Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 March 2018
389. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the future of the ABC programme; if this programme will be extended; and the way in which her Department plans to continue to meet the needs of the communities that this programme serves. [14867/18]
View answerThe ABC Programme commenced in 2013 and was designed as a time-bound, co-funding agreement led by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in conjunction with The Atlantic Philanthropies (Atlantic), originally in the amount of €29.7m for the period 2013-2017. In late 2016, my Department secured additional funding to ensure that all 13 existing ABC sites remained in contract to the end of December 2017. As at December 2017, the total funding provided to the ABC Programme was €32.76 million (rounded). Of this, DCYA provided €17.91m and Atlantic provided €14.85m.
With the closure of The Atlantic Philanthropies operations in Ireland, DCYA is now the sole funder of the ABC Programme. In last year’s budget, funding was secured to maintain the existing ABC Programme up to the end of 2018.
The ABC Programme is currently being evaluated at a national level, by the Centre for Effective Services (CES). Data has been collected locally, at the area-level, so as to assess the success and effectiveness of the totality of the investment across the five broad outcomes of the Programme (Improved Child Health and Development, Improved Children’s Learning, Improved Parenting, Integrated Service Delivery, and Services embedded in mainstream services). The national evaluation report will be produced later in 2018. However, preliminary findings have been identified and a summary of these made available to the ABC sites.
In November 2017, my Department initiated a process, in consultation with key ABC Programme stakeholders, to consider options for sustaining the work of the ABC Programme within a new vision for a community based prevention and early intervention programme from 2019 and beyond. My Department is working to ensure that we take full account of the learning from all the interventions across the 13 ABC sites, and the national evaluation, in order to inform the delivery of prevention and early intervention initiatives, and to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.
A working group is currently being established to identify how the existing ABC Programme will transition into a new national structure that can build on the achievements to date and strengthen a future community based programme's focus on addressing child poverty and measurably improving specific outcomes for children and young people.
