James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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563. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to expand the family intervention programme, Preparing for Life, to other parts of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4518/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative, consisting of committed funding for an area-based approach to 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, with a total allocation of €29.7 million being provided between the funders on a matched basis, between 2013 and 2017. A further €1.5 million was provided by DCYA in 2017 to extend the whole ABC Programme to the end of December.

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 to the end of 2017 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 programme elements.

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

In the most recent budget, my Department secured additional funding to extend all of the existing ABC Programme in 2018. My Department has agreed additional funding allocation of just under €1 million (€987,946), for Preparing for Life in order to provide for the extension of the 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.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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564. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her Department has consulted with the Department of Health to use mental health research to help deliver the preparing for life family intervention programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4519/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Preparing for Life Programme is a prevention and early intervention programme delivered by Northside Partnership in North Dublin City (Dublin 5 and 17). It is one of 13 such programmes operating under the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme (2013-2017). Under this programme, Preparing for Life has received over €3.7m in funding. The ABC programme is overseen by an interdepartmental project team which has included representatives from a number of government departments, including the Department of Health.

The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department. The ABC Programme commenced in 2013 and was co-funded for the period 2013 to 2017 with The Atlantic Philanthropies, with a total investment to date of over €31 million. The aim of the programme is to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches in 13 areas of disadvantage in Ireland to improve outcomes for children, in particular children and families living in poverty. As a programme focussed on the use of evidence to improve outcomes, all areas have focussed on existing and emerging research findings to inform their programme delivery.

The focus of the work under the ABC Programme covers: Child Health and Development; Children’s Learning; Parenting; and Integrated Service Delivery.  There is a strong focus on Infant Mental Health across all areas in the ABC Programme.

My Department is in contact with the Department of Health across a number of areas including on the Youth Mental Health Taskforce and in the development of psychological services in Tusla. We use emerging learnings, research and evaluation findings and ongoing discussions 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.