Written answers

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Child Poverty

Photo of Sandra McLellanSandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs when the next phase of the ABC project will commence and be rolled out. [25658/15]

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme (2013-2016) is an innovative prevention and early intervention initiative consisting of committed funding for an area-based approach to helping to improve outcomes for children and thereby impacting on child poverty. The programme builds on and continues the work of the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) 2007-2013 which was co-funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) and The Atlantic Philanthropies (AP).

The ABC Programme targets joint investment of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and The Atlantic Philanthropies of €29.7m in evidence-informed interventions to improve the long-term outcomes for children and families living in disadvantaged areas. 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 currently being evaluated under the guidance of an Expert Advisory Group. The evaluation adopts a shared measurement framework across all ABC programme sites. The evaluation will consider the implementation and cost of programmes, and crucially how the outcomes for children and families in ABC areas have changed during the course of the programme.

In parallel with the evaluation of the ABC programme my Department has established a task-focused group to examine how best to mainstream the learning from the ABC programme in the domains of policy and provision to improve outcomes for children and young people. This Task Group comprises representatives of the ABC sites and will explore how the mainstreaming of the learning from effective evidence-informed approaches can best be progressed. It is anticipated that the group will provide a succinct discussion paper outlining feasible options relating to the mainstreaming of learning for the consideration of the ABC Interdepartmental Project Team in the last quarter of 2015.

Outputs from both of these processes will be key to informing considerations regarding the mainstreaming of learning emerging from the ABC programme.

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