Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

658. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on the preparing for life programme; her plans to extend it further; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21408/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative consisting of committed funding for an area-based approach to reducing inter-generational child poverty by improving outcomes for children, young people and families in 13 areas of disadvantage. It was designed as a time-bound and co-funded arrangement between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) and The Atlantic Philanthropies (Atlantic), with a total allocation of €29.7 million being provided between the funders on a matched basis between 2013 and 2017.

The ABC Programme was preceded by the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) (2007-2013) in which the Preparing for Life Programme, along with two other sites: Youngballymun and the Childhood Development Initiative Tallaght participated. Preparing for Life received €6m as a participant in the PEIP. The total funding for Preparing for Life under the ABC Programme is €3.74m, bringing the funding received by Preparing for Life under both programmes to €9.74m.

I welcome the very positive results coming from the evaluation of the Preparing for Life Programme relating to the home visiting and parenting programmes elements, and am aware that a cost study is being carried out at present.

These evaluation findings and the associated costs will be key in informing the consideration of mainstreaming the learning from the ABC Programme. The ABC Programme is itself currently being evaluated. The findings from this national evaluation will be produced in Q2 2018.

In budget 2016, my Department secured additional funding of €4.5m to extend all of the existing ABC Programme to the end of December 2017. The current contract for Preparing for Life was due to conclude in August 2017. My Department has agreed additional funding allocation of €5,843 to extend this contract to the end of December 2017. It is the intention of my Department to seek additional funding in this year's estimates process, to extend the ABC Programme to the end of August 2018 to align with the national evaluation of the ABC programme.

My Department is working to ensure that we take full account of the learning from all the interventions across the 13 ABC sites, including Preparing for Life, and the national evaluation. We will utilise these learnings to inform the delivery of prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.