David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her priorities with respect to youth organisations, youth affairs and youth work generally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26087/11]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a range of funding schemes, programmes and supports to the youth sector. These include the Youth Service Grant Scheme, the Special Projects for Youth Scheme, the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund and certain other provisions including the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme, Youth Information Centres, European Youth in Action Programme (administered by Léargas – The Exchange Bureau) and Gaisce – the President's Award.

Funding of €60.954m is available from my Department to support the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and services for all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth work sector. Youth work programmes and services are delivered to young participants in the various programmes by some 1,100 youth work staff and by a volunteer base of over 60,000. As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I am committed to the development of a new youth policy framework which my Department is currently progressing. Through this work a clear policy framework will emerge that will aim to enhance the development, participation and support of young people.

I intend that the policy framework will also facilitate and promote co-ordination and coherence across departments and services and will set out the priorities, rationale and criteria for future funding programmes. It will also accommodate issues relevant to young people within the 10-24 age range in informal or out-of-school settings that fall within the remit of my Department. The overall aim will be to clarify and enhance coherence, connectivity, coordination and delivery in youth services and related out-of-schools services for young people and to ensure such provision is both quality and outcomes based.

Ensuring quality service delivery is an ongoing priority for me. My Department is at present progressing two quality standards initiatives in the youth area that will help ensure an improvement in good practice, that services are outcomes focussed and that the young people involved are deriving the maximum benefit from being involved. The developmental and supportive nature of the National Quality Standards Framework for youth work (NQSF), introduced in January 2011 on a phased and incremental basis, gives youth organisations and services the opportunity to articulate their youth work practice through a structured framework and to review, assess and continually develop this practice. The NQSF applies to all staff-led youth work organisations, services, projects and programmes funded by the Youth Affairs Unit of my Department.

In addition to setting national standards for "staff-led" youth work projects and organisations, my Department, having consulted widely with young people, volunteers, youth work staff and the National Youth Work Advisory Committee, is now finalising a set of best-practice standards for volunteer-led youth clubs and groups. The overall aim of these standards will be to support some 1,580 clubs with some 89,000 members in creating and providing quality developmental programmes and activities for young people in safe and supportive environments and to ensure that there is a connection and continuity with the standards that exist for staff-led youth provision.

End of Take