A vibrant, high quality youth service will be a key partner to the successful delivery of Connexions for 13 to 19 year olds. The Fund will be used to raise standards in youth work, train staff and ensure that youth workers take their place at the heart of the Connexions Service. We want youth services to have the best resources and to encourage young people to see youth work as a valuable career choice. We believe that it is important to integrate their work with the development of the new Connexions Service up and running in 12 areas. This draws together youth work in both the statutory and voluntary sectors the careers service, the development of mentoring programmes now linked to school improvement and other support services in health and leisure.
Young people are the nation's success story.
It is clear that innovative youth work helps to deliver this kind of success, and the Standards Fund will guarantee that this work continues.