Dr. Sinead McMahon:

I thank the Chair and the committee, not only for our invitation here but also for creating this space to publicly discuss issues affecting youth work. My colleague, Professor Maurice Devlin, and I work in the department of applied social studies at Maynooth University. As part of our commitment to the promotion of human rights, social justice and equality, we are the longest-established provider of professional education and training in youth and community work in Ireland. The committee will have received our submission paper and it provides more details on the following points.

Youth work is a way of working with young people that is quite distinctive because though it based on relationships between adults and young people, it is always about putting young people at the centre of that relationship. In Ireland and across Europe we refer to youth work as informal education. This sets it apart from formal education because youth work does not have an imposed curriculum or mandatory attendance system. A core principle is that young people get to decide if they want to be involved in youth work and what they want to get from their involvement in it.

Given that youth work has a 150-year history, many books, reports and research studies have been written about it. Clear evidence of the value and contribution of youth work to young people's lives, communities and society exists. The committee has already heard personal testimony directly from practitioners on the value of youth work to young people's lives. Youth work continues to be relevant to young people today. This was acknowledged by the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, when he stated in the Dáil that "Youth organisations have been the unsung heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic" and that their ability to adapt quickly enabled them to provide vital support to young people.

There are some challenges facing Irish youth work, and I have a short time to highlight just a few of them. Looking back at the discussions held so far by this committee, I note an emphasis on Dublin-based as well as targeted youth work. I want to remind the committee that Irish youth work is more expansive than this. As someone who grew up in and lives in a rural area and who provides support to rural youth work organisations, there is a lack of understanding about the particular challenges faced by rural young people in social issues, isolation and lack of services. A specific strategy for improving the funding and delivery of rural youth work needs to be considered. While youth work is often recognised for the targeted work it does, particularly with young people who have complex needs, this work does not fully define the purpose of youth work. Universal and open access youth work that happens in youth clubs, youth information centres, uniformed youth groups and participation initiatives provide informal education opportunities to all young people. It does so whether they are rural, urban, settled, Traveller, migrant, LGBT+, neurodiverse or whatever. It provides these opportunities to all young people. However, this type of open access youth work is underfunded and needs more investment.

I want to point to the limitations of value-for-money governance. UBU Your Place Your Space, the reformed youth funding scheme, has brought significant changes to youth work practice. Based on a value-for-money approach, there are now strict governance rules that youth workers must abide by, including time ratios and allowable interventions, as well as preset outcomes to be achieved. The new governance rules seek to enhance the quantitative value-for-money performance of youth work but there is little space given to the discussion of quality. Good quality youth work practice is about more than just value for money and youth work requires appropriate governance that supports quality as well as quantity.

Since the abandonment of the national youth work development plan in 2008, youth work occupies a much more muted position in Irish youth policy today. For example, Better Outcomes Brighter Futures, the overarching policy for children and young people published in 2014, gave only fleeting attention to youth work. The value and contribution of youth work needs to be amplified at a policy level and should be more fully integrated into Irish youth policy, such as in the emergent new policy framework for children and young people. In addition, youth work requires a specific policy framework to harness and protect its distinctive contribution.

This committee has already heard from other speakers on this issue but I want to add our observations. There is a crisis in the recruitment and retention of youth workers and this is evidenced anecdotally to us through our connection with youth work organisations on the ground. At a policy level, while the North South education and training standards committee, NSETS, oversees professional programme endorsement processes on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth and the Department of Education in Northern Ireland, there is no co-ordinated approach to workforce planning south of the Border. Youth work organisations needs the support of Government to help address this crisis in a co-ordinated way. A review of NSETS work on professional education and training standards and associated matters is also needed.

Youth work remains as relevant and necessary today as it was 150 years ago. However, it needs the support of policy-makers and funders to continue to realise the actual and potential contribution of youth work in supporting the diverse range of needs of young people in a rapidly changing Irish society. I thank members for listening.