Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, and Tusla, have responsibility for a number of services aimed at supporting parents and families. Updates on each of these are provided below.

Family Resource Centres

In relation to parent and family supports and Family Resource Centres (FRCs), I have witnessed first-hand the positive impacts that FRCs have on the communities that they serve, engaging with vulnerable families, offering services to individuals across the whole life cycle from early years to senior citizens and, crucially, fostering a positive and inclusive community spirit. High levels of activity indicate the scale, value for money, and potential of the national FRC Programme. Many services are delivered at no-cost or at low-cost, to families who otherwise might not be able to access them.

The FRC Programme continually demonstrates its capacity to adapt to changes in demands and improvements in standards. In 2024 this Department announced that it was to fund Clinical and Therapeutic Lead positions in a number of FRCs around the country. We know that the needs of communities can be complex, challenging and ever-changing. The Clinical Lead posts are, I understand, positively impacting on the ability of the FRCs to offer additional supports, and a particular focus is on the development of quality services that are adapted to meet presenting and emerging needs.

On Friday 29th August 2025 I issued a press release welcoming the expansion of the Programme from 121 to 126 members. Funding for the additional five members was secured as part of Budget 2025. The new services are located in Dublin (Cabra), Monaghan (Carrickmacross), Louth (Dundalk), Kildare (Leixlip) and Galway (Tuam). A plan is being put in place to engage the FRC National Forum to assist the new services with integration into the Programme.

This development reflects the Government’s commitment to the growth of the Programme, and is the first expansion of the Programme since 2018. A comprehensive national application and assessment process was undertaken, which was led by Tusla and independently chaired by a representative of the University of Limerick. All applications were reviewed and scored against the clearly defined and published criteria, including population need, level of deprivation, child population data, existing service provision and existing service gaps. Decisions on the successful services were made by the assessment panel.

I wish the various services well as they embark on this new chapter.

Parent Supports

Regarding supports for parents, this Department has responsibility for implementing Supporting Parents; A National Model of Parenting Support Services (2022-2027). The vision of Supporting Parents is for all parents to be confident and capable in their parenting role, helping to achieve the best outcomes for children and families.

The National Model is comprised of 23 individual actions across 4 Goals:

• Goal 1 – greater awareness of parenting support services
• Goal 2 – greater access to parenting support services
• Goal 3 – more inclusive parenting support services
• Goal 4 – needs-led and evidence-informed parenting support services.

Supporting Parents was developed in accordance with a commitment in ‘First 5, a whole of Government strategy for babies, young children and their families (2019-2028)’, to improve and guide the development of parenting support services.

Some priority actions under the National Model for 2025 include the roll out of a Parent Peer Support fund to assist local organisations setting up or expanding peer support activities for parents, the continuation of a communications campaign which aims to destigmatise and make parents more aware of the availability of universal and targeted parenting support services nationally, the mapping of Tusla funded parenting support services nationally to improve signposting to these services by practitioners, the roll-out of pilot Community Based Parenting Hubs and dedicated Parenting Support Advisors in Tusla Network areas, and the development of best practice guidelines for consulting with parents and for parent peer support groups.

Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme

I would also like to mention Tusla’s Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme. This is an area-based Prevention and Early Intervention initiative which is delivered in 12 areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage across the country, through the Prevention Partnership and Family Support Programme within Tusla.

Through prevention and early intervention approaches the Area Based Childhood Programme aims to work in 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 works from a strengths-based approach, harnessing the talents, abilities and capabilities of the family and community. The ABC Programme is a strong example of impactful research, as it has informed the ‘First 5’ Strategy and the Early Years Equal Start Model.

Some key findings, when comparing measures pre- and post-ABC intervention, include:

• Parental mental wellbeing improved.
• Indicators for parent-child secure attachment all trended positive.
• Indicators for parenting competency and confidence all trended positive.
• Children’s communication skills significantly improved.
• Children’s literacy skills significantly improved.
• Children’s socio-emotional wellbeing significantly improved.

A core focus of the ABC Programme has been demonstrating how investment in effective services pre-birth to 6 years can support better long-term outcomes for children and families.

Meitheal and Child and Family Support Networks (CFSNs)

Both Meitheal and the CFSNs are part of Tusla’s integrated response pathway responding to children and families with unmet needs, along the continuum of need. The Child and Family Support Networks, take a localised area-based approach working with key partners in ensuring an integrated, cohesive and consistent approach to working with children and families. The local CFSNs consist of all services that play a role in the lives of children and families in each area. This includes local statutory children and families service providers (e.g., psychology, public health nurses, social work, justice, education and welfare) and local voluntary and community children and families’ services (Family Support Centres, agencies currently funded through the HSE/CFSA children and families services & organisations funded through other sources e.g., Pobal, Department of Education). CFSNs help families experience services as easily as possible in their own area

Meitheal is a Tusla-led early intervention practice model. It is designed to ensure that the strengths and needs of children and their families are effectively identified, understood, and responded to in a timely way so they get the help and support needed to improve children’ outcomes and realise their rights. Meitheal is voluntary and can only be undertaken when the parent/carer agrees to cooperate, engage with, and actively participate in the process.

Home Visiting Hub

A new national Home Visiting Hub has been established within Tusla, working in a collaboration with the HSE to increase the reach of evidenced based Home Visiting Programmes in particular to parents living in areas experiencing disadvantage. The Objectives of the National Home Visiting programme are -

1. Increasing Availability & Accessibility of evidence-based home visiting services nationwide.
2. Ensure integration of home visiting within all community supports available to parents.
3. Improve availability of measurable, disaggregated data to ensure that those who will benefit most are offered and can access home visiting services.
4. Establish appropriate recommended pathways, standards and role requirements for home visitors.
5. Develop consistent approach to data collection across all Home Visiting Services Nationally
6. Develop increased evidence base to inform the development of additional home visiting services, including relative effectiveness of existing programmes and criteria for conditions of their success.

Children and Young People’s Services Committees

The Children and Young People’s Services Committees (CYPSC) are county-level committees that bring together the main statutory, community and voluntary providers of services to children and young people. They provide a forum for joint planning and co-ordination of activity to ensure that children, young people and their families receive improved and accessible services. Their role is to enhance interagency co-operation.

Equal Start

In September 2024, this Department commenced the rollout of Equal Start, a major model of supports to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare.

Equal Start includes a suite of universal, child-targeted and setting-targeted supports to ensure every child, and every early learning and childcare setting will benefit from a continuum of supports that reflects a continuum of need.

Children to benefit from child-targeted supports include children living in disadvantaged areas, Traveller children, Roma children, children availing of the National Childcare Scheme through a sponsor body, children experiencing homelessness and children in the International Protection system.

Equal Start is designed to be developed and rolled out in phases. Services with the highest level of need have been targeted in the early phases. 788 settings (serving 35,000 children - 4,700 from priority cohorts) identified as operating in a context of concentrated disadvantage have been given Equal Start designation and are now receiving additional supports.

Since September 2024, these settings have been receiving funding for additional staff that can be used to support engagement between the settings and families, as well as other child and family support services. Funding also provides early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) to children with higher levels of need.

Other achievements to date include:

• Rollout of the Traveller Parenting Support Programme in 17 Tusla areas, with responsibilities on Family Link Workers to engage with Traveller parents of young children, supporting them to attend and participate in ELC and SAC.
• Appointment of Traveller and Roma Advisory Specialists to work in Better Start to promote inclusive ELC and SAC.
• Roll-out of Early Talk Boost – an intervention for language delay - to settings with a priority designation.
• Development of guidance and supports to support services to participate in inter-agency cooperation such as Meitheal.
• Design of ‘Bia Blasta’, a pre-school Nutrition Programme with rollout to commence in October 2025.
• Tender awarded for the review of the current Inclusion Co-ordinator role and updating of the Leadership for INClusion (LINC) programme.
• It is expected that a tender will be awarded shortly for the review and update of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines and associated training.

Over €17m has been allocated for Equal Start in 2025, which provides a strong foundation for ongoing investment in what is a key policy initiative to support children experiencing disadvantage in accessing and participating fully in early learning and childcare.

I hope that this information is of use to you.