Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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68. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans for the evaluation of outcomes from the ABC programme; the arrangements being made for the future funding of the work being done with vulnerable children and their families through the programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7017/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The ABC programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department. The programme commenced in 2013 and was designed as a time-bound co-funding arrangement for the period 2013 to 2017 in conjunction with the Atlantic Philanthropies.

The aim of the ABC Programme is to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to improve outcomes for children, and families living in poverty in 13 areas of disadvantage. The ABC programme is currently being evaluated by the Centre for Effective Services.

Data is being collected locally at the Area-level so as to assess the success and effectiveness of the totality of the investment across the five broad outcomes of the Programme.

Three national programme outcomes concern the achievement of outcomes for individual children and their parents participating in ABC-funded services:

I. Improved child health and development;

II. Improved children’s learning;

III. Improved parenting.

The remaining two outcomes are concerned with achieving systems change among service providers:

I. Integrated service delivery;

II. Services embedded in mainstream services.

The national evaluation is focussing on three core evaluation questions:

1. How did the outcomes for children and families in ABC Areas change?

2. To what extent did the ABC Programme make progress in implementing evidence-informed programmes and approaches in the ABC Areas?

3. What costs were associated with the services provided under the ABC Programme?

The final national evaluation report will be produced in 2018. However, preliminary analysis of initial outcomes data indicates promising impact.

A key purpose of the ABC programme is to identify the learning across the sites and transfer this learning into existing and established services. In budget 2016, my Department secured an additional €4.5 million to extend all of the existing ABC programme to the end of December 2017, bringing the total investment to €34.2 million. This extension also brings the existing programme closer in line with the expected timeline for delivery of the national evaluation report in 2018. We will utilise the learning from the programme and the findings from the national evaluation to inform the design of prevention and early intervention initiatives that comprehend the Programme for Government commitments.

I look forward to the continued engagement of all ABC sites with my department in 2017 as we work towards the implementation of quality prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.