The Welsh Assembly Government's decision to stop funding the Wales Youth Agency has raised hackles in the Celtic nation, and eyebrows elsewhere in the UK (YPN, 8-14 December, p2).
Each of the four nations that make up the UK has its own youth agency, but are these as vulnerable as the Wales Youth Agency (WYA) appears to be, and if so does it matter?
The main problem for the WYA is that it gets about 95 per cent of the 850,000 it spends every year from the Welsh Assembly Government, but it is not connected to the assembly. Its status as a quango, or non-departmental public body, was removed in 1997, but its reliance on funding from the Government means it is still subject to the whims of politicians. In England and in Scotland, the youth agencies are not so dependent on government money.
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