Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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351. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the way he envisages the role of the school completion programmes within Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, developing in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10405/15]

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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352. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the way the school completion programmes will be funded in the coming years; the reason funding for the programmes has been transferred, over the last few years, from the European Union to the Department of Education and Skills, and is now under the Tusla, the Child and Family Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10406/15]

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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353. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the way he will secure the future of the school completion programmes; and if he will oversee the development and roll-out of the programmes nationally. [10407/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 351 to 353, inclusive, together.

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 young people who are risk of educational disadvantage. The Programme is a targeted intervention aimed at school communities identified through the Department of Education and Skills’ DEIS Action Plan for Educational Inclusion. It provides targeted supports annually to approximately 36,000 children annually.

I am advised that the School Completion Programme programme was funded on a multi-annual basis under the National Development Plan and up to 2007, with assistance from the European Social Fund. In 2006/2007, the School Completion Programme was subsumed into the School Support Programme, under DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) at the Department of Education and Skills.

In May 2009, the remit of the then National Educational Welfare Board was extended to include a co-ordinating role in relation to the School Completion Programme and the Home School Community Liaison Scheme alongside the Board's statutory Educational Welfare Service in order to develop an integrated and model of service to respond to children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage.

When my Department was established in 2011, it was given a remit to lead the development of harmonised policy and quality integrated service delivery for children and young people, to carry out specific functions in the social care field and co-ordinate actions across a range of sectors, including health, education, youth justice, sport, arts and culture in support of improved outcomes for children and young people.

On 1 January 2014, the Child and Family Agency was established as the dedicated State Agency for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children under the remit of my Department. Operational responsibility for the School Completion Programme, including the allocation of funds to local projects was assigned to the Agency from that date. In 2014, an allocation of €24.756 million was provided for the School Completion Programme. The Agency has approved local projects' school retention plans for the 2014/2015 academic year. The first two instalments of 2014/15 funding have been issued to local projects, with a third instalment planned for payment in May 2015.

The objective in incorporating the School Completion Programme into the Child and Family Agency responsibility is to ensure the provision of effective services for children who have difficulties participating in school; to better integrate the educational welfare services with other support services for children and their families and to bring about an increased emphasis on planning, evidence based services and outcome measurement.

The estimate for the Child and Family Agency for 2015 is €631 million, 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 monies available.

A review of the School Completion Programme by the ESRI is almost complete. The review will assist in identifying the reforms necessary to consolidate the programme on a sustainable footing for the future and to ensure that it is line with the aims of Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: the national policy framework for children and young people (2014-2020).

The aim is to ensure that available funds are targeted to those services that provide the greatest contribution to good educational outcomes for children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. The Review has an important contribution to make to these aims and the future development of the school completion programme. It is envisaged that the review will be completed shortly.