Policy Research and Youth

Divisional Responsibilities

Youth Services Branch:

• Development and implementation of policy in respect of the Northern Ireland youth service
• Oversight and accountability of Youth Council for Northern Ireland
• Capital grants to recognised voluntary youth organisations
• Training of youth workers
• North South youth exchanges and representation on committees
• Allocation and monitoring of youth service funding to Education and Library Boards
• Allocation and monitoring of youth service funding to Millennium Volunteers and Bytes for Belfast

Community Relations Branch:

• Promotion of community relations between young people
• Schools Community Relations Programme
• Youth Service Community Relations Support Scheme
• Community Relations Core Funding Scheme
• Cultural Traditions Programme

Statistics and Research Branch:

• Research
• Statistical Series
• Analysis

Irish Medium, Integrated and Early Years (IMIEY) Branch:

• Pre-school Education programme and policy
• Co-ordination of the Children and Young People funding package
• Policy on encouraging and facilitating Integrated and Irish Medium Education

Economic Advisory Unit:

• Economic advice on policy issues
• Advice on Value for Money (VFM) of projects and in relation to specific issues

Specialist School Team:

• To plan, implement and evaluate the Specialist Schools Pilot
• Formulation of a Specialist School policy in light of outcomes from pilot
• Completion of the Demography Project assessing the impact of changing demographics across the education sector