§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply of 11 November, Official Report, c. 231, when he intends to announce decisions on the recommendations of the review group on the youth service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. William SheltonAs my right hon. Friend indicated, he believes that it would be premature to reach conclusions on many recommendations in the review group's report before the public has had time to react to them. However, he has decided that it would be of benefit to the youth service to proceed now with two recommendations.
First, as recommended in chapter 8 of the report, he is establishing a review of the national youth bureau, and has invited Mr. G. F. Cockerill CB to conduct it. Mr. Cockerill has accepted this invitation, and is now discussing his detailed terms of reference with the Department. It is intended that they should be drawn 271W sufficiently widely to enable him to make recommendations concerning not only the remit and management of the bureau, but also the need to avoid unnecessary duplication of activities carried out by the bureau and other agencies which attract Government funding. Furthermore, my right hon. Friend is concerned that the review should be able to take into account the wider institutional arrangements at a national level recommended by the review group elsewhere in chapter 8 of its report, in order that the functions and organisation of the bureau can be effectively integrated into whatever wider national institutional arrangements my right hon. Friend may in due course determine. Mr. Cockerill has been invited to submit his recommendations next summer, and my right hon. Friend would expect to implement his decisions on them before the end of next year. He is therefore glad to take this opportunity to announce that his hon. Friend the Member of Nelson and Colne (Mr. Lee) has agreed to continue as chairman of the council of the national youth bureau at least until then.
My right hon. Friend also welcomes the support which the review group gives in chapter 9 of its report to the initiative by the Department and others concerned to secure better arrangements for the professional endorsement of initial training courses for youth workers. The Department is therefore writing today to the in-service training and education panel asking it to take on responsibility also for the professional endorsement of initial training courses, in line with the memorandum of understanding agreed between the Department and the joint negotiating committee for youth workers and community centre wardens. The panel will be reconstituted as the council for education and training in youth and community work, and my right hon. Friend welcomes the agreement of Professor Walter James CBE to continue as chairman of the reconstituted body. Funds amounting to some £120,000 a year will be allocated by the Department and Welsh Office for the work of the council. For administrative purposes, it will continue to operate for the time being under the auspices of the national youth bureau, but its relationship with the bureau and with any new wider institutional arrangements on which my right hon. Friend may decide in due course will form part of Mr. Cockerill's review.