To ask the Minister of Education how his Department is promoting and supporting youth work in rural areas, to reflect the aims and objectives of Priorities for Youth: Improving young people’s lives through youth work.

Priorities for Youth states that targeted youth provision will be supported to meet the needs of young people living in rural isolation as they may be at greater risk of social inclusion, marginalisation or isolation because they experience a combination of barriers to learning.

The future planning, funding and delivery of youth work will be based on composite assessment of local and regional need by the Education Authority and the Youth Council. A Regional Youth Development Plan for 2015-16, informed through stakeholder engagement in the form of the Regional Advisory Group, has been developed to address the Department’s priorities in the regional and local context.