Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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637. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide an update on the implementation of the national early years access initiative and the area-based childhood ABC programme. [28292/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI) is a collaborative partnership between The Atlantic Philanthropies, Mount Street Club Trust, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Early Years Education Policy Unit (DES) and Pobal, who provide from a Governance, management and administration role to the initiative.

The NEYAI aims to improve quality and practice within early years services for children (0-6 years) and their families living in disadvantaged areas. It does this through interagency collaboration and by developing innovative community-based models to respond to local needs. NEYAI works across a number of thematic areas with a strong focus on Síolta - the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (CECDC, 2006) and Aistear - the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (NCCA, 2009). Both of these are seen as fundamental to the growth and development of quality in the provision of early years care and education. The rights of the child are the primary focus of NEYAI, as it aims to ensure that each child is given the opportunity to reach his or her full potential and that obstacles to the realisation of this goal can be addressed in policy and practice.

All projects are now moving into their final phase of implementation and are exploring legacy, sustainability and related dissemination activities to ensure policy engagement, in conjunction with the NEYAI Learning Community and at individual-project level.

The NEYAI Initiative is now coming to a close, but the Projects have different end dates – two concluded in April, four will conclude in July and five in August.

On the 23 of May last, the NEYAI National Conference presented the final NEYAI National Evaluation report. The findings from both the national evaluation report and each of the projects local evaluations will be taken into account, as part of the development of the National Early Years Quality Support Service. This new national initiative will be a dedicated service provided on a national basis. The objective of the National Early Years Quality Support Service is to enhance the quality of practice in early childhood care and education settings and developing their capacity to provide high quality early education and care experiences for children and their families, This will be achieved by effective coordination of state funded support services available to this sector, one of which will be a new specialist support service. A recruitment process for a National Manager for this service is currently underway.

Area-Based Childhood (ABC) Programme

The Area-Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is an innovative initiative announced in the Programme for Government which will run from 2013 – 2016. It reflects the Government’s commitment to adopt an area-based approach to help reduce child poverty by improving outcomes for children.

The ABC programme targets investment in evidence-informed interventions to improve the long-term outcomes for children and families living in areas of disadvantage. It aims to break “the cycle of child poverty within areas where it is most deeply entrenched and where children are most disadvantaged, through integrated and effective services and interventions”in the areas of child development, child well-being, parenting and educational disadvantage.

The ABC Programme is being jointly funded by my Department and Atlantic Philanthropies. The total amount of funding available in the period 2013-2016 will be €29.7m.

50 applications, from among the most disadvantaged areas of the State, were received from consortia wishing to participate in the ABC Programme. On 27 November last my Department announced that 13 areas had been approved for entry into the new ABC Programme these included the three existing projects which participated in the forerunner Prevention and Early Intervention programme (PEIP) in Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale which had already been approved for entry into the new ABC Programme.

Pobal and the Centre for Effective Services are managing the programme on behalf of my Department and Atlantic Philanthropies. Four sites have recently been ‘fast tracked’ and are ready to proceed to contract stage. The remaining sites have been asked to submit further proposals. The overall aim is to have all of the new sites contracted by end 2014.