Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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772. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the measures she is taking to support and expand the ABC scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3762/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The ABC Programme commenced in 2013 and is a time-bound co-funding arrangement of €29.7m for the period 2013 to 2017 in conjunction with The Atlantic Philanthropies. Due to contractual arrangements, each of the existing 13 sites are scheduled to come to the end of their contracts at various points throughout 2017. My department secured an additional €4.5million in Budget 2016 to extend all of the existing ABC Programme to the end of December 2017 bringing the total investment to €34.2 million.

A key purpose of the ABC Programme is to identify the learning in and across the ABC sites and to transfer this learning into existing and established services, in order that we can ensure a greater reach and sustained impact in services across the country. The aim of this is to ensure that rather than creating parallel provision, the learning from this programme informs the ongoing reform of established services and supports for children and young people in the areas of Health, Education, and Social Services. Mainstreaming the learning in this way will bring improvements, not only in specific areas, but across the wider system, thereby addressing all areas of disadvantage.

The extension of all sites to the end of 2017 will provide all sites participating in the ABC programme with additional opportunities to evaluate their activities and focus on mainstreaming the interventions and programmes that make a real difference to children’s lives. This extension also brings the existing ABC programme closer in line with the expected timeline for delivery of the national evaluation report in 2018. The purpose of the national evaluation is to assess the impact and implementation of the ABC Programme nationally, which will be crucial in charting future developments.

My department is currently reviewing the emerging learning from the programme in terms of design and implementation. We will utilise these learnings and the findings from the national evaluation to design future community based prevention and early intervention initiatives to meet the Programme for Government commitments.

As another key step in this regard, my department will hold an open policy debate on the existing and emerging learning from the ABC programme. This event will be on 14 February and will include the range of key stakeholders involved in this valuable work.