Government funding package to support youth services and increase opportunities for young people

The Prime Minister has announced an £88 million package of funding to improve out-of-school and enrichment opportunities for young people, including a new £22.5 million investment to support enrichment activities in 400 schools across England.

This announcement follows the long-awaited Votes at 16 policy milestone and the launch of Young Futures Hubs. The Building Creative Futures package of measures announced this week is part of the government’s upcoming National Youth Strategy, set to launch this autumn, and includes:

• £22.5 million over three years to create a tailored enrichment offer in up to 400 schools. This will give pupils access to extra-curricular activities such as sport, art and music, outdoor activities, debating or volunteering that support wellbeing and essential skills around the school day.
• The launch of the Better Youth Spaces programme, a £30.5 million fund to improve youth club infrastructure in areas with the highest levels of child poverty. This will go towards smaller capital projects such as new gym equipment and climbing walls. The application window for this fund is now open and welcomes applications from youth organisations that deliver for young people in the eligible areas. For London this includes Barking and Dagenham, Enfield, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets. More information has been published here.
• The rollout of the Local Youth Transformation pilot, an £8 million programme to support 12 local authorities to deliver a high-quality out-of-school offer. It will run until 2026 and assess, improve and invest in impactful local youth provision in the pilot areas and generate learning that will benefit the sector as a whole. The two London pilot areas are Islington and Southwark. The NYA will lead delivery alongside other youth sector partners. We hope the learning from these pilots will highlight the need for greater investment in our youth sector infrastructure.
• The launch of a third phase of the Million Hours Fund, a £19 million joint funding programme with The National Lottery Community Fund to deliver over a million additional hours of youth work in areas with high rates of anti-social behaviour. Youth organisations that meet the criteria in eligible wards can apply now until 22 October. Find out more about the fund and apply here.
• £7.5 million for the Uniformed Youth Fund, creating thousands of new places in youth organisations like The Scouts, Guides and Volunteer Police Cadets in areas of unmet demand.

London Youth’s Chief Executive, Pauline Daniyan, commented:

“The recent Government announcements provide a much-needed focus on the value of youth work and investing in youth spaces and opportunities for young people. While these initiatives are a welcome offer of support for youth organisations doing vital work in their communities, we fear that much of the millions being invested may be out of reach for many organisations due to tight timeframes and restrictive criteria. With the launch of the Youth Strategy in the autumn, we need to see a long-term commitment that truly matches the scale of young people’s needs and rebuilds the youth infrastructure that supports them.”

You can read more in the Government’s press release here.