school and community support service. It aims to support keeping young people in education through to the leaving certificate, equivalent qualification or suitable level of educational attainment, which enables them to transition into further education, training or employment. It delivers a range of local interventions in disadvantaged communities and enables those communities to develop strategies which are adapted to maximise the participation levels of those at risk of early school leaving. This involves working with individual young people of schoolgoing age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes. I know from my own experience working in the area of educational disadvantage that factors from outside the educational environment often cause young people to drop out of education.

Some 124 SCP projects are currently running, covering 467 primary schools and 224 post-primary schools. The SCP is a key support under the DEIS programme and is operated by Tusla's educational welfare service, EWS. My Department works with that service to ensure the necessary resources are available to support the programme and ensure that staffing levels are sufficient to deliver a high quality service to those young people most at risk of early school leaving. Currently, the funding available to SCP projects for the 2019-2020 school year stands at €24.7 million. I am pleased to inform the Deputies that I prioritised this service and secured an additional €500,000 in resources in budget 2019, which will be maintained in budget 2020.

Two school completion programmes are currently operating in the north Clondalkin area, namely, the Quarryvale Balgaddy SCP and the Collinstown SCP. A total of €559,765 is allocated to these north Clondalkin SCP projects annually. The educational welfare service of Tusla has informed my Department that there have been no funding cuts to the Quarryvale Balgaddy and Collinstown SCPs, which work with children and young people at risk of early school leaving in north Clondalkin. I assure the Deputies that no cuts to funding are planned. The local management committees of these SCPs and the Get Ahead Club, along with the educational welfare service, participated in and supported a process to resolve governance concerns relating to the SCPs' funding and a third-party arrangement with the Get Ahead Club. All three local groups agreed on a plan dealing with these concerns in order to allow SCP funding to continue to meet the needs of local children and young people who want to attend, participate in and complete their education. This process has ensured that the total available budget of €559,765 is effectively used to meet the needs of those most vulnerable to leaving school early and not meeting their potential in the communities of north Clondalkin. Tusla EWS has no funding responsibility for other services being provided through the Get Ahead Club, such as community employment schemes. I am confident that the hard work being carried out by SCPs in the area will continue to have a positive impact on the lives of the young people they support.

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