I propose to take Questions Nos. 101 and 102 together.
The School Completion Programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to generally improve the school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort. The School Completion Programme is a targeted intervention aimed at those school communities identified through the Department of Education and Skills’ DEIS Action Plan for Educational Inclusion. It involves 124 locally managed projects and related initiatives operating across 470 primary and 224 post-primary schools to provide targeted supports to approximately 36,000 children and young people. The programme's project model approach gives local communities the autonomy to devise innovative approaches to address the needs of young people most at risk of early school leaving. I am happy to acknowledge the ongoing and highly committed work of these individual projects, the staff involved, the partner schools and communities in supporting their target groups of vulnerable students.
Since its establishment on 1 January 2014, the Child and Family Agency has operational responsibility for the School Completion Programme, including the allocation of funds to projects within the programme.
As with all major spending programmes, the School Completion Programme budget was subject to examination under the terms of the 2011 Comprehensive Review of Expenditure. This process identified a requirement for savings of 6.5% per annum across the programme over the period 2012 to 2014. These savings required are reflected in the allocations to the programme in those years. Details of the allocations to the School Completion Programmes in 2012 to 2014 and the savings requirement under the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure, are as follows:
|
Year
|
Annual Allocation
|
Comprehensive Review of Expenditure
Savings
|
|
2012
|
€28.256m
|
€2m
|
|
2013
|
€26.456m
|
€1.8m
|
|
2014
|
€24.756m
|
€1.7m
|
The detailed information the Deputy has sought in relation to the School Completion allocations by county over the past five years is not readily available. The Child and Family Agency has advised that the funding to be allocated to the School Completion Programme in 2015 is being considered in light of the Agency's budgetary strategy in the context of its 2015 overall allocation of €635m.
The Agency further advised that it has completed the detailed process of evaluating and approving the 2014/2015 school retention plans for individual school completion projects as a basis for 2014/15 funding, and the first instalment of funding issued to projects in September 2014. Further instalments will issue in December 2014 and May/June 2015.
The Deputy may wish to note that a review of the School Completion Programme has commenced. It is an important initiative in relation to planning for the future development of the School Completion Programme. It is anticipated that the review will be completed in the 2014/2015 academic year.
