Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, I thank the Senator for raising this matter on the Adjournment. The home-school-community liaison, HSCL, scheme is a major mainstream preventative strategy targeted at pupils at risk of not reaching their potential in the educational system because of background characteristics which tend to affect adversely pupil attainment and school retention. The scheme is concerned with establishing partnership and collaboration between parents and teachers in the interests of children's learning. The guiding principles which underpin the HSCL scheme aim to target the causes of educational underachievement by focusing on the adults whose attitudes and behaviours affect the lives of the children.

Key to the ongoing success of the HSCL scheme is the dedication of HSCL personnel. Co-ordinators act not only as liaison between the schools, teachers, parents and communities but also as advocates of partnership and collaboration as well as drivers of the range of activities that the scheme supports.

Under DEIS, the new action plan for educational inclusion, which is being implemented by the Department of Education and Science, the Department recently announced the provision of 80 new posts to add to the 370 posts already in place to extend home-school-community liaison services to any of the DEIS schools that do not currently have the service. In addition, all schools, including the school to which the Senator has referred, which currently have HSCL service but which have not been included in DEIS, will continue to receive HSCL services after 2006-07.

HSCL services will continue to be provided to some 650 schools — 282 second level and 370 primary schools. However, following a full review of HSCL clustering arrangements by the Department in the coming year, levels of service may be varied in some schools to reflect their levels of disadvantage and size and to facilitate local HSCL co-ordinators working with families of disadvantaged children across both primary and second level. The total cost of the HSCL scheme in 2006 will be in the region of €22.5 million. In line with the Department's commitment to this scheme, the full year allocation will increase to almost €28 million in 2007. This represents an increase of almost 25%.

The entire rationale behind DEIS is to ensure the most disadvantaged schools benefit from all of the available supports. Targeting resources at the most disadvantaged schools that are working to counteract educational disadvantage will continue to be a priority for the Government.