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.