I would like to thank and congratulate the organisations and specialists who gave evidence to the committee during the inquiry for their willingness to say it as they see it. Stakeholders in both the statutory and voluntary sectors talk about a lack of leadership and strategic direction from the Welsh Government. The Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services—CWVYS—reports that 30 per cent of its members don’t think they will be able to exist beyond this next financial year. The Minister’s response to comments made by CWVYS was to attempt to undermine the credibility of CWVYS and cast their view as a minority one. Well, the organisation’s members include the British Red Cross, Mencap, NUS Wales, Race Council Cymru, Alcohol Concern, Police Youth Volunteers, the Scouts, Shelter and many other brilliant and well-respected organisations. They represent the interests of far more people in the sector than a single AM does. Well, regardless of what the Minister thinks of these organisations, they’re saying that the strategy is wrong.

Sadly, in terms of deciding the future of youth provision, the Minister cannot be dismissed as easily as he will attempt to dismiss the comments of organisations like CWVYS. He says there is a national youth work strategy and funding allocated for its implementation. Well, allocating funding and coming up with a posh document isn’t the same as co-ordinating its implementation in statutory and voluntary sectors across Wales. The views expressed by the Minister and the organisations are so different that it is tempting to assume that either the Minister doesn’t communicate with these stakeholders, hasn’t listened or is in denial. The report recommends that the Minister must harness the expertise and understanding of the principal youth officers group and CWVYS. I would urge him to work with those groups to improve youth work across Wales.

The report goes on to identify a need for Welsh Government to better understand the levels of provision across both sectors in Wales, effectively exposing that the Welsh Government may not be entirely sure as to which youth services are on offer or where. The Welsh Government has overseen a reduction in youth service funding by almost 25 per cent over the last four years, a reduction in registered members of youth work provision, from 20 per cent of young people in 2013-14 to 17 per cent of young people in 2015-16, and local authorities are reporting the loss of 148 full-time equivalent staff across the statutory sector in 2015-16.

The Welsh Government may claim in their own defence that the funds sent over from England aren’t sufficient. But it’s a question of priorities, and I would certainly question whether the Welsh Government has its priorities in the right order here. The report expresses the concern that there is a lack of accountability for the use of funds allocated to local authorities via the revenue support grant, and states that the Minister must ensure that mechanisms are in place to hold local authorities to account for the use of those funds for youth work. I would be interested to hear whether the Minister will implement this, or provide proposals regarding how he will implement it.

The Welsh Local Government Association has called into question whether Welsh Government statistics on the use of funding through the revenue support grant are reliable. This is a particular worry. If the Welsh Government doesn’t ensure that they obtain the right data, what they say about youth work strategies is potentially meaningless. There’s no way of knowing whether local authorities are spending money on other things, and no-one is accountable.

So, to recap, we have a Minister who dismisses much of what the stakeholders have to say, doesn’t seem to know where and what the current provision is, and is possibly using questionable data. We and the people of Wales simply cannot give any credibility to what he says on this important issue. Decent youth provision can transform lives and change young people’s futures. Every youngster should have access to youth services, if they wish to avail themselves of them. My big question is, therefore, whether the Minister will implement the recommendations of this report, or otherwise act upon it. Thank you.