Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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548. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason that nine locations in Dublin, Louth, Bray, Limerick city and Cork were selected as pilots for the ABC programme administered by Tusla; the number that were offered a place in each location from 26 April 2021 to 26 April 2022; the uptake in each location; the year that these locations were chosen; the plans, if any, to expand the programme locations; the plans, if any, to put the programme online; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50277/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is an area-based prevention and early intervention initiative delivered in twelve areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage across the country (locations below). It involves partnership with families, practitioners, communities and national stakeholders to deliver better outcomes for children and families living in areas where poverty is most deeply entrenched.

The ABC Programme was funded jointly by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs between 2013 and 2018. Nine new sites came on board over the period 2014/2015 following extensive evaluations across the three initial programmes in Darndale, Ballymun and Tallaght. The nine new areas were selected based on the levels of deprivation within their defined catchment areas, as well as evidence of inter-agency collaboration and implementation readiness.

Since 2018, my Department has funded the ABC Programme as part of Tulsa’s Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Service. In addition to the ABC Programme, Tusla funds a wide variety of family and parenting support services in all parts of the country.

Currently, my Department is supporting Tusla to scale up proven prevention and early intervention models from the ABC Programme including the Preparing for Life home visiting programme, Early Talkboost language programme and muti-disciplinary Infant Mental Health Networks.

Over the past number of years, all ABC areas had to adapt their service delivery model to ensure continuity of support to the children and families they work with. Many of the parenting programmes were delivered online and home visits, where possible, took place in outdoor settings ensuring public health guidelines were adhered to. Most of the ABC work has now returned to in-person delivery, but some services may maintain a hybrid model of delivery, where this is deemed to best the needs of parents and families.

In the six months from Jan to June 2022, the 12 ABC sites engaged 10,127 parents and 27,274 children in various interventions and 4,474 professionals in training and capacity building work. Tusla has advised that the statistics requested for April 2021 to December 2021 are currently unavailable.