Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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32. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the strands of the summer provision programme in 2021; the details of measures to increase participation on account of exceptional challenges posed by Covid-19; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35108/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In May the Government announced a package of supports to allow primary and post primary schools to offer a summer programme for students with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a COVID-19 pandemic response measure.

This range of programmes offered builds on the success of the expanded programmes that ran last year and incorporates feedback from stakeholders on how to better support the programme for all involved in 2021.

The Department has addressed concerns previously raised by stakeholders by introducing support measures to encourage schools to offer the programme; funding for a Programme Overseer, preparation time, faster payments of staff, ease of administrative burden and greater guidance materials on programme content.

Schools were given autonomy to run programmes at any time over the summer, allowing them to split the weeks to best meet the needs of participating staff and pupils. Schools were also given the opportunity to appeal any element of the resource allocation for the programme.

A home-based summer programme is available for students with complex special educational needswhere there is no school-based programme available. Parents of eligible children may arrange their programme over the school summer holidays. An additional 10 hours has also been made available to pupils who were eligible for the Supplementary Programme but were unable to avail of any hours.

Supporting documentation has been published on www.gov.ie/summerprovision including promotional materials such as posters for parents and videos for schools. A dedicated helpline and email address has also been available to schools since the programme launched.

An online portal for schools to register their interest in participating opened on 20 May. Following consultation with stakeholders, the deadline for schools to register was extended 25 June 2021, to allow more time for them to engage with the materials provided.

The most up to date registration data for the summer programmes is attached.

Registrations for Summer Programme 2021

Post primary (no of schemes being run)

*Note: only 4 schools take part at Post primary as part of an historical pilot.

Primary (number of schemes being run)

*Note (230 schools have registered, 352 schemes are being run as 122 schools are running the camp twice).

Totals

*Note: 844 primary schools have been registered for schemes some have registered for more than one scheme.

Claim forms for the home-based strand are submitted at the end of the programme, with a closing date of 03 September 2021, so participation numbers will not be available until late October/early November.