3. What priority is the Welsh Government giving to funding youth services in next year’s budget? OQ56107

Supporting Wales’s young people hardest hit by the pandemic is a priority for the Welsh Government. Together with maintaining £10 million for the youth support grant, including support to tackle youth homelessness and mental health, we are providing local government with an increase of £176 million to support vital local services.

There is obviously a great deal of concern about the viability of youth services going forward. A National Youth Agency report recently highlighted that nearly 70 per cent of youth clubs in England may be forced to close because of the Tory-led austerity squeeze on their finances via local authorities, which have forced them to cut services to the bone. I appreciate that in Wales we have endeavoured to protect local authorities from that UK austerity programme, and I'm extremely grateful that Cardiff council and indeed voluntary organisations like the YMCA have continued to provide outreach to young people on the street, even though they haven't been able to continue to deliver any support indoors during the pandemic, but we know about the rise in self-harm and suicidal thoughts amongst young people, and the fact that the closure of schools differentially impacts much more severely on disadvantaged families. How do you think we can maximise the use of this budget to ensure that both statutory youth services and the support from the voluntary and community sector can still be there for young people to help them recover from the devastating impact of this pandemic?

I think that combination of statutory services and support from the voluntary sector is absolutely vital, and that's why, since 2019, we've annually been providing over £10 million of direct funding for youth work to local authorities and the voluntary sector to ensure that there is that dual approach.

During the pandemic, since the very start, actually, we've been working really closely with the youth work sector to ensure that they have the necessary resources to continue to be confident in their work through the pandemic scenario, and that's included more support around safeguarding, using online resources and platforms, as well as sharing best practice of working in very, very different ways. Our £24 million package of support for the third sector does include the voluntary services emergency fund, and that's supported eight organisations so far, and three of those are in Cardiff, and they've received a total funding of £141,000. The impact of that has been critical, with funding allocated to the Church Army, for example, for counsellors to provide that support by telephone to young people who are at risk of self harm. The voluntary services recovery fund has also supported six organisations identifying as youth services, with a total of £123,000. Again, of those, three are in Cardiff. One of the recipients, the SAFE Foundation, was awarded funding to support positive mental health amongst young people affected by COVID-19 specifically. So, our response to the pandemic has very much been about demonstrating our real concern about the impact on young people's mental health.

I wonder whether you could give us an indication of where in the budget we might find support for the Urdd and the Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team—that's EYST—both of whom make essential contributions to youth work my region, targeting particular groups of young people as part other Welsh Government policy work. I'm not sure that all councils look at the Urdd in particular as an organisation that can support them in a number of policy aims, especially community youth work. And I do note from your previous answer that Cardiff seems to have done quite well from the emergency money here, rather than hearing from other parts of Wales.

I thank Suzy Davies for raising that. I did respond referring specifically to Cardiff because, of course, Jenny Rathbone was the Member who tabled the question and represents Cardiff, so I was sure to have those figures to hand to respond to that. We do support our youth services, as I say, through that £10 million funding for youth services, which is administered to both local authorities and the voluntary sector to ensure that they're able to respond together to the needs of young people right across Wales. I'm familiar with the work of EYST particularly here in Swansea and the excellent work that they do for our community.

I'm really impressed by the work that the Urdd has been seeking to do right through the pandemic. You'll have seen in the response to the pandemic with our in-year allocations that the education Minister did make funding available to the Urdd to ensure that it was in a good place to come out well from the crisis, and that it, as an organisation, wouldn't have been so badly impacted that it wouldn't be able to undertake its good work, as well. So, I hope you'll be able to see some funding for next year for youth services, which is quite explicit in the draft budget, but also take confidence that, this year, we've also been making significant allocations in that regard as well.

I'm grateful to the Minister for her answer, particularly to Suzy Davies. I just wanted to pursue the issue of funding for the Urdd. The funding that has already been granted has been a huge help, but I'm sure that the finance Minister and other relevant Ministers will be aware that the Urdd faced a £14 million loss of its income—the income that it generates itself, its commercial income, if you like—last year. Some very highly skilled Welsh-speaking youth workers' jobs continue to be at risk. I wonder if I could ask the Minister to ensure that she looks at issues of funding the Urdd with Ministers across portfolio—the education Minister, obviously, but there's also the Minister with responsibility for the Welsh language, and, I would argue, the culture budget as well. Because this is such a precious institution to us. It's the largest membership youth work organisation in Europe, and it would be—I'm sure the Minister will agree with me—a tragedy if more people had to be made redundant, with the risk of those vital skills and opportunities for young people to use Welsh outside formal education being lost permanently.

I'm very much an admirer of the work of the Urdd, and I have had discussions with both the Minister for Education and also the Minister with responsibility for the Welsh language, when she was in her previous portfolio, although she does maintain responsibility for the Welsh language now, about the future of the Urdd and what support it might need, both in the short term but then, also, as a result of the general challenges that are facing the organisation. I think one of the important things that we've done is approve a request for additional funding on 25 May of last year, 2020, and as a result of that, the additional capital funding will increase their twenty-first century schools funding allocation from £2.75 million to £5.5 million. They will be able to undertake some essential work at their residential centres, and I think that that kind of level of investment does provide assurance that we are confident in, and keen to see, that strong future for the Urdd.