Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated additional cost of expanding the Creative Schools programme to every secondary school in the State. [24571/23]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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303. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding spent by her Department on the Creative Schools programme every year since 2017; the breakdown by current and capital spending; and a list of each participating school each year, and the amount received. [24572/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 and 303 together.

I propose to take PQs 24571/23 and 24572/23 together.

Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Youth Plan, supporting schools to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. It is one of a number of programmes within Creative Youth, which also includes other flagship creative programmes for schools which are supported and led by my Department, including BLAST and Creative Clusters.

Since 2018, Creative Schools has supported schools over two years to develop and implement a bespoke Creative Schools plan. It is led by the Arts Council in partnership with my Department and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Access to the initiative is open to all Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools (currently 3,958 according to published figures www.gov.ie/en/collection/63363b-data-on-individual-schools/), in addition to Youthreach centres (www.etbi.ie/youthreach/youthreach-directory-contacts/).

Each school participating in the initiative is provided with a Creative Schools operating grant of €4,000 in total over the two years. Each school is also provided with access to a trained Creative Associate, a school coordinator and voice of the child training. In 2020 the Arts Council was awarded additional funding from the July Stimulus Package announced by Government, designed to directly support those negatively impacted by Covid-19. The Arts Council agreed to award additional funding to all participating schools of €1,100.

For the 2022 intake, four schools joined the programme that are based in non-mainstream settings, attached to Special Care Units or Children Detention Centres. Given the particular needs of these settings and the young people within them, they were offered an enhanced package of supports to include greater allocated time with a Creative Associate and an increased grant of €8,000 each over the two years.

In the five rounds from 2018 to 2022, a total number of 1,433 schools and Youthreach Centres have applied to participate in Creative Schools. Over 830 schools and Youthreach centres have been invited to participate during this time, details of which are available by year on the Arts Council website here: www.artscouncil.ie/generic_content.aspx?id=59340

The following table outlines the breakdown of funding spent by my Department on the Creative Schools programme since 2018:

Creative Schools is available to all schools, including primary. Any further scaling up would require a re-consideration of the most feasible model of delivery.