Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 March 2017
21. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the impact that the recent Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, announcements will have on the work that is being carried out with young persons in the school completion programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14938/17]
View answerI ask the Minister to indicate the impact the recent DEIS announcements will have on the work that is being done with young people in the schools completion programme and if she would make a statement on the matter. This is particularly in regard to schools where the DEIS status has been taken away and one school in County Kildare which I will give details of.
First, I want to welcome the publication of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools plan 2017. The DEIS plan aims to achieve a more robust assessment framework for identifying schools and allocating resources. It also seeks to support best practice in schools through inter-agency collaboration. The educational welfare service of Tusla will be very important in this regard. The implementation of these and other key goals in the plan will lead to an improved learning experience and outcomes for pupils attending DEIS schools.
The educational welfare service of Tusla, officials from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Education and Skills will be meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the inclusion in the school completion programme of schools that have been included in the DEIS programme for the first time in 2017. The group will also examine schools that are currently in the school completion programme but do not have DEIS status. Following these meetings, proposals will be developed and given to me for consideration. I anticipate that any changes that may result from this process will not come into effect until September 2018 at the earliest. In this regard, the educational welfare service has confirmed that no changes are planned in relation to the school completion programme for the 2017-18 school year. No new schools are entering or leaving the programme.
The Department of Children and Youth Affairs continues to work with the educational welfare service to implement the recommendations of the Economic and Social Research Institute report on the school completion programme and to make sure that children and young people get the best outcome possible for our investment. Tusla has taken a number of actions to address the findings of that report and to strengthen the operation of the programme for the future.
I am strongly committed to the continued support and development of the school completion programme. I believe that the new DEIS plan will play a valuable role in that regard.
I thank the Minister for her response. I note that she welcomes the delivery of the report and all the positive aspects that DEIS status can bring to a school. It is therefore even more concerning when DEIS status is taken from a school.
I recently asked the Minister about the very difficult situation in Kildare where not one school received a new status. The Minister assured me that DEIS status would not be taken from any school there. In early March, one of the schools in my constituency, Kildare community school, was informed by letter from the Department that its DEIS status would be taken from it. I have tried to raise this under Topical Issues since then. There is an anomaly that the school completion programme is with Tusla and the two cross over, which is why I only have the opportunity to raise it with the Minister. I ask that this issue be raised when officials from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs meet with those of the Department of Education and Skills.
There are 880 students in Kildare community school. More than 250 of them are expected to avail of various DEIS supports available. Of the students, 60% come from DEIS primary schools. It is a great school but it is dependent on extra supports from the DEIS scheme.
The school and the community are making great efforts in that regard. The letter I received from the Department states that the school completion programme, as well as the home-school liaison scheme, will be taken from the school. That is not good enough, and I want the Minister to ask the Minister for Education and Skills to reverse that decision.
I am indicating in my answer that, as we move forward, it is not necessarily the case that DEIS and school completion will be coupled. I am saying we need to look at that again, in light of the DEIS review, its focus and its reform. I am not saying that we will necessarily decouple but the case the Deputy has put to me, and the Minister for Education and Skills also, needs to be listened to in general. In terms of the particular case, however, I will bring the Deputy's concerns to the Minister for Education and Skills as, clearly, it is within his remit.
I compliment the school completion programme, which has been in existence for over 15 years since Fianna Fáil introduced it. It has been identified as a model of best practice by the European Union and the OECD as a targeted programme that increases retention rates in schools and reduces educational disadvantage. However, I understand that its budget has been reduced and that there may be plans to reduce it further. Is the Minister committed to reversing the resource cuts to school completion programmes across the country? Will she instruct Tusla to restore the programme's educational focus? There are reports that the Department intends to downgrade the programme. I want the Minister to assure those of us in this House, and the people in the community, that this programme will be consolidated as a proactive, preventative programme rather than a reactive one. I believe it should come under the remit of the Department of Education and Skills as opposed to Tusla. I appreciate that the Minister will make the Minister for Education and Skills aware of the argument concerning the community school in Kildare but there are wider issues around it also.
To be perfectly clear, there were no funding cuts regarding the school completion programme 2014-2015 allocation of €24.7 million. Tusla has confirmed that the funding this year is €24.756 million and that there has been no cut in funding for the year 2016-17. I am not sure where the Deputy is getting that information from and I am not clear on her concerns about the scaling back of this kind of programme. The opposite is the case. In terms of school completion, the ambition is to engage in major reform. That is already taking place in terms of the response of the education and welfare service with a director, who I had the opportunity to meet because of my own concerns in this regard, responding line by line to the different recommendations from the ESRI report to make it even more effective. That is the first phase with regard to our commitment to the school completion programme.
The next question, No. 22, is in the name of Deputy Bríd Smith. Deputy Smith is not present.
