Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she can confirm or provide a timeline for when the school completion programme and the home school community liaison scheme will return to the remit of the Department of Education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9184/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Completion Programme (SCP) and the Home School Community Liaison scheme (HSCL) along with the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) form the three strands of Tusla Education Support Service (TESS). These three strands work together collaboratively with schools, families and other relevant services to achieve the best educational outcomes for children and young people. TESS is under the remit of my Department and my Department provides the funding for all three strands of TESS.

DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level.

The Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme is an integral element of the DEIS programme. It is a school-based intervention that seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services. A HSCL Coordinator is a teacher, who is released from teaching duties, for a maximum of five years, in order to work intensively with and support parents/guardians. The overarching goal of the HSCL Coordinator is to improve educational outcomes for children through their work with the key adults in the child’s life. HSCL continue to be employed by the Board of Management of the school or by the Education and Training Board during their assignment to the HSCL role.

My Department issued circular 0016/2019 "Home School Community Liaison Scheme: Assignment of HSCL Coordinators within DEIS schools". This informs all DEIS Urban Primary and DEIS Post Primary school management and staff regarding the process for assigning teachers as HSCL Coordinators, as well as outlining the attributes required for the HSCL post and the job description/role of the HSCL Coordinator. The contents of the circular were agreed with teacher unions and management bodies.

The School Completion Programme (SCP) is funded by my Department via TESS. SCP is a central element of DEIS and delivers a range of local interventions in disadvantaged communities that support the retention of young people in education. The programme enables local communities to develop tailored strategies to maximise the participation levels of those at risk of early school-leaving in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people of school-going age and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.

There are currently 122 school completion projects with local management committees. At present, management of the school completion programme initiatives and employment of staff generally occurs at local level.