Government Respond to Education Select Committee Report

The Education Select Committee has published (17^th October) a second report on Services for Young People. This follows the Government’s own response to the Committee’s original report published in the summer; this is contained in the Select Committee’s new report.

Two significant points contained in the Government response cover:

• The retention of the existing statutory duty on local authorities in relation to services for young people but with shorter and updated statutory guidance;

And

• Government funding in 2011–12 and 2012–13 to support national and local youth participation; better brokerage of relationships between businesses and youth projects; and additional sector-led support to local authority commissioners of services for young people;

For its part the Select Committee has made a series of recommendations – the key ones being:

• that the Government set out the grounds on which it will judge a local authority to have failed to provide sufficient services, and in what ways Ministers will act to secure improvement in such circumstances. In this context, we underline our finding that some local authority youth services have already closed altogether. We also recommend that an explanation of the grounds for intervention by Ministers be included in the revised, shortened guidance being drawn up by the Government.

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