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

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. As she rightly said, the school completion programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to improve the school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort generally. 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, the Child and Family Agency has had operational responsibility for the school completion programme, including the allocation of funds to local projects. In 2014, an allocation of €24.756 million has been provided for the school completion programme. The programme is one of three service strands within the continuum of education welfare service being implemented by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to support children, their families and schools. The other service strands are the home-school-community liaison scheme and the educational welfare service.

The agency has approved local projects' school retention plans for the 2014-15 academic year. The amount provided for 2014-15 for the school completion programme takes account of the savings requirements in the comprehensive review of expenditure for 2012 to 2014. The first two instalment of 2014-15 funding issued to local projects in September and December, and a third instalment is due in May 2015.

The Estimate for the Child and Family Agency for 2015 is €631 million, a 4.3% increase on its 2014 allocation.

The Department recently issued a performance statement to the agency under section 45 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. It includes my 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 the light of the moneys available. A review of the school completion programme has commenced. The review is an important initiative in planning for the future development of the 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 it is in line with the aims of Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the national policy framework for children and young people 2014-20.

The aim is to ensure available funds are targeted at 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 and formal 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 in interviews with national stakeholders who have a direct interest in the programme.

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