My Department provides targeted supports for young people aged 10-24 who are marginalised, vulnerable or disadvantaged by means of the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, under which €47 million is being allocated in 2024 to support young people to participate youth services in their communities. Under this scheme, service providers are required to report on the engagement of young people on a monthly and quarterly basis, disaggregated by age group and gender, and this information is collected in the form of the Annual Progress Reports which are reviewed by my Department.
Because of the diversity of formats and provision-types provided by organisations supported by my Department, there are challenges in designing a robust system for consistent reporting of participation data. My Department is working with the Education and Training Boards, who are responsible for youth funding at a local level, to design a tool that accurately captures this important information.
In order to facilitate improved data reporting across the youth sector, my Department also intends to implement a digital portal for the reporting and analysis of key data, including reliable quantitative data capturing the participation of young people in services. Considerable work has been undertaken to date on this project.
