Ms Rachael Murphy:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it on behalf of Foróige. We welcome the strategy because it recognises the vital role youth work has in improving outcomes for our young people. We also welcome it despite the fact that youth work’s history is littered with policy documents that have failed to be implemented.

Voluntary youth organisations provide the infrastructure for youth services, with Foróige supporting 173 specialist projects, 450 volunteer-led clubs and over 400 mentoring matches throughout the country, serving over 52,000 young people. However, it is interesting to note only a small percentage of Foróige's funding, 12%, comes from the Department of Education and Youth, with the remainder coming from other Departments, State agencies and corporate and philanthropic sources. Therefore, we appreciate the recognition that the strategy's vision and objectives require collaboration beyond the youth work sector and welcome the establishment of an interdepartmental group to consider a whole-of-government vision for youth work.

We need to prevent youth work from becoming a panacea for all the issues young people face. Youth work cannot take on the shortfalls left by other organisations with statutory responsibility for youth mental health or child protection services. Youth work’s role is to support young people on the basis of their voluntary participation in a way that aids their personal and social development and complements their formal education. It is essential that the youth work sector is involved in these developments. As a result, we welcome action 2 of the strategy relating to the establishment of a national youth sector reference group.

While Opportunities for Youth demonstrates commitment, we want to highlight that in the absence of additional and ongoing funding, the strategy, similar to the one that preceded it, risks failing to meet its objectives. Modest increases in youth affairs budgets have not constituted the significant investment needed to meet changing needs. Transformational investment in our young people is required.

We welcome action 12 of the strategy, which aims to promote, support and sustain volunteering. While the volunteer activation fund is welcome, it is a one-off pilot rather than the ongoing transformational investment required. Volunteer youth work is often the only youth work available to young people, particularly those in rural areas. We are all aware of the increasing complexity of young people’s lives and the challenges they face but local youth clubs are a traditional solution to a contemporary problem as they provide connection, community and capacity for our young people. However, they need enhanced and increased support on foot of the increasingly onerous requirements being placed on volunteer youth leaders. Beyond club activities, volunteers require training and support to manage their clubs in addition to accounting, banking, health and safety, insurance, data protection, child protection and fundraising responsibilities. The local youth club grant scheme, though welcome, does not cover the full costs of running a weekly club, meaning volunteers dedicate significant additional hours outside of direct youth work. Adequate funding for national organisations is required to allow them to provide support services to relieve the compliance burden on volunteers, allowing them to focus on what they do best, namely working directly with young people in their communities, which, in turn, should enhance the retention rate of volunteers.

We welcome action 7 on a workforce development strategy. However, while it addresses training needs and the requirement for high-quality, accessible youth work, it does not address the basic requirements of having a workforce, both paid and volunteer. There is an ongoing challenge in recruiting suitable candidates for professional youth work roles due to our inability to offer competitive terms and conditions. Current terms and conditions in the youth work sector are hampered by fixed-term contracts, part-time roles, funding insecurity and that youth work salaries are not benchmarked against public service pay and are not included in public service pay agreements. To enable action 7, these issues with basic terms and conditions must be resolved to demonstrate the value that is placed on youth work.

A crucial part of implementation must be improved data. This can be achieved by identifying relevant datasets, establishing easy collection and reporting mechanisms and streamlining requirements across funding schemes. At departmental level, investment in data collection and analysis is needed to inform policy and measure progress. We ask that funded youth organisations be involved in discussions about developing relevant metrics to ensure effective data capture and utilise systems that many organisations already have in place.

We are optimistic that Opportunities for Youth signifies a positive shift in Irish youth work policy and will be fully implemented. We believe it lays a foundation for future policy and are fully committed to working with the Department on its implementation.