Jane Davidson has been attacked for her role in the decision to end Assembly Government support for the Wales Youth Agency - effectively shutting the youth work support body down at the end of the year - and to bring its work in-house.
But she is adamant it is the right thing to do for youth work: "The concern that some people have had is that youth work will no longer be a recognised skill," she says. "I have to say clearly that it will be a recognised skill. We see that skill as something that should be enhanced."
Before coming into politics, Davidson was a full-time youth worker running a youth and community centre in Dinas Powys Methodist Church. "In 1988 John Rose (now acting chief executive of the Wales Youth Agency) and I took a group of young people to Kenya," she remembers. "We raised an awful lot of money, and washed a lot of cars in Safeway's car park to raise the money, but it was an absolutely life-changing experience."
By October 2000 Davidson was minister for lifelong learning at the Welsh Assembly Government, and in November found herself launching a document originally conceived by another former youth worker, first minister Alun Michael. Extending Entitlement defined what young people in Wales should expect from services, and it is this vision that Davidson is now trying to drive forward.
"The agenda has enabled us to talk about the importance of youth work and its philosophy," she says. "What I want to see is the philosophic base of youth work being an important set of skills that we look at expanding across a range of services, delivered through young people's partnerships. Both in the statutory and voluntary sector."
Young people's partnerships represent agencies working with young people in local authorities in Wales. They have a duty to provide services and Davidson is keen to make sure they deliver.
"I see my role as trying to ensure that we can share good practice across Wales and that the young people's partnerships deliver their obligations in terms of young people in their local area," she says.
As far as progress on Extending Entitlement goes, Davidson says it is mixed. Some elements, such as the drive to increase youth participation, are going well. "We now have a forum in each local authority in Wales representing the interests of young people," she says.
"We have to reach a point, which I think by the end of the decade we will - because by then everybody will have been through the school system while Extending Entitlement is a living agenda - where everybody knows they can be part of a school council, or a youth forum, or a national forum if they want to."
In other areas things have not gone so smoothly. "The move to a rights-based agenda is a major cultural move for anyone who is involved in the delivery of services for young people," she says. "That is where I think bringing the youth agency in is going to be terribly important, and really advantageous as well."
Youth work in Wales will be particularly under the spotlight over the next few weeks, when Cardiff plays host to a plethora of youth-related events to mark the UK's presidency of the European Union. Senior officials with responsibility for youth policy from member countries will receive a presentation from young people.
Davidson is clear, however, that youth work in Wales will survive: "What you will see from the wealth of strategy documents we will produce is that we will be putting youth work far more centre stage," she says.
FYI
- The Welsh Assembly Government will stop funding the Wales Youth Agency in December this year
- The Youth and Pupil Participation Division of the Welsh Assembly Government will then take on its work
- Davidson intends to set up an advisory group to support her, with experts in the various fields covered by her department, including youth work
- These experts will then set up their own subgroups of professionals working in the field, to give them advice to pass on to the minister.
