DCVYS newsletter highlighted the following

GOVERNMENT OFFICE FOR THE SOUTH WEST – as part of the re-structuring of the GOSW the Safer and Stronger Communities Directorate has been established. This new Directorate pulls together GOSW’s work on crime, drugs and antisocial behaviour with that on neighbourhood renewal, community cohesion, equalities and the third sector.

NEW DEPARTMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS – with the advent of Gordon Brown’s leadership there are changes to the departmental set up, with the DfES being split in two. The Department for Children, Schools and Families will be responsible for children’s services, families, schools, 14-19 education, and the Respect Taskforce and The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP is the Secretary of State for this department. Further education will come within the remit of the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills with The Rt Hon John Denham MP as Secretary of State.

IMPLEMENTING YOUTH MATTERS: Continuing the dialogue with young people – The DfES has launched a drive to gather young people’s views on its youth policies. The initiative follows on from the consultation on the Youth Matters green paper, which attracted about 19,000 responses from young people. The department wants to ensure that it continues to receive feedback from young people as it implements the proposals in the green paper and so has recently held a consultation with young people (closing 2nd July), seeking their views on a range of subjects, including whether they feel that services have improved in the past year, and whether they are aware of youth initiatives such as the Youth Opportunity Fund and creative fund Mediabox – see www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conDetails.cfm?consultationId=1483. As part of the drive Parmjit Dhanda, the undersecretary of state for children, young people and families, has recently undertaken a seven-stop tour of England, visiting youth groups and meeting young people and reported his findings at The National Youth Agency’s Youth Summit on 25th June. He planned to talk to as many young people as time allowed – including those from the poorest and most challenging backgrounds and was joined on some of his visits by other Government ministers who were keen to learn more about youth issues, including Culture Minister for the Third Sector, Ed Miliband. For further information see www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0100