Youth Matters

Introduction

Published on 18 July 2005, Youth Matters, the Youth Green Paper, set out the Government’s vision for services for young people. It built upon the reforms implemented as part of the Children Act 2004 and Every Child Matters and set out a number of key areas:

• empowering young people: things to do and places to go
• young people as citizens. making a contribution
• supporting choices: information, advice and guidance
• all young people achieving: reforming and targeted support.

The Green Paper included details about how the programme of reform would be delivered and the consequent implications for Local Authority Youth Services, Children and Young People’s Trusts, Primary Care Trusts, Acute Trusts, Youth Offending Teams and Connexions.

Consultation on the Green Paper ended on 4 November 2005 and the Government received over 19,000 responses from young people - one of the largest responses to a Government consultation from any one group.

The Government response to the consultation, Youth Matters: Next Steps, was published on 8 March 2006 and sets out a vision for empowering young people, giving them somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.

Nottinghamshire has been given £1.7m to help make this vision a reality and it will be used for the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and Youth Capital Fund (YCF). Guidance on these funds was published on 8 March 2006 and at the same time Nottingham was announced as a pilot for the Youth Opportunity Card.

For young people experiencing difficulties there will be better targeted support, co-ordinated by a lead professional.