Any further cuts to the School Completion Programme could “seriously compromise its viability”, and leave children in crisis situations without support, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has warned.

In a major review of the programme, which is designed to improve the school retention rate while also dealing with at-risk children, the ESRI said the recession had led to a greater complexity of problems for students, including homelessness and parental unemployment.

At the same time, there was a 25 per cent reduction in overall funding for the programme – from €32.9 million in 2008 to €24.7 million for 2015.

This has impacted on the ability of schools to respond to the needs of children with emotional and behavioural problems, including refugee children who are trying to overcome the trauma of fleeing conflict, according to school principles interviewed for the report.

“There appears to be little scope for further cuts in expenditure without seriously compromising the viability of (the programme),” the report states.

“There is a case for rebalancing, and even increasing, funding for those schools serving very complex student needs, urban Band 1 DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) schools and very disadvantaged second-level schools.”

The School Completion Programme (SCP) was set up in 2002, with the aim of increasing the numbers of young people staying in primary and second level, and to boost the senior cycle completion rate.

Over time, however, it evolved to provide broader supports to vulnerable children through in-school, after-school, holiday and out-of-school supports, including counselling in crisis situations.

Since the inception of the programme, “there has been an improvement in primary attendance levels and in rates of retention to Leaving Certificate”, the report says.

While this can’t be attributed to the programme alone, it is “likely to have played an important role” along with other strands of DEIS provision.

Schools participating in the SCP are organised in clusters, and almost all of these (95 per cent) reported ceasing or altering provision in the last three years, the report says.

“In almost all of these cases, provision was ceased largely because of insufficient resources.”

Principals said they had to cut back on homework clubs and after-school programmes. One described how summer programmes had been “completely decimated”, while others cited a loss in specialist therapeutic interventions.

The authors of the report, led by ESRI researcher Prof Emer Smyth, recommend that the future of the programme be evaluated as part of a review of DEIS which has already been instigated by the Department of Education and Skills.

The authors identify a number of strengths of the programme, including its flexibility in supporting children at risk, its impact on changing school culture, its role in gathering important information and its value in providing instant counselling support.

Weaknesses identified include “poor national governance”, fragmented provision and the human resources structure.

The programme's relocation last year from the department to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, which operates under the auspices of the Department of Children, "is a cause of much concern and uncertainty" among interviewees.

“One co-ordinator felt that there used to be greater supports from the national coordination team but that this has been reduced with the move to Tusla and the reduction in funding.”

The School Completion Programme operates in 470 primary schools and 224 post-primary schools, with 124 or local projects, or clusters, employing 248 full-time, 627 part-time and 2,211 sessional and other staff.

Gordon Jeyes, chief executive, Tusla, which had asked the ESRI to undertake the review, said "education is a key strand of our corporate plan, children attending, participating, achieving. Inclusive schools are a vital part of successful early intervention.

“This report points to the excellent work being done by all those involved with SCP in promoting attendance, retention and participation. Tusla is committed to embedding the programme as a significant part of its welfare programme and to improving governance and leadership for SCP at all levels.”

Principal voices: The impact of recession and cuts

“You’re actually playing god and saying okay which of you kids is most disturbed, you know...and like the thing is for the sake of the few thousand it costs to roll out our programme, the State would have no problem in 15 years, 16 years’ time, spending a hundred grand a year keeping them in juvenile detention centres.” - Principal, urban, medium-sized school.

“Some of those students from abroad would have come from Africa and they would have witnessed murders and stuff you know. As a result we have to provide counselling for them for obvious reasons. We’ve had a number of cuts to budget... and that has made a significant impact, negatively, on the provision of counselling, so that’s a really big deal.” - SCP co-ordinator, rural, large-sized cluster.

“We would have some kids, like particularly last year you know, who were moving literally from family to family, with their own family, due to homelessness, and sleeping in a car, coming from a van... and they own nothing.” - Primary principal in urban, medium-sized school.

“Many other agencies with which we would have been involved over the years have either folded, had their own funding cut or simply find that they’re spread so thin that... they’re finding it difficult to keep themselves going.” - Chairperson, urban, small school.

“The increased demands on our services due to the economic recession and subsequent cuts in all state agencies budgets as well has not been recognised… We are not qualified to be social workers and our roles are becoming all encompassing; this cannot be sustained.” - SCP co-ordinator for large rural cluster.

“We would’ve seen that the Traveller pupils were starting to achieve, transfer well and be retained within the secondary school system. Now we see that since the visiting teacher... for Traveller service is gone, those children are going.” - Principal of large, urban school.

“School Completion plays a huge part in [supporting children in crisis]... it’s part of a mesh if you like, you know, it’s like that game of Jenga, you know, where if you pull out one thing and you pull out the wrong one the whole thing collapses.” - Principal, urban, large school.