University of Twente Student Theses
The Dutch Youth Act : the relationship between its policy design and the goal achievement in the local context
Baptist, L. (2022) The Dutch Youth Act : the relationship between its policy design and the goal achievement in the local context.
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| Abstract: | The Dutch Youth Act was decentralised in 2015, whereby the responsibility was shifted from the national government to the municipalities. The new Youth Act established goals concerning more focus on prevention and the self-reliance of the youngster and their social environment, strengthening the educational climate, customising youth care, an integrated approach with one financial system and freedom of action for professionals. After more than five years of implementing the new Youth Act, the established results have not improved youth care. However, whilst evaluations concerning the Youth Act identify the issues related to the changes in the Youth act, it is unclear why these issues occur. Therefore, to better understand why the Youth Act does not lead to expected improvements, this study aims to study the relationship between the policy design in municipalities based on the Youth Act Goals and the achievement of these goals by answering the following question: To what extent are the goals of the Youth Act achieved through the local youth care policies in selected municipalities of the Netherlands between 2015 and 2019? The relationship is studied by evaluating the policy design through a content analysis of 54 municipal policy documents of 2015 and goal achievement through data concerning youth care use in the same municipalities of 2015 and 2019. The results of both analyses are used to examine the relationship. The results showed the variables concerning policy design are specified by at least mentioning them in a majority of the municipalities, whereas for goal achievement two out of three related variables showed a positive trend. However, the expected relationship between the variables of policy design and their related variables concerning goal achievement were only partially visible for two expected relationships, whereas the other four relationships were not visible. These results suggest that the expected relationship between the policy design and goal achievement is not reflected in the results. Thus, the achievement of the goals cannot be explained by the policy design of the municipalities. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 70 social sciences in general, 80 pedagogy, 88 social and public administration |
| Programme: | Public Administration MSc (60020) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90854 |
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