To ask the Minister of Education what consideration he has given to undertaking work to better understand the value of youth work, similar to the Economic Value of Youth Work report by UK Youth and Frontier Economics.

The Department is aware of the UK Youth and Frontier Economics, Untapped report about the economic value of youth work in England. My officials attended an event run by the Ulster University, where UK Youth staff presented the report, and subsequently engaged with UK Youth staff to establish an estimate of the cost for a Northern Ireland specific version of the economic model. Given budget pressures and current youth work priorities the Department has been unable to secure the funding to procure a local assessment of the economic value of youth work.

While a local assessment would undoubtably be of value, given the similarities of local youth work to that in England, there is nothing to suggest that a similar scale of return on investment would not be achieved.