§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his Department has issued any guidelines about youth service provisions to local education authorities with a high percentage of ethnic minority young people.
§ Mr. William SheltonThe recommendations of the review group on the youth service about the needs of young people who belong to ethnic communities are among those which are currently under consideration in the light of comments received on the report. The Home Office has issued a circular to local authorities about the administrative arrangements for funding under section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966.
§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he is satisfied that the youth service has the resources to make an appropriate response to the problems facing ethnic minority young people.
§ Mr. William SheltonThe distribution of block grant to local authorities takes account of the incidence of young people from ethnic minorities. Expenditure on the youth service has broadly been maintained, and local authorities are able to apply for specific grant support under section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966.
§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he takes into account the percentage of ethnic minority young people in allocating funds to the youth service.
23W
§ Mr. William SheltonThe factors currently taken into account in distributing block grant to local authorities, to which I referred in replying to an earlier question from the hon. Member on 28 March—[Vol. 40, c.26]—include, in relation to expenditure on the youth service, numbers of young people born outside the United Kingdom or living in households whose head was born in the New Commonwealth or Pakistan.