I thank the joint committee for this opportunity to be here today and to talk about the work of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in this important area. It is the first time the new Department has appeared before this committee and we are delighted to be here. We believe we have a work programme which is relevant to the work of the committee and which we would like to share with it.
The origin of the Department is relatively recent with its formal establishment having taken place in July 2011. Deputy Frances Fitzgerald is our Minister and she was appointed to a senior Ministry in Cabinet, and the first Department of Children and Youth Affairs was established, with legal form, in July 2011. A number of core elements of Departments, which I will briefly set out, are brought together in the new Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The first is the functions of the previous Office of the Minister for Children, which had a range of work, including research, participation, child care, child protection and welfare, youth affairs - responsibility for which has originally come from the Department of Education and Skills - and a focus on innovation. That was the work that came from the Office of Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Responsibility for elements of the Irish Youth Justice Service came from the Department of Justice and Equality. Responsibility for the Family Support Agency came from the former Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs and responsibility for the National Educational Welfare Board came from the Department of Education and Skills. So there were four elements that came together from different places, and the task now is to bring those together in the context of the mandate, function and role of the new Department.
In addition to its own functions, the Department has staff from the Department of Education and Skills dealing with early years policy and staff from the Department of Justice and Equality dealing with the Garda diversion programmes. Those staff are co-located at the departmental headquarters in Mespil Road. It is an unusual structure but one we have found to be very successful in improving dialogue between Departments and outcomes for children and young people.
The mandate of the Department is to put in place a unified framework of policy, legislation and provision across Government in respect of children, young people and their families. Our recently published statement of strategy defines our vision, values and objectives and sets out our mission, which is to lead the effort to improve outcomes for children and young people. It is interesting, in this context, to note that in addition to the direct services the Department provides, it also has a role in aligning and harmonising policy on children across the Government. The statement of strategy was published recently and is on our Department's website.
To focus on what I know the committee is interested in - that is, disadvantage - the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is committed to supporting children and young people from socioecononomically disadvantaged backgrounds through a variety of formal and informal services. I will not go through all of the objectives in the statement of strategy, but I will draw the committee's attention to one in particular, which states that the high-level objective of the Department is to support children and young people so they can fully engage in active learning, including through the provision of high-quality early childhood care and education and youth services and addressing issues of school attendance and participation. I hope I have outlined satisfactorily the structure, role and key objectives of the Department in this area.
One of the core principles of the Department is that its policy should be evidence-based, and we have a major investment in research. Almost uniquely across Departments, we have a dedicated research team which, in addition to doing direct research work, is responsible for drawing up and putting in place a research and data strategy on children across the Government. This is quite an important development. Also, the Department is responsible for funding and managing the Growing Up in Ireland study, with which I am sure many members are familiar.
What do we know about children in Ireland? We know some quite important things. We know that children in Ireland are more likely than children in other countries to have friends and to spend time with them, to be happy and to take vigorous physical exercise, and they are slightly less likely to smoke regularly compared with children from many other countries. The vast majority of children and young people in Ireland are healthy, and there has been a notable decrease in both infant and child mortality rates over the last few years. There are, however, some areas of concern, such as the level of respiratory problems, obesity and mental health problems. I have a long list of facts here, but I want to point out that children in Ireland are doing well educationally compared with their peers internationally, although recent reports, as members know, suggest that literacy and numeracy levels have decreased. In summary, there are a number of areas in which children and young people in Ireland are doing well compared with their peers internationally, but there are significant areas of concern which continue to emerge and persist. The role of the Department is to be a major player in leading the effort to reinforce positive gains made to date and improve outcomes for children and young people.
Against that background, what are the key programmes and strategies the Department is delivering? The first is early years intervention, because all of the research shows that prevention and early intervention are far more effective than any remediation that takes place at a later date. There is a particular focus on improving outcomes for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The universal preschool year, which we know as ECCE, the early childhood care and education programme, was introduced in 2010 and has been hugely successful. Some 94% of children in the age cohort between three and four participate in the scheme, which is a significant achievement for a programme that is so new, and underlines the value that Irish parents place on access to education. It is a major achievement. We know also that children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit particularly from early intervention, and that is another reason we are pleased with the very high take-up. Despite the economic situation, funding for that programme was increased for 2012 to allow for changes in demographics. In addition, there are two other schemes under which the Department supports less well-off parents, by subsidising child care and also by paying for child care for eligible students on VEC and FÁS courses. There is a strong and integrated framework for early years and child care in place at the moment.
Another area in which the Department has been active with regard to early years is by funding, jointly with some philanthropic organisations, a number of early interventions under the PEIP or prevention and early intervention programme. I am sure many members will be familiar with this. The programme, which is co-funded, takes place at three main sites: Tallaght, Darndale and Ballymun. The five-year pilot programmes are due to conclude over the next 12 months. The Department will evaluate lessons from the programmes to inform policy development on a more widespread basis. Final evaluation reports are being submitted; we have some already and we have a timetable for submission of the remainder. We have a structure to distil the key messages emerging from the prevention and early intervention programme, which are of a high-quality international standard. What we are trying to do is to understand the key messages so that we can feed them into the mainstream universal services. It is quite an important agenda for change.
A second major area for the Department is youth projects. We have two main areas of responsibility for formal and informal education services, if I may make that distinction. Our youth affairs unit, which, as I said, was previously in the Department of Education and Skills, deals with out-of-school activities - I will come back to that in a moment - and the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, deals with school attendance and supporting young people in remaining at school. It is notable that in 2012 State funding for these areas totalled €112 million, which is quite a substantial investment despite the reality that there have been cutbacks over the last number of years.
I will briefly outline the programme of policies and strategies that exist with regard to youth services. The object of the exercise is to provide effective, non-formal education and developmental opportunities for young people. We have a budget of almost €57 million for this area in 2012. There are a number of schemes, which I will not go into in detail, but they include the youth service grant scheme, the special projects for youth scheme and the young people's facilities and services fund. There is a major programme of policy and resource allocation and activity taking place under this scheme, which represents the major aspect of support for the informal youth service. Youth work programmes and services are delivered to more than 1.2 million young participants in the various programmes by some 1,100 youth workers. Importantly, there is also a volunteer base of more than 60,000. Our key focus is on the promotion of quality. We have rolled out the national quality standards framework for youth work and standards for local youth groups. The emphasis is very much on supporting activity in that sector through a standards-based approach. We envisaged the creation of a wider policy framework over the next 18 months by developing a dedicated youth strategy.
The last thing I want to mention is the work of the NEWB, which is highly relevant to the work of this committee. Responsibility for the NEWB transferred to the new Department last year, and we continue to work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills, as this is very much a shared agenda. The Department's action plan for educational inclusion, delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, is at the heart of that. It brings together a range of school-based supports aimed at improving educational outcomes in almost 900 target schools. It is our core policy instrument to address educational advantage. It gives us an emphasis on target setting and measurement of progress and outcomes. It provides a single integrated school support programme, of which the school completion programme and home-school liaison delivered by the NEWB are central elements.
I want to bring two key elements of the NEWB to the attention of the committee. It is a statutory national body responsible for encouraging and supporting regular school attendance. The Department has responsibility for the board but it is an autonomous body and questions regarding the detail of its work can be answered by the board. Its mission is to work to ensure children, families and schools and the respective interrelationships are supported. Its statutory remit includes advising on assisting schools, children and parents of children who have attendance or behavioural issues. Each year the education and welfare service works with between 8,000 and 10,000 children and their families. There is a significant amount of work and contacts across a range of areas, children and families.
The original structure was the educational welfare aspect, school completion and home-school liaison, which were all separate. In May 2009, the board was tasked with developing an integrated service and bringing the elements together so that it is capable of responding to the issues that have an impact on attendance, participation and attention. The key theme is one child, one team from the NEWB and one plan. The staff of the NEWB are working towards a seamless service from the perspective of the child and the family. This is a major change process being led by Ms Clare Ryan, the chief executive officer of the NEWB. She is working with her colleagues to introduce a more integrated and streamlined approach focused on the individual child. The board expects to introduce the new service model for the next academic year, 2012-13. This integrated education support service will draw on the skills, expertise and knowledge of all the combined services, including the 408 home-school liaison co-ordinators, which is a significant resource, approximately 250 school completion programme project workers and the 93 staff in the educational welfare service. It is a significant resource and one that will be able to provide an excellent integrated service as the new service model is rolled out.
Committee members are familiar with the school completion programme but it is worth focusing on because it is a major intervention in disadvantage. It supports 124 projects and related initiatives operating in 472 primary and 225 post-primary schools. There is considerable reach across the country and into areas of significant disadvantage. It aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle or equivalent and generally to improve the quality of participation and educational attainment. Each project is managed by a local management committee and provides a tailored programme. Its reach is approximately 38,000 targeted children and young people across the country at risk of early school leaving. It is a highly developed programme.
The NEWB will also integrate the valuable home-school community liaison scheme, with which members are familiar. It is a school-based preventative strategy targeting children and young people at risk. The scheme focuses directly on the adults in children's lives, takes a wider view of the context in which children lead their lives and focuses on encouraging greater contact between teachers, parents and local voluntary and statutory groups to tackle local issues. It is a valuable and important initiative.
The research tells us there have been demonstrable improvements under DEIS with the introduction of additional supports. Given the scarcity of resources, it is important to ensure scarce resources are effectively targeted. I thank the Chairman for bearing with me. The formation of the Department provides an opportunity to improve the educational outcomes for children and young people and, by extension, the social and economic strength of our community. Many of the challenges we face as a new Department relate to the inherent challenge of change itself. Our responsibilities must be brought together for the first time, giving us an opportunity to look at quality and availability of provision, at fragmentation, duplication and gaps, and giving us a focus and mandate to examine service provision from the perspective of young people and families. Although it is challenging, it is also a significant opportunity. We have an opportunity to align a significant resource so that our services better meet the needs of children, young people and families. We will continue to work to improve services.
