Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
563. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to expand the family intervention programme, Preparing for Life, to other parts of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4518/18]
View answerThe Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative, consisting of committed funding for an area-based approach to improving outcomes for children, young people, and families, in 13 areas of disadvantage. It was designed as a time-bound and co-funded arrangement between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) and The Atlantic Philanthropies, with a total allocation of €29.7 million being provided between the funders on a matched basis, between 2013 and 2017. A further €1.5 million was provided by DCYA in 2017 to extend the whole ABC Programme to the end of December.
The ABC Programme was preceded by the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) (2007-2013) in which the Preparing for Life Programme, along with two other sites: Youngballymun and the Childhood Development Initiative Tallaght participated. Preparing for Life received €6m as a participant in the PEIP. The total funding for Preparing for Life under the ABC Programme to the end of 2017 is €3.74m, bringing the funding received by Preparing for Life under both programmes to €9.74m.
I welcome the very positive results coming from the evaluation of the Preparing for Life Programme relating to the home visiting and parenting programme elements.
These evaluation findings and associated costs will be informing the consideration of mainstreaming the learning from the ABC Programme. The ABC Programme itself is currently being evaluated. The findings from this national evaluation will be produced in Q2 2018.
In the most recent budget, my Department secured additional funding to extend all of the existing ABC Programme in 2018. My Department has agreed additional funding allocation of just under €1 million (€987,946), for Preparing for Life in order to provide for the extension of the Programme to the end of August 2018, to align with the national evaluation of the ABC Programme.
My Department is working to ensure that we take full account of the learning from all the interventions across the 13 ABC sites, including Preparing for Life, and the national evaluation. We will utilise these learnings to inform the delivery of prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.
