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Minister for Education Norma Foley TD today welcomed the publication of the 2022 Dormant Accounts Action plan, including funding of €2 million to support learners impacted by educational disadvantage.
Money in the Dormant Accounts Fund can be used to fund measures that address economic, social, or educational disadvantage and to support people with a disability. The 2022 Action Plan allocates funding of €55.5 million to 42 measures to be delivered across 10 Government Departments.
Minister Foley said:
“I am delighted to welcome publication of the 2022 Dormant Accounts Action Plan. For the first time, it is providing almost €2 million to address education disadvantage.
“In 2022 my Department will oversee seven measures using this funding. Two projects will address Traveller and Roma education disadvantage.
“A new initiative aimed at supporting the transition of post-primary level students with special education needs to employment, training and further study will commence. Further projects aim to promote civic and social innovation amongst young people, provide opportunities to develop entrepreneurship skills and to support the education needs of young people aged between 13 and 18 who are newly-arrived in Ireland.
“An existing joint pilot programme with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as part of the North East Inner City initiative in Dublin in 10 primary schools to address the impact of poverty on educational attainment will continue under this scheme.
“The value of these opportunities for these learners cannot be overstated. It is my hope and that of my colleagues in Government that they will provide lasting benefits in their lives.”
The measures that will be delivered by the Department of Education with funding from the 2022 Dormant Accounts Fund Action Plan are:
• €300,000 for the Foróige Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) programme to provide opportunities to 10-18 year olds to develop and apply entrepreneurial skills
• €180,000 for the Young Social Innovators Growing Youth Participation & Innovation in Irish Communities project to promote civic and social innovation amongst young people in Ireland
• €115,000 for the City of Dublin ETB Migrant Integration Project providing a range of targeted education interventions for newly arrived migrants aged 13 to 18 impacted by significant periods of disrupted education and for those with low levels of English
• €400,000 for the City Connects project with DCEDIY to continue the NEIC pilot project in 10 primary schools aimed at addressing the impact of poverty on educational attainment.
• €400,000 for the Traveller and Roma Education Fund to support projects at a local level to tackle education disadvantage relating to Traveller and Roma communities.
• €100, 000 to support Traveller education transitions between various stages to support greater attendance levels, participation and retention in education
• €500,000 to support the transition of post primary level students with special education needs to employment, training or further study.
ENDS
Department of Education Measures
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Programme – €300,000
The Foróige NFTE Programme aims to engage young people (10-18 year olds) who are experiencing adversity and disadvantage to develop core skills in business and enterprise by providing them with opportunities to develop and apply entrepreneurial skills in both a school and non-school environment.
The programme focuses primarily on DEIS schools and disadvantaged contexts. Since 2004, over 23,700 young people have been involved in the initiative across the island of Ireland. It is currently delivered in 23 counties across Ireland. In the academic year 2020/21 5,000 young people participated in the programme, supported by over 180 trained teachers, youth workers and volunteers. Foróige developed the training and resources to online provision, recruited and trained 90 new teachers and a total of 10,000 young people completed the programme online during the pandemic.
Young Social Innovators (€180,000)
Young Social Innovators (YSI) is a not-for-profit education body that promotes civic and social innovation amongst young people in Ireland via schools.
This project, Growing Youth Participation & Innovation in Irish Communities, aims to enable a cohort of Local YSI leaders to adopt a regional development approach and create and support area-based clusters of school communities, each consisting of an average of 5 individual schools. The YSI local leaders recruit the schools, create the clusters, provide training, build in-school capacity, facilitate shared learning and address local needs, both rural and urban.
It aims to bring YSI programmes to 50 per cent of second level schools in Ireland by 2023 and in so doing, increase youth participation in civic and social innovation in Ireland at an unprecedented scale each year to circa 15,000 pa by 2023.
Migrant Integration Project (€115,000)
The Migrant Integration Project is part of the CDETB’s Youth and Education Service (YES) for Refugees and Migrants.
The project offers a range of targeted education interventions for newly arrived migrants aged 13 to 18 who have low levels of English language proficiency and significant periods of disrupted education, or complete absence of formal schooling. The programme’s main intervention is the Migrant Access Programme (MAP) with core modules of English, Maths, basic IT, and Life-skills.
City Connects – (€400,000)
City Connects is a Dublin-based innovative partnership between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Department of Education and is a priority action outlined in Dublin’s North East Inner City (NEIC) Strategic Plan 2020-2022 and supported as part of the NEIC Initiative (www.neic.ie) The pilot was formally launched in the 10 NEIC primary schools with an approximate student population of 1,800 children in September 2020
Adapted from the Boston College, Massachusetts Model, City Connects takes a systemic, high-impact, cost effective approach to addressing the out of school factors that limit children's learning and is premised on the fact that poverty has a clear and evidenced impact on educational attainment. DCEDIY has been approved for funding of €460,000 for the project.
Both Departments (Department of Education and DCEDIY) are working with Boston College and Mary Immaculate College on process evaluations of the pilot and implementation. These will facilitate a review of short term outcomes and assist when considering potential to learn from the pilot in addressing educational disadvantage in other disadvantaged areas around the country.
Travellers and Roma Education Fund (€400,000)
Working with Tusla Education Support Service, DCEDIY and engaging with Traveller and Roma representative bodies, the measure will support projects at a local level to tackle educational disadvantage relating to Traveller and Roma communities and provide support for those learners. It will allow for projects across a wide range of areas and locations to be developed and to review the outcomes achieved from these projects to inform future policy.
Travellers and Roma Learners Transitions (€100, 000)
Transition between education levels can present challenges in relation to the retention and attendance of some learners, in particular Traveller and Roma learners. The aim of the measure is to provide support for Traveller and Roma learners, and their families, to ease transition between various stages and encourage greater attendance levels, participation and retention by these learners. The initiative, delivered by the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), will include support packs for Traveller and Roma families/learners, CPD and digital materials for schools on Traveller/Roma culture and engaging with families.
Transitions Pilot for post primary level students with special education needs (€500,000)
The measure will involve the Department partnering with an NGO with experience in this area and a number of schools, identified following a call for participation, to support the transition of post-primary level students with special educational needs to employment, training or further study.
Under the proposal, the pilot will take place on 7 project sites, each partnering with a ‘careers and employment facilitator’ to engage with students and their parents and collaborate with teachers in complementary activities such as mini-companies, work experiences and transition planning. The partnership between the schools and the NGO will be managed through a memorandum of understanding.
Background to the Dormant Accounts Fund
The Dormant Accounts Acts 2001-2012, together with the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003, provide a framework for the administration of unclaimed accounts in credit institutions (i.e. banks, building societies and An Post) and unclaimed life assurance policies in insurance undertakings.
The main purpose of the legislation is to reunite account or policy holders with their funds in credit institutions or insurance undertakings and in this regard, these bodies are required to take steps to identify and contact the owners of dormant accounts and unclaimed life assurance policies.
However, in order to utilise the unused funds the legislation also introduced a scheme for the disbursement of funds that are unlikely to be reclaimed from dormant accounts and unclaimed policies for the purposes of measures to assist:
1. the personal and social development of persons who are economically or socially disadvantaged;
2. the educational development of persons who are educationally disadvantaged or
3. persons with a disability.