I’m pleased to take part in this debate, and I want to commend the Chair and the committee clerks for all the work that they have done in helping to produce what I think has been a very robust report, with a list of very clear recommendations directed at the Government. I was very pleased to see the Minister’s response to the report. I think it is fair to say that we had a few tussles with the Minister during the course of the inquiry, and we were a little surprised by some of the actions that were taken while we were still receiving evidence as part of the inquiry. Notwithstanding that, there has been a positive outcome from the inquiry, and I’m very pleased that we’ve managed to establish that.

Like the Chair, I, too, was impressed at the engagement that we received from the voluntary sector, in particular, and the way in which they provided some access to the direct views of young people. I am very much hoping that the establishment of a youth parliament in Wales will help to facilitate the views of young people, not just to our committee but to other committees in the future. I think we ought to put on record our thanks to the campaign for the youth parliament, which, of course, has again been here in the Assembly today.

We know that statutory youth services have been pressure, under some financial pressure, but what has impressed me, I think, during the course of the inquiry, is to see the different ways that local authorities have been helping to meet their statutory obligations. It’s quite clear that some local authorities have focused very much on local authority directly provided youth services, whilst others have used their limited resources, and their shrinking resources, to invest in the capacity of the voluntary sector in order to aid them in the provision of youth work. Clearly, some local authorities have done a good job in helping to grow the capacity of the voluntary sector, whilst others appear to have pretty much ignored the voluntary sector to a large extent, and I think that that’s been quite disappointing. I think this issue of trying to map the services that are available was a critical issue that we identified. It was very clear from all of the evidence that we received that there was no detailed understanding of the services that were available around the country, particularly from the many voluntary organisations such as the Scouts, faith groups and even sports organisations, which may be delivering aspects of statutory youth work that we’re not always able to see. I think that the key recommendation in the report is that one that seeks to ensure that local authorities have a very clear understanding on the ground in their local areas as to the youth services that are available for young people to engage in.

The other big concern I think that I had in receiving the evidence was that it was very clear that, because of the diminished budgets, there’s an increased focus on small groups of young people with particular problems, and that that was causing the other young people to suffer, because there was no universal offer available to them in their localities. I’m very pleased that the Minister has given a very clear commitment to wanting to ensure that there is a universal offer available and that all young people can access youth services that they might be able to benefit from.

I know that we had a debate within the committee on this, but I don’t think that the level of spending on youth services necessarily reflects the quality of the youth service and the availability of the youth services within each local authority. So, whilst there were arguments around whether there should be hypothecation of the RSG in relation to youth services to local councils, I’m not sure—I think that was a bit of a red herring, to be honest, because I know that, in the two local authorities that my constituency straddles, we’ve got excellent provision, but quite low levels of spending compared to the amount allocated in the RSG. That’s because of the way those two local authorities worked in partnership with the voluntary sector and with the third sector to provide high-quality youth services.

So, in summary, Deputy Presiding Officer, I’m very pleased with the outcome of the report. I think it gets the Government onto the right page in terms of its approach to youth services, and hopefully we’ll see a universal offer across Wales and we’ll have a better understanding in future years of the services that are available from those other partners that are providing them across the country.