Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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259. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if staff (coordinators and project workers) for School Completion Programme clusters are allocated according to specific criteria; if so, the criteria that determines the number of staff that each School Completion Programme have assigned to it; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23278/26]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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260. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a list of all the School Completion Programme clusters in the country, outlining total population of school children within each cluster and the number of WTE coordinators and WTE project workers assigned to each cluster, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23279/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 259 and 260 together.

The School Completion Programme (SCP) is funded by my department via Tulsa Education Support Service (TESS) and is a central element of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme, a key policy initiative of my department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level, in a targeted and equitable way, across the primary and post-primary sector.

SCP delivers a range of local interventions in disadvantaged communities which support the retention of young people in education. The programme enables local communities to develop tailored strategies to maximise participation levels of those at risk of early school leaving in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people of school-going age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.

All DEIS Post Primary, DEIS Primary Urban Band 1 schools and DEIS Urban Band 2 Primary schools have access to additional supports under the SCP. The programme currently provides supports to around 800 schools, arranged in clusters, referred to as SCP projects. There are 121 projects nationwide and staffing levels vary across projects, dependent on cluster size.

TESS have operational responsibility for the SCP, with local projects operating under the management and direction of a Local Management Committee (LMC). The LMC is responsible for the oversight of the project delivery at local level, including the use of project resources, employment of staff, and accountability for public funds. The LMC determines allocation of staffing within their funding parameters, which will generally include one SCP Coordinator and a complement of a Project Worker(s), as determined by the local SCP.

With regard to the total population of school children enrolled in the participating schools within each cluster, it should be noted that SCP is a targeted support directed at those children and young people most at risk of early school leaving. Officials from my department will contact the Deputy directly once all requested information has been fully compiled.