In October 2012, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) identified certain ‘youth programmes’ to be the subject of a Value for Money and Policy Review (VFMPR). The guidance for selection of programmes is set out in the Public Spending Code, which specifies that ‘All VFMPRs should be targeted at areas of significant expenditure where there is greatest potential for them to add value and influence policy developments ...’and ‘... significant elements of expenditure should be covered and VFMPRs should not be focused on schemes that account for very minor elements of spending ... Departments should focus in particular on the more discretionary areas of programme expenditure, where issues of both effectiveness and efficiency feature strongly’.

This is the first VFMPR exercise undertaken by the DCYA. Being a relatively new Government department, the DCYA was keen to harness the VFMPR as one of a range of change initiatives designed to rationalise, reform and improve programmes and areas of policy responsibility assumed by the department (from other departments) when it was set up.