Ms Leanne Lowry:

Yes. I will speak on behalf of the south inner city project leaders forum, or the UBU forum. We have petitioned for 10% of our working hours to be spent in schools, where necessary, to meet the needs of young Muslim women who cannot come to our youth projects because their families see what happens in Solas projects and do not believe it is okay for those young women to attend. If we had access to them in their schools, though, we could run programmes and try to build trust and relationships with the families.

The situation as regards young people from gated communities and homeless hubs is the same. We cannot get to them in the evening. We cannot reach their parents to get their consent or to explain to people from a different culture what youth work is and what we are trying to achieve. We are advocating and fighting to be allowed, where necessary, to reach young people in schools and provide them with those three and a half hours.