§ Sir B. Jannerasked the Minister of Education whether he has yet considered the recommendations contained in the Albemarle Report on the Youth Service; what steps he has already taken; and what further steps he proposes to take to implement the recommendations.
§ Sir D. EcclesYes. On the day the Report was published I accepted the main recommendations requiring action by the Government.
I have announced Youth Service building programmes to the value of £3 million for starts in 1960–62 and £4 million in 1962–63. These two programmes will provide more than 750 new and expanded youth clubs and centres, a number of which are already under construction.
The National College for the Training of Youth Leaders was established at Leicester last year and the first ninety students began their course last January. This, together with the output from other courses of training, will mean that about 150 newly trained full-time youth leaders will be available next year.
My ordinary grants to national voluntary youth organisations for headquarters administration and training expenses will this year amount to £230,000 to thirty-four organisations compared with £122,770 to twenty-three organisations two years ago. In addition, since the Report was 86W published, I have offered £57,000 in grants for experiments and special developments.
In the financial year 1960–61 grants were offered for local voluntary capital projects for the Youth Service to a total of £535,000 compared with £230,000 in 1959–60.
The Youth Service Development Council has met eleven times and has advised me on general developments as well as on applications for grant for special purposes. On the advice of the Council my Department's monthly broadsheet "Youth Service" was launched last October and now has a circulation of about 22,000 copies, of which approximately 18,000 are bought on subscription.
There is encouraging evidence of growing co-operation and initiative on the part of the local education authorities and voluntary organisations to match the efforts of the Government to expand and develop the Youth Service, and as occasion requires I shall consider with these partners and the Development Council what further steps are necessary to that end.
I expect shortly to announce the qualifications required for the status of qualified youth leader and I understand that the Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth Leaders is about to make recommendations on salaries and conditions of service. The next step will be to consider the training of part-time youth leaders and assistants.