On this page
On this page
Structure of Decision-making
National public authorities
After the general elections of 2012, a new government was installed from a coalition between the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD – Liberal party) and the Party for Labour (PvdA – Social Democrats). The next Dutch general elections will take place on 15 March 2017 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. More information can be found on the English pages of the Dutch governmental website.
As stated before in paragraph 1.2, four ministries are responsible for various aspects concerning youth in the Netherlands:
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport: Overall youth policy and most specialized services for families and children. The minister is responsible for all domains of the Ministry. The State Secretary also has Youth in his portfolio.
Ministry of Security and Justice: juvenile justice policy and related institutions.
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science: all educational matters in the Netherlands.
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment: labour related measures, including the Childcare Act for the childcare services and playgroups.
Main themes
Regional public authorities with competencies in the youth field
All responsibilities of the provincial authorities in youth policy are transferred to the municipalities in 2015. For some of the smaller municipalities it is necessary to cooperate on a regional level because they are too small to perform all tasks themselves. Smaller municipalities have therefore formed regional alliances to organize residential care, foster care, child protection measures, youth probation, certain types of specialized care and/or secure care.
The National Agency for Youth
There is no national agency for youth in The Netherlands.