Education

National youth strategy

Following the publication of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs’ National Youth Strategy 2015-2020, eolas takes a look at what the strategy aims to achieve and how it intends to deliver it.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs’ National Youth Strategy 2015-2020 was recently launched by the department’s Minister Dr James Reilly TD. The strategy works in conjunction with Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: The National Policy Framework for Children and Young People (2014-2020) and sets out the government’s aims and objectives for young people, to ensure they remain active, healthy and achieve their full potential.

The strategy focuses on the 18.3 per cent of Ireland’s total population that are currently aged between 10 and 24. This is a diverse age range with many of the people targeted at different stages of their lives. Many of these young people live in their family homes and are actively engaged in sport, culture and recreation, progress at school and in higher education. At the same time, some are experiencing adversity due to a range of socio-economic and other factors and consequently need additional support on the journey to autonomy and independence.

Aims

The strategy’s ultimate aim is to enable all young people to recognise their full potential, while protecting and supporting them as they transition from childhood to adulthood. The strategy hopes to achieve this by providing for the implementation and development of policies and services in relation to the following interconnected and mutually reinforcing national outcome areas:

1.   ensuring every young person is active and healthy, physical and mental well-being;

2.   ensuring every young person achieves their full potential in all areas of learning and development;

3.   ensuring every young person is safe and protected from harm;

4.   ensuring every young person has economic security and opportunity;

5.   ensuring every young person is connected, respected and contributing to the world.

To achieve these aims, the strategy recognises the importance of strong engagement by, and collaboration between, agencies and non-governmental organisations in the pursuit of better outcomes for young people. It acknowledges the interconnection between all of these areas of work and states that young people benefit most when the work of all stakeholders is mutually reinforcing. It has also established a number of objectives to work towards.

Objectives

The objectives of the strategy are directly related to the five national outcome areas. For the first outcome, the strategy aims to ensure that young people enjoy a healthy lifestyle, in particular with regard to their physical, mental health and well-being and that they benefit from involvement in recreational and cultural opportunities including youth work, arts, and sports.

To ensure that each young person reaches their full potential, the strategy aims to focus on young people’s core skills, competencies and attributes. It will also offer children the chance to further themselves through accessible, responsive, formal and non-formal education and learning opportunities. The strategy wants young people to benefit from strengthened transitional support at all levels as they move through the education system. To keep young people safe and secure, the strategy aims to support vulnerable and marginalised young people, develop spaces where young people can feel safe and encourage those who feel unsafe to speak out.

In terms of providing economic security for young people, the strategy aims to enhance employability skills that complement formal learning and training qualifications and will place a particular focus on policies that address social inclusion and poverty. To ensure that young people make a positive contribution to their world, the strategy wants to ensure that young people are included in society, are environmentally aware and that they are empowered to be global citizens. The department also recognises the importance of ensuring that young people’s autonomy is supported and their voice strengthened through political social and civil engagement.

Implementation

The implementation structures established by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) for Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures provide an extensive supporting and enabling structure for the National Youth Strategy. To maximise this support, the department will provide leadership at national level, in order to ensure that national policy is coordinated with implementation at a local level and with the implementation structures under Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures.

It is hoped that by doing so the department will optimise stakeholders’ collective contribution and support them in working together to achieve better outcomes for young people. This approach to implementation involves enabling actions across the five national outcome areas for children and young people. The focus will be placed on ensuring quality services, prevention and early intervention, improving collaboration and coordination and improving access to quality information and supports. Enabling actions include enhancing effective prevention and early intervention through the reformed targeted youth programme, while ensuring a preventive focus in and across all other universal programmes and schemes within the department. There will also be work on developing efficient and user-friendly ways of collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data at local, regional and national level to inform service planning, delivery, assessment and continuous improvement.

To support the implementation of this strategy, a National Youth Strategy Lead Team will be established by the department. The team will draw from departmental experience and technical assistance from relevant experts, as required. This team will be tasked with communicating the strategy and its implementation framework to stakeholders, be the central point of contact within the department for the strategy, and support the coordination, progression and monitoring of its implementation.

Implementation of the priorities in the National Youth Strategy will be assessed by tracking progress over time. Key indicators relevant to the youth cohort being developed in the context of Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, will be utilised to track progress in young people’s lives over the lifespan of the strategy. Progress on the implementation of the National Youth Strategy will be included in the annual report for Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures in 2017 when a route for further progression will then be charted.

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