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1. Governance

2. Cross-sectoral cooperation

 Governance

“Youth work” and, more specifically, socio-educational activities (See 10.1) are structured around the State, local and regional authorities, non-formal education federations and associations, and professional facilitation sectors. Each of these different stakeholders plays a different role within this governance. The State’s task is to develop policies, impose regulations and establish facilitation qualifications. It finances and co-manages the training and occupations that are supervised by the ministries concerned. It also has a regulatory role, legislating on the physical and emotional protection of children in childcare settings, the procedures for running activities, the required qualifications of childcare workers, and the safety of centres that care for young people and children. It also puts strategies in place for developing activities for young people. 

Responsibility for implementing youth policies does not lie solely with the State at national and local level. Local authorities (regional councils, departmental councils, communes and intercommunalités) also develop youth-related initiatives.

Local authorities are also involved, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, in the implementation of child- and youth-related missions in the formal and non-formal education sectors (see below).

The implementation of of socio-educational (socio-cultural) facilitation policy is mainly under the charge of the Ministry in charge of Youth and Associative life  (ministère chargé de la Jeunesse et de la Vie associative), and also mobilise the ministry of Education, the ministry of Agriculture, and the ministry for Cultural Affairs.

The Ministry of Youth and its decentralised services

Under the Ministry in charge of Youth, the DJEPVA - Department for Youth, Non-Formal Education and Voluntary Organisations (Direction de la jeunesse, de la vie associative et de l’éducation populaire) is tasked with developing youth policy. Consequently, it is a major stakeholder in youth work in its broadest sense but also more specifically in socio-educational animation.

The DJEPVA defines a framework of rules that apply to the field of youth facilitation. It lays down the conditions for access to the posts of facilitator and director. It sets out the legal framework for community centres for minors (accueils collectifs de mineurs) and ensures that this is in place, which includes carrying out checks and assessments. One of its tasks is to provide protection for the minors who attend these centres (day care centres, organised holiday centres, etc.) and promote high standards in the activities they offer.

The decentralised departments of the Ministry of Youth, based within each region, can carry out checks at these centres at any time. They also advise the organisers and management team.

In addition, the Ministry of Youth has a corps of civil servants responsible for developing and implementing youth policies: community and youth education advisers (CEPJ - Conseillers d’Éducation Populaire et de Jeunesse), technical and educational advisers (CTPS - Conseillers Techniques et Pédagogiques Supérieurs) and youth and sports inspectors (IJS - Inspecteurs de la Jeunesse et des Sports).

Ministry in charge of Sport

The Ministry of Sport and the Ministry for Youth, along with their decentralised services, organise training and the awarding of vocational State qualifications in socio-cultural and sports facilitation.

The Ministry in charge of Cultural Affairs

The Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs (DRAC - Directions régionales des affaires culturelles), under the Ministry of Culture, carry out educational and cultural initiatives in partnership with the services of the Ministry of National Education and other government departments, as well as with local authorities, in order to promote arts and cultural education.

The Ministry of Agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture has a specific teaching corps, comprising socio-cultural education teachers, who are the successors to the corps of socio-cultural activity leaders. These teachers also take on a role in organising activities. In agricultural sixth-form colleges, they develop a cultural development project for their school as part of the ‘socio-cultural education’ module (ESC).

Local and regional authorities

The local level is playing a significant role in the implementation of socio-cultural youth work policies. Local authorities are central to this field, as they are primarily responsible — particularly at the municipal level — for organizing collective childcare and youth programs where youth work takes place, as well as for recruiting staff (such as program directors and youth workers). In carrying out these programs, local authorities work closely with the decentralized services of the Ministry in charge of Youth affairs.

In addition, they are also responsible for developing educational and youth work projects, as well as territorial education plans that bring together all stakeholders involved in the field of education in order to build coherent youth and childhood policies aligned with formal education policies. Furthermore, they co-finance a wide range of socio-educational structures, particularly within the non-profit sector, such as community centers and youth and cultural centers. Issues relating to early childhood (ages 0 to 6) fall under the mandatory responsibility of the Departmental Council in the area of child protection.

However, with regard to early childhood care services, this area falls under an optional competence that may be developed by municipalities (communes) or inter-municipal groupings (groupements de communes), in accordance with Article L.214-2 of the Social Action and Families Code.

Subjects linked to socio educational activities are under the mandatory competence linked to building (maintaining) and to the technical staff (specialized territorial agents). This competency is precisely attributed to:

• for first degree public education (2 to 1 years-old): municipality or group of municipalities (EPCI – Établissement Public de Cooperation Intercommunale);
• for middle schools (11 to 15 years old), to the département;
• for high schools (starting 15 years old), to the region.

The rest of the competences linked to these actors are optional, and can be under any territorial actor interested in the development of activities in the sector.

The remaining activities associated with these institutions are optional and therefore fall within the scope of local-level action, reflecting an interest in developing such services. For example, out-of-school care constitutes an “optional public service” (Article L.551-1 of the Education Code; Law No. 2013-595 of 8 July 2013 on the orientation and programming for the refoundation of the French school system), within the framework of a territorial education plan that may involve a wide range of local stakeholders (municipalities, associations, school boards, foundations, etc.).

The development of activities promoting youth engagement and popular education, as well as the provision of training opportunities for youth work professions, may also be undertaken on an optional basis by a wide range of local stakeholders expressing an interest in assuming responsibility for them. However, under Law No. 2015-991 of 7 August 2015 on the new territorial organization of the Republic (the “NOTRe Law”), these areas theoretically fall under the coordinating authority of the regional level. The recommended age range for the development of such activities is 16 to 25, although this may be adjusted by the local actors responsible for their implementation.

 Cross-sectoral Cooperation

The departments responsible for youth, historically associated with the Education, Social Affairs, Sports or Urban Affairs portfolios, will join the departments of the Ministry of National Education in 2021, both at central and decentralised levels, illustrating the cross-cutting nature of this issue, which requires the implementation of multi-partner cooperation and shared policies. This is illustrated by a number of initiatives:

• the Territorial Educational Plan (PEDT - Plan éducatif territorial);

• the « Wednesday programme » (Plan mercredi)
• « Educational cities » (Cités éducatives)
• The Youth Work Sector Committee and its plan “For a Renewal of Youth Work in Collective Childcare Settings” (Pour un renouveau de l’animation en accueils collectifs de mineurs);
• The National Training Programme in the fields of “Youth” and “Sport”.

For more information, see chapter 10.3. “Cooperation”