The next item is the statement by the Minister for Lifelong Learning and the Welsh Language on the future of youth work delivery and I call on the Minister to make his statement—Alun Davies.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. High-quality youth work has a crucial role to play in supporting many young people to achieve their full potential. Youth workers are educators, whether this takes place in a community youth club, on the streets, or supporting formal education in schools. Youth work practice provides young people with access to a diverse range of learning opportunities that can broaden their horizons, challenge their thinking, develop their skills, and enhance their life chances.

The evidence provided to the recent Children, Young People and Education Committee inquiry into youth work highlighted the need to bring about greater clarity in the relationship between national priorities, the deployment of associated funding, and local action to meet national expectations. In order to provide greater clarity, I have committed to reviewing ‘Extending Entitlement’, our statutory direction and guidance for youth support services. The importance of ‘Extending Entitlement’ as a lever for change cannot be underestimated. When it was first published 17 years ago, it was, and remains, regarded as a flagship policy for improving the opportunities and choices for all young people. ‘Extending Entitlement’ was comprehensive in the sense that it embraced all national and local organisations whose work impacted on the opportunities and choices of young people in Wales.

The review of the statutory direction and guidance needs to reflect today’s legislative, policy, and financial landscape and to set realistic expectations for what can be achieved. Presiding Officer, I am pleased to inform Members that Margaret Jervis MBE has agreed to lead on this review. Margaret has a wealth of experience and knowledge from her work supporting young people. She also played a key role in developing ‘Extending Entitlement’. It’s vital that young people inform the revised ‘Extending Entitlement’ and let us know their thoughts on the Wales youth work charter. I have asked Children in Wales, therefore, to gather the views of young people from across Wales, including ensuring the voices of those who are hardest to reach are heard. They will share their findings with me in July. A new ‘Extending Entitlement’, fit for today, will be put out to formal consultation in the autumn. Feedback from this consultation will inform the final guidance, which will be formally launched next summer.

Recognising the need for clear strategic leadership, I am establishing an independently chaired national youth support service board. We know that support for young people is likely to be most effective when it is part of a wider network. This is why I want this board to focus on the spectrum of youth support services, and not just youth work. The board’s role will be to provide constructive challenge and scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s policies and proposals for youth support services. Through consultation and collaboration with the statutory and voluntary sector, I want the board to advise on the review of ‘Extending Entitlement’ and the implementation of the recommendations from the Children, Young People and Education Committee inquiry into youth work.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Going forward, I would expect the board to advise on the appropriate implementation and monitoring of ‘Extending Entitlement’ to ensure young people in Wales are receiving the services they’re entitled to receive. Part of the board’s role will be to provide assurance that processes and practices for commissioning youth support services are fair, transparent and equitable. This will include overseeing the implementation of new arrangements for the distribution of youth work grants. The chair and board members will be subject to the public appointments process. I expect the chair to be in place by the autumn. The chair will then support me to appoint all the other board members, who will be in place by the spring of 2018.

Deputy Presiding Officer, this is an exciting time for Wales. We have an opportunity to ensure support services for our young people are designed to enhance their life chances, are structured around their needs, and are available in the language of their choice. Together, we can lead the way for youth support services again.

Thank you very much. I have got a number of speakers, so can I ask Members to be brief and then we will probably get them all in? Llyr Gruffydd.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and may I declare an interest as one of the honorary presidents of CWVYS? May I thank you for your statement, Minister? Part of me expected a little more meat on the bones today, I have to be honest. I had expected a perhaps clearer response in terms of the direction of travel and the national strategy for youth work. The only decision that we’ve heard about is that others will now suggest to you what that decision should be. I’m sure you will say that this an opportunity for the sector to contribute to the process, and, of course, I would welcome that, but much of that will rely on who the members of the board that you’ve created will be, but I will return to that issue in a few moments’ time.

I welcome the emphasis on looking anew at ‘Extending Entitlement’. The committee recommended as its first recommendation, I believe, looking again at a national strategy for youth work, and, in your response to that recommendation, you said that may come as a result of reviewing ‘Extending Entitlement’. But the strategy, of course, will lapse in 2018, next year, and so, in looking at the timetable you have in mind, are you confident that a new strategy will have been drawn up in time by that point? Because, if the final decision isn’t to be made until next summer on ‘Extending Entitlement’, it’s difficult to see how a new strategy could be in place by the end of next year.

I’m also aware that there is a sub-group that has been looking at reviewing ‘Extending Entitlement’—a sub-group to the youth work reference group. Am I right, therefore, to understand that Margaret Jervis will lead the work of that sub-group, or is what you’ve announced today a new process to all intents and purposes, and that process will be operating separately? One of the questions that the committee, of course, asked in its recent inquiry into youth work in Wales was: who drives youth work? Your announcement of the creation of a national youth support service board may be a means of creating a national approach—perhaps some kind of embryonic national body; I’m not sure if that is a possibility, perhaps you could tell me—but, of course, looking at wider support services than just youth work is the role of the board, according to your statement. Is there therefore a risk that that will mean that perhaps we will lose some of the focus on youth work specifically in the work of the board? Because the committee’s inquiry was into youth work, ‘The Future of Youth Work’ is the title of this statement, but it seems to me that it relates more to the future of youth support services in terms of what’s been announced about the board. So, what I’m looking for is an assurance that there won’t be a loss of focus on youth work in the work of the board, and that the voice of the sector will not be diluted in that discussion because of debates surrounding wider support services.

And where, then, does that leave the current structures? For example, will the current structures remain in place whilst this board carries out its functions? That is, I assume that the ministerial reference group will continue with its work during this time. You say that one of the roles of the board will be to scrutinise and to constructively challenge Government. Perhaps you could expand upon how you anticipate them doing that. Will it be directly to you? That would be one approach. Will there be annual reports or will there be statements or public interventions that you would expect from the chair and members of the board?

And, of course, funding—you state that one of the roles of the board will be to look at the distribution of youth work grants. Well, if they are to oversee new arrangements for youth work grants, then are you providing some sort of vision, in the sense that you anticipate, for example, that the NVYO grant scheme will continue beyond this final year? Or are you saying, ‘Well, draw up a whole new regime’? If you are saying that, when would you expect to see those details available? Because many people will be seeking an assurance—or at least they will want to know when what comes next is to be declared.

I’ll finish by returning to the beginning of your statement. You quite rightly emphasise quality, and that was a strong theme, from what I hear, in the contribution that you made to the national conference on youth work last week. Now, in focusing on quality, is one right in assuming that you see the role of the quality mark beyond the current commitment of March 2018? Because there is an agreement in place at the moment until that time. If not, then what do you believe will drive the quality agenda within the youth work sector? Because the message that we’re hearing—

Are you coming to a conclusion, please?

[Continues.]—is, if you want to raise the bar in terms of quality, then the resources and the funding must be available to enable that to happen. The resources must be distributed fairly geographically and between the various sectors. The statistics that the committee has seen in terms of the decline in investment and the decline in staffing levels do suggest that the risk is that you will manage decline, or we will manage decline, rather than developing the universal, open-access, bilingual system—

Are you coming to a conclusion?

[Continues.]—that you’ve said is part of your vision. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Minister.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I think that Llyr has got to the heart of the debate in his questions and in his contribution, which was very important. ‘Who drives youth work?’ was the question that you asked, of course, and that’s the question that I’m trying to answer at the core of this statement: who drives youth work? It’s important that youth work isn’t driven directly from here, that it is driven by people, by youth, across Wales, and by those who can reflect and respond to the situation that they see in the communities where they live. Because clear leadership from here is important, of course, from the Welsh Government—that is important, but that can’t exist in a vacuum or in insolation. This has to be collaboration—proper collaboration, and not just collaboration within speeches, but collaboration with people who see the importance of the work happening in their communities. To a certain extent, that does answer your first question—is there enough meat on the bones in terms of this statement? There could have been a lot more meat, of course, but it would have been meat that came from Cardiff, and not through the process of discussion and sharing experiences and information, and sharing of vision. So, if you genuinely want to see us collaborating with people, we have to recognise that that is going to take more time. It would be the easiest thing in the world for me, in the office, to make these decisions in an isolated way, taking advice, but making the decisions myself—or we invest our time in discussing these issues with people. And that’s why I have made this statement today, and established the board and confirmed that we’re going through a process of discussing the statutory leadership that we have, and then ensuring that we have enough time to discuss these issues with people before we come to a decision. And I think that that was what was behind the committee’s report as well—that we need some leadership, but not only leadership; we have to test things out and speak to people as we move forward.

I’m sure that there will be a strategy in place before the current strategy comes to an end. There will be a new strategy in place before the current strategy comes to an end—I’ll be completely clear about that. The process of creating the new strategy will be a process of discussion and sharing vision.

And how is the board going to work? Well, I’m not going to answer that question this afternoon, in terms of how the board is going to work, because I want to discuss that with the board. I don’t want a board that is supposed to challenge the Government—I don’t think any board would expect the Minister to tell them how to operate and how to challenge the Government. That’s an issue for them to decide. So, when we’re in a position to appoint a chair and members, I’d greatly hope that we can have a discussion about how that board works. But I would like to see the board take the opportunity to decide for itself how it’s going to work. That’s what independence means. It’s not independence if the Minister says that, but it’s independence if the Minister doesn’t want something to happen. So, independence is very important.

I hope that there will be a continuous focus on youth work. I do see the point that you make, and it is valid, and I don’t deny that in any way at all. It is possible sometimes to create a broader context and to lose focus. I very much hope that that doesn’t happen, but I do recognise that there is a risk of that.

I’m always going to emphasise the importance of quality, and I greatly hope that that will come from the sector as well, and not just from the Government. You have tempted me once again to provide commitments on funding and resources. Well we all know the situation that we’re in at the moment, and that’s a very difficult process. Local authorities will hold elections next month, and I do hope that we, as a Government, can collaborate with local authorities and others across the nation to ensure that sufficient resources as available.

Thank you. Darren Millar.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I thank the Minister, also, for his statement? Can I put on record the fact that my party welcomes the appointment of Margaret Jervis to undertake this review of ‘Extending Entitlement’? I think that that’s an excellent appointment, given her experience with Valleys Kids and other organisations. I think she’s a very strong person to take on that role and that challenge, and I hope very much that she’ll be engaging with all political parties in this Chamber as well, about the way forward.

Can I also express some surprise about the role that this board is being asked to undertake? I think I would’ve liked to have seen a much stronger board, frankly, not just independent in terms of providing you with some independent advice, but a board that had some teeth, that perhaps had some commissioning powers, that had the ability to commission the mapping exercise that needs to take place at a more detailed level to determine where those gaps in provision might be, and to look at best practice and then hope to have that rolled out and helped to share it with other parts of the country. The Minister and I share the view, I know, that it’s not just about the money; it’s about how best to spend the resource in order to maximise the impact of youth services on the ground.

And I’ve cited on many an occasion in this Chamber and, indeed, around the committee table, the fact that youth services in Conwy, as a local authority, are thriving in spite of the fact that they spend less there than in other local authorities, simply because they’ve had a partnership approach and grown the voluntary sector on the ground to deliver services that, traditionally, the local authority had been providing. So, I’m a little bit surprised that this board isn’t one with more teeth, more clout, and the ability to commission services and the ability to establish that framework and do the research that’s required in order to hang services upon. So, perhaps, Minister, you could tell us whether that might be something that this board could take on in the future.

I do welcome the fact that the appointments are being made via the public appointments process. I think that’s a very sensible way forward, as well, in order to give some confidence to the sector that that board will be completely independent in terms of its views. But, clearly, if it’s going to be a very broad remit that that board’s got—not just for youth work but for lots of other aspects of youth support services—then there is a danger that it will become a large and unwieldy board because there will be different interests that will need to be represented around the table. So, perhaps you could tell us just how many members you envisage the board actually having when it’s got a full complement of members so that it can take its work forward.

Just on quality, Minister, obviously the Education Workforce Council now is responsible for registering youth workers across Wales. We are yet to see the development of any professional standards for youth workers in the country. That is something that ought to be left, I believe, to the Education Workforce Council. At the moment, of course, the responsibility for developing those standards sits with the Welsh Government, with Welsh Ministers. Perhaps you could tell us when and how you envisage those professional standards being developed and by what timetable you expect them to be in place, because we’re never going to see any sort of quality arrangements being put in place without being able to hold youth workers to account for the standards that they are expected to deliver against.

Just finally, in terms of interim arrangements, obviously it’s going to take some time for the review that Margaret Jervis is being asked to conduct to be completed, it’s going to take some time for this board to be put in place, and, in the meantime, you’ve got organisations like CWVYS and others who have been filling in the breach, as it were, really, in terms of engaging with stakeholders and being the voice and representative voice of the voluntary youth work sector. I wonder if you could tell us whether the existing funding arrangements for those organisations that are funded by the Welsh Government in terms of youth work will continue in the interim, and, if so, how long do you think that that might be? Because, obviously, it’s important that these people can plan ahead for the future, and I would appreciate it if you could just put on record what your view is in terms of those financial commitments that they might be able to have.

I’m very grateful to the Conservative spokesperson’s broad welcome for the appointment of Margaret Jervis and the approach that is being taken. I can certainly confirm that she will be looking not just to political parties, but stakeholders across the face of the country and across different parts of the community. So, I would certainly expect and anticipate her to welcome contributions from all political parties represented here and elsewhere, but to go further than that by looking at stakeholders in a much wider and holistic sense.

In terms of the board, the Conservative spokesperson asks for more teeth. I don’t have a closed mind on that. In fact, I’d be very happy if Members, in listening to this statement this afternoon believe that the role and the function of the board needs to be strengthened in some way, were to propose those means of strengthening the board and the way it’s able to work. I have no principled objection to it having powers to commission work. I would expect and anticipate any board that holds the Government to account to be able to do that from an informed point of view, and that would imply being able to commission work that would aid its own understanding of the sector it is seeking to represent. So, issues like undertaking mapping exercises, understanding best practice and being able to extend best practice would all be areas that I would see to be reasonable areas for the board to address, and I would be very happy, if Members wished to write to me with a series of proposals on how the board may be strengthened, to consider all of those proposals in good faith. Certainly, it is my intention that this would be quite a powerful institution that would be able to speak with a level of authority and knowledge, and that would imply all different aspects of its work that have been outlined by Darren Millar this afternoon.

In terms of the size or representative nature of the board, I tend to shy away from having seats for everybody around the table because that does then start to lead to an unmanageable sort of organisation. I would tend towards smaller than larger, and I would tend to focus in on what people can bring to the board, rather than simply having functional representatives who would simply perform a much narrower role. So, I would shy away from being, perhaps, too forthright this afternoon, but simply say I prefer a smaller board and one that is able to function and build on the strengths of its members, rather than just to go straight down the route of representation.

In terms of quality, I’ve met the EWC to discuss the matters that you raise. I think you’re absolutely right to raise the issues about professional standards. It’s a point that was made by Llyr in his remarks, as well—I’m not sure I actually answered you in terms of my response. But, certainly, in terms of where we’re going, that’s exactly where we need to be, and I hope that the EWC will be in a position to make a statement on that before too long.

You’ve asked me again, as Llyr did in his opening remarks, about the funding arrangements. I won’t seek to mislead by giving commitments this afternoon. My mind is open on how we take forward these matters. I do not wish to make any statement this afternoon on future funding arrangements, because whatever statement I make may be open to different interpretations. So, it would be, if Members would forgive me on this occasion, an opportunity, perhaps, for me to bite my lip.

Thank you very much. Lynne Neagle.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement and also welcome the review of ‘Extending Entitlement’, which is something I think the committee would have wanted to see? Like Llyr, I also hope that this will lead to a new strategy, which is also something that the committee wanted to see. I’m particularly pleased that young people will be involved in the review of ‘Extending Entitlement’, and that is very much to be welcomed.

In terms of the national youth support service board, which you’ve said is going to be responsible for advising you on the implementation of the committee recommendations, I do have some questions about that. The committee was very clear and, indeed, you were very clear when you gave evidence that you supported our view that there should be a universal, open-access youth offer that is available through English or Welsh. Can you confirm that that is a message that you will be giving clearly to the new board as part of its remit to take this work forward?

I would be interested in more detail on the timescales. You will be aware that the committee’s report had lots of timescales in our recommendations. Most of them were asking for updates within six months. That was in December, so we’re already four months on, and now we have this new board that is likely to delay things. So, given that we see the need to address the crisis, really, that’s affecting youth work urgently, I would be interested to have some detail on timescales.

I would be interested to know how you intend to ensure that the voices of young people are heard through that board. Is it your intention that there would be a representative of young people, or what other mechanism are you planning to use?

You’ve stated that the board will be there to help provide strategic leadership, but one of the key failings the committee found was the lack of leadership and partnership between local authorities and voluntary organisations, with voluntary organisations often being the poor relative and, in particular, getting the crumbs from the table in terms of funding. Can you confirm that you will give a very strong steer to the board that they should address that and that it is outcomes for young people that should count, not so much who is delivering the service?

I hear what you’re saying in relation to the answers on funding and note your comment in the statement that the board’s role will be to ensure that funding is fair, transparent and equitable, but I would press you on the need to actually ensure that there is sufficiency of funding, because you can have as much transparency as you like, but if there’s not enough money, then it’s not going to cut the mustard. Thank you.

I think Members across the whole Chamber would want to congratulate and thank Lynne for the way in which she’s not just led the inquiry into youth work, but the way she has not stopped leading it after the committee published its report. Certainly, as a Minister, it’s challenging, shall we say, to sit next to a committee Chair who has such a strong commitment to these matters in this Chamber, and I think we should all congratulate Lynne on the work that she does not just in the committee, but outside of committee as well.

You’re absolutely right in the points that you make in terms of involving young people in ‘Extending Entitlement’, and that ‘Extending Entitlement’ should lead to a new strategy. The reason why I’ve asked Children in Wales to take part in this process is to ensure that young people are represented—that the views of young people across the whole of Wales are included—and I’ll be asking Margaret to ensure that that process takes place to ensure that it’s an informed and knowledgeable process of reform and review, and not something that is simply based in meeting rooms. So, we will seek to actively do that.

I haven’t, I don’t recall, from any of the commitments I made in front of the committee over the last six months—. In terms of our open-access approach to comprehensive youth work support and services being available through the medium of English and Welsh across the whole face of the country, the commitments I made in the committee stand today, and I will repeat today.

In terms of the committee’s report, it did ask for a number of different updates over a number of different timescales—most notably, as has been pointed out, a six-month update. That will be provided to the committee and I would be happy to return to the committee if the committee felt it would help their deliberations to answer questions and to be accountable to the committee in terms of what we’ve done in delivering on the recommendations that the committee made. I would say to Lynne Neagle that the appointment and the establishment of the board will not lead to a delay. What it will do is to help implement those recommendations and implement the Government response to those recommendations. This isn’t a means of preventing, stopping or slowing down work. It’s actually a means of enabling us to do these things and enabling us to be able to deliver on these commitments in a more profound way. I’ve answered questions on how the board will operate and the make-up of the board; what I will say is I would expect and anticipate any board that is active in this field to have the voice, opinions, experience, knowledge and vision of young people as a central part of its means of operation and of the way in which it reaches conclusions on any matter. I would expect whoever is appointed to the board to have that in mind.

In terms of how we take forward funding and resources for these policies, we understand—I think there isn’t a single Member in this Chamber who doesn’t appreciate and understand the significant challenges facing public authorities at the moment in terms of budgets. We understand the difficulties facing the new authorities that will be elected next month, and we understand the challenges facing decision makers when it comes to the allocation of funding. I understand what is being said. It is certainly my intention to ensure that we do have sufficient resources available to deliver on the promises and the commitments that we make, but we do know, at the same time, that these are commitments that are made in the most difficult funding circumstances.

Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I agree with you that youth work has a crucial role to play to help young people achieve their potential and have a range of experiences. It’s character building and just plain fun. The Children, Young People and Education Committee reported in December 2016 that local authorities had seen a loss of almost 20 per cent in staffing levels for youth work in just one year. CWVYS reported that 30 per cent of its members did not perceive themselves being in existence beyond this next financial year. How will the announcements made in the Minister’s statement alleviate these resourcing issues?

The committee also noted with concern that there is a lack of accountability for the use of funds supplied via the revenue support grant. How will the new national youth support service board ensure accountability for spending by local authorities on youth work?

The committee also noted that stakeholders in both statutory and voluntary sectors on the one hand, and the Minister on the other hand, appeared to have markedly different views about the strategic leadership, or lack thereof, of the Welsh Government. What conversations has the Minister had with these stakeholders since the report was published, and have the views of the Minister and stakeholders come any closer together in the months since then? Stakeholders were also concerned about what they perceived as a failure of the Welsh Government to involve them in the development of policies, and the committee urged the Minister to harness the expertise and understanding of the principal youth officers group and CWVYS, two of the key stakeholders in taking youth work forward in Wales. How is the Minister fostering a closer relationship with these stakeholders and how is he going to be using their expertise and experience, as recommended by the committee?

The startling thing about the evidence given by many of the stakeholders is that there appears to be no formal way of understanding the demand for the supply of youth services versus the youth work services being provided themselves. How can one plan or supply any kind of service, whether it’s private, public or commercial, without understanding where the demand for the service is? How do you propose to map demand onto supply so that you can understand where the gaps in service provision are?

You have announced the creation of the national youth support service board to provide, as you say, constructive challenge and scrutiny to the Welsh Government’s policies. However, it’s not entirely clear from your statement precisely what the objectives and precise role of the board will be, and perhaps you will give us some more detail on that. Thank you.

The Member describes some of the issues facing youth work and youth work services in terms of the overall situation of local government funding and local government resources. That is well understood and the Government doesn’t recoil or disagree with the conclusions of the committee on this. We understand that local authorities are in very difficult situations, facing some very difficult decisions. It’s the easiest thing in the world for a Minister to stand here and make whatever observations he or she may be tempted to do, but I think we have to recognise that it is a matter for local government to take these decisions.

You ask about accountability of local government on the day that nominations close for the local elections taking place next month. That is accountability in the rawest possible sense. Those candidates and those councillors who will be fighting for their seats over the next four or five weeks will have to account for the decisions that they’ve taken. It’s a matter for the people to determine their priorities for the next period.

But in terms of the strategic leadership, which I do believe is a more fundamental point—and Llyr addressed some of these issues in his questions—leadership isn’t simply standing here taking and announcing decisions. Leadership is also about having conversations and listening—and not just listening to what has been said but actually hearing what has been said as well. Leadership is about having a structure in place that enables us to provide the vision, but also to ensure that vision is informed by the experience of people on the ground or people who are delivering services and people in communities up and down the country.

So, I reject the sense of leadership being a singular activity carried out by a single Minister in a particular way. I think that leadership is about a much wider sense of how we approach these matters and a much wider sense of listening and hearing what is being said.

In terms of the relationship with stakeholders and other matters that the Member’s raised, let me say this: we do invest a great deal of time listening and talking to people. One of the recommendations of the committee’s report was to meet with the reference group as soon as possible. I actually met the reference group a few days before the committee report was actually published. You know, we do spend a great deal of time, both myself and my officials, having these conversations and listening to what is being said.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I would expect or anticipate stakeholders to agree with everything the Government does. That’s not the nature of political debate and discourse. I don’t expect, because we have a conversation with a group of stakeholders in this or any other field, that those stakeholders will then agree with the decisions that I make and take in the future. That is not the way that these things have to or should operate. My view is that we should always be able to have a very honest exchange of views, understand each other, but also then have the freedom to disagree where we feel it’s necessary.

In terms of the way of working and the approaches taken, I think I said in answer to Darren Millar’s points about the work of the board that I’m very happy for the board take the view that it takes about the way it operates. I don’t think it would work effectively if the board was appointed to do what the Minister wants the board to do. So, I think the board has to have a means of independence. We’re going through the public appointments process to ensure that the members of the board are independent. Then, I would expect to have an agreement with the board that will both guarantee their independence of operation but also the levels of authority that they have in order to commission the sort of work that Darren Millar described, and which I think will be absolutely essential for a well-informed challenge to Government.

Thank you very much. We have had one speaker from each of the parties, so the next four speakers—you will have to rely on your colleagues to ask a question and for the Minister to answer it succinctly. Otherwise, I will not get you all in, so it’s entirely up to you how this is played. Mike Hedges.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Succinct is something I often am. Can I welcome the statement by the Minister, and can I welcome the direction of travel? Can I put youth services in context, however? In the four years from April 2012, spending by Welsh local authorities on youth services was cut by £6.1 million. These cuts resulted in the loss of more than 100 youth centres, and also at least 360 jobs in the youth service have been cut by local authorities. I don’t blame local authorities for this; they’re under tremendous financial pressure.

Two areas that have supported youth provision have been ‘mentrau iaith’ and Communities First. ‘Mentrau iaith’ have supported youth provision such as Twrw Tawe in my constituency, which my daughter attends, and provided a youth facility involving music for young people. It crucially provides an opportunity for children and young people to speak and use Welsh in a social context, which I think is incredibly important. It’s an out-of-school context for it. And also Communities First youth work has involved providing both outreach services and indoor youth provision. Can the Minister indicate the future of ‘mentrau iaith’ youth provision, and the youth provision currently provided by Communities First? And will the Minister agree with me that you might not want to answer questions on funding—and I can understand that—but would he agree that funding is the key?

You know, ‘diwedd y gân yw’r geiniog’. Funding is clearly important. The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children has made statements on the future of Communities First, and I’ve nothing to add to that. In terms of ‘mentrau iaith’, they will be a key part of the overall Welsh language strategy, which is seeking to increase the opportunities to use Welsh, particularly in places like Swansea or Blaenau Gwent, where Welsh might not be the language of communication in the community as a whole. So, certainly, I would see an important role for ‘mentrau iaith’ in achieving that as part of our overall Welsh language strategy.

I myself spent five years as a youth worker prior to teaching, so I completely agree, Minister, with your comments about how important youth work can be in enhancing the life chances of those who utilise the services. And I welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to youth work delivery. However, for some of our most challenging communities, the winding down of Communities First represents specific challenges. So, building on my colleague Mike Hedges’ question, I’d like to ask you what discussions you’ve had with your Welsh Government colleagues about how the changes to that programme will impact on youth work delivery.

Secondly, in my own constituency, over 50 young people have been affected by recent youth club closures, and the community of Ynysybwl in particular is concerned about the viability of its youth club when Communities First ends. What advice could you give, Minister, to my constituents who are concerned about these changes?

As the Member will appreciate, I don’t have anything to add to my earlier answer to Mike Hedges in terms of the conversations that have taken place and the statements that have been made by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, so I won’t add to that. But let me say this: myself and the Cabinet Secretary talk on a regular basis about this and other matters. We meet on a regular basis in order to have conversations about how we expect and anticipate these issues to be resolved. Clearly, there will be particular circumstances—you quote Ynysybwl—and there will be other such examples in other parts of our communities where there will be significant impacts. And I would suggest that you speak to myself and the Cabinet Secretary, and we will certainly do everything we can to help and to support you in responding to that.

I welcome the Minister’s statement, particularly on reviewing ‘Extending Entitlement’ and the national youth support service board. And I welcome the commitment you gave to the Chair of the committee that you are supportive of every young person having access to a youth work provision. I’d just like to raise the point that our inquiry was into youth work and, obviously, you have been talking about youth support services. And I just wondered if you could define what the youth support services are and how the youth work fits into that, because we were clearly talking about youth work in our inquiry.

The other point I wanted to ask you about, quickly, was that we did have a lot of evidence from particular groups of young people and representatives of groups of young people who have got particular needs. I think there were deaf children, children in care, Gypsy and Traveller children—lots of needy groups of children. How are we going to ensure that they get access to the youth work provision that we believe they should have?

Yes, I do repeat the commitments I made in front of committee, and I will be more than happy to attend committee again, at its request, in order to continue this conversation and to outline further how we’d expect and anticipate this area of policy to develop over the next period.

I’m very anxious—. I recognise the point made by Julie Morgan about youth work rather than youth support services, but I’m very anxious that youth work be seen as a strategic service as well, and not simply as a leisure facility or a service of last resort. I want it to be sitting alongside all the diversity of youth support services, which will ensure that we’re able to have quality youth work provision available to young people throughout the statutory and voluntary sectors and I believe that a national board will help us to achieve that.

But I want us to ensure—and this goes back to the point that was raised earlier by Darren Millar—that board membership will cover the spectrum of youth support services, not just the statutory and voluntary youth work sectors, and to ensure that we have a very real focus that isn’t simply limited to one part of the whole spectrum of services available to young people, for the reasons you’ve just given in terms of particular groups within the overall population, where there is a requirement for services to work together in order to deliver a more holistic approach than simply one part of what their requirements and needs actually are. So, it’s to ensure that you have that comprehensive approach that I’m taking a much wider view, but within that, as I said in answer to Lynne Neagle earlier, I would expect there to be a clear focus; however, I want that focus to be contextualised within the overall delivery of services to young people.

And finally, Hefin David.

Given the Minister’s answers so far, I’m not sure whether I should broaden out my question or narrow it down to a laser focus, so I’m going to try a bit of both.

Well, you’ve got 50 seconds, so—

I’ll be really fast. Given the Minister recognises the changing nature of funding and resources available to youth support, how will the new landscape be considered in the review? The Senghenydd Youth Drop In Centre, known as SYDIC, for example, currently lives hand-to-mouth, reliant on various sources of funding, and Caerphilly County Borough Council have allocated substantial funding for them this year. Do realistic expectations encompass a more secure future for outreach organisations like SYDIC?

I think extending out the question was a better thing to do, actually, Hefin. [Laughter.] In terms of individual youth centres, the Member would not expect me to give any commitments for the funding of organisations that I’m unable to give. But let me say this: we have a changing landscape, as the Member points out, and I enjoyed the visit when I joined him in SYDIC last summer and saw the facilities available there and the services provided there. Those services are essential services, particularly being delivered in somewhere like Senghenydd, which is a community very similar to those communities that I represent in Blaenau Gwent, where we need to be able to reach out and reach beyond perhaps the traditional way of delivering services. Organisations such as SYDIC do a fantastic job in enabling us to do that, and that needs to be recognised within the landscape that he has described. When we come to taking decisions in terms of the overall extending entitlement, the strategy that we’ve described already this afternoon, those sorts of services have to be at its core and at its heart. I hope, and I’m sure, with Members such as Hefin standing up for those people, they will be at the core of how we take these things forward.

Thank you very much, Minister.