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

The school completion programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to generally improve the school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort. It is a targeted intervention aimed at those school communities, identified through the DEIS action plan for educational inclusion run by the Department of Education and Skills. 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 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.

Three school completion programme projects operate across Waterford city and county, namely, Waterford SCP which encompasses Ballybeg Community Education Project, Na Siúire SCP and Dungarvan SCP. Between the three projects, they were allocated €775,380 for the academic year 2011-12, €724,933 in 2012-13, €698,904 in 2013-14, and €635,000 in 2014-15.

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 2012-14. The first two instalments of the 2014-15 funding have issued to local projects, with a third instalment planned for 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. My Department has recently issued a performance statement to the agency under section 45 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. This 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 light of the moneys available. I have advised the agency of my commitment to ensuring that there is no diminution in the school completion programme services.

A review of the school completion programme is under way. It is being carried out by the ESRI and will include a review of the governance and delivery structures of the programme. The review will assist in identifying the reforms necessary to consolidate the programme on a sustainable footing for the future.

The review will, among other things, examine the structures of the school completion programme, 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 review will 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 the school completion programme encompasses a broad and diverse range of measures and interventions that have been developed by local projects over the years. The review will aim to capture learning from the most successful of these. Another aim is to ensure that 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 is expected to be completed shortly.