National Youth Strategy

Baroness Anelay of St Johns Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Grand Committee

Asked by

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in developing a National Youth Strategy.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Scott of Needham Market) (LD)]

My Lords, the time limit for this debate is one hour. With the exception of the opener and the Minister winding, noble Lords have three minutes, which is very tight. When the clock flashes, time is up.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Con)]

My Lords, this short debate today gives us the opportunity to ask the Minister to provide more information to Parliament and of course to the public about the Government’s plans for a national youth strategy, the nature of their consultation process and the progress they have made.

In answer to my Oral Question last October, the Minister stated:

“This Government are committed to empowering young people to make a difference in their communities and are working with them to develop a new national strategy for young people”.—[Official Report, 31/10/24; col. 1208.]


That is a positive: the Government are partnering with young people to help develop the strategy and are managing a listening exercise to enable young people to have a say on decisions that affect their lives. It was, however, disappointing—the Minister will expect me to refer to this—that the Government decided to wind down the National Citizen Service from March this year. The service was a success and had cross-party support. Its closure will leave a hole in youth services this year while we await the publication and implementation of the Government’s plans.

I am grateful, as always, to organisations with expertise in this area for providing briefings for our debate today. I know that Peers have received expert briefings from organisations including the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Girlguiding, the National Youth Agency and Youth Access, as well as other organisations.

In the run-up to the general election last year, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award launched its research paper, Youth Voices 2024. The findings showed that young people are ambitious for their own futures but continue to feel unheard and unsupported on the very issues that will define their lives and careers. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award asks that the national strategy should include a youth pledge, committing to put youth voices and representation at all levels of policy and decision-making on the issues that impact young people. Today, I ask whether the Minister will consider responding positively to that recommendation.

I note that the DCMS has launched a survey, which it describes on its website as a

“national listening exercise to let young people have their say on support services, facilities and the opportunities they need outside the school gates”.

That sounds a very useful survey and I certainly support it; it was announced eight days ago and closes on 16 April. Although it is welcome, I hope that young people will know enough about it and will want to engage with it, to make it as valuable as it can be. It is, of course, a one-off specifically related to the drafting of the national youth strategy paper. I do not criticise that, but I hope that the Minister will reflect further on the request of the DoE Award that that kind of relationship with young people should be a continuing process.

At the moment, rather surprisingly, it is unclear how the national youth strategy will work in practice—work is under way—so I would be grateful if the Minister could clarify the following issues. Will the deficit in funding from the closure of the National Citizen Service be restored, or will that loss of further funding from the youth sector be a permanent reduction in funding? Which measures under the national youth guarantee will be carried forward, given the closure of the National Citizen Service? Does the Minister expect that the strategy will be accompanied by funding additional to that which was detailed in the initial announcement, as we now await the multiyear comprehensive spending review this summer?

How will the strategy work cross-departmentally? That is something I have always been interested in, having been a Minister myself; I know the importance and complexity involved in that. How will the cross-departmental work align and feed into initiatives such as the Young Futures programme, the child poverty strategy, the violence against women and girls strategy, the 10-year health plan, the curriculum and assessment review and indeed the Online Safety Act?

How are the front-line youth workforces, which are out there working so hard, being consulted about the national youth strategy and how it will become operational? There is also some uncertainty about when we might have sight of the national youth strategy or indeed, I appreciate, an interim version of it.

Last November, Ministers said that they were kick-starting—I thought it was rather unfortunate to use a rather violent image, but never mind; football was on their mind, as that was the season, so there we are—the process of consultation. We heard from the Secretary of State on 16 January this year:

“My officials are reviewing the evidence base, which they will consider, and we are launching the strategy in the summer, with an interim report expected in the spring”.—[Official Report, Commons, 16/1/25; col. 46.]


However, we then heard from the Minister, Stephanie Peacock, on 11 February:

“We have now begun our engagement with young people and the sectors that work with them, as part of the co-production process”.


On the face of it, although I do not think this was intended, it looks as though those two statements are contradictory with each other. It would be nice to have some clarity on that. It sounds as though it is cart before horse happening there.

In the February debate, Stephanie Peacock went on to announce:

“We will provide more information to MPs within the next month regarding the development of the national youth strategy”.—[Official Report, Commons, 11/2/25; cols. 104-05WH.]


Even by my maths, I can see that that month has come and gone, so is the Minister able to deliver that further information today? By the way, I think that Members of the House of Lords, not just MPs, would be pleased to see that worksheet as well.

I appreciate that producing a national strategy is a difficult process, especially when one has carried out a wide and clearly well-drafted consultation process. I support the Government’s intent to co-produce that strategy with those who matter—the young people. However, it would be helpful to everyone, not just parliamentarians, for the Minister to be able to clarify what information will be available and when that is likely to be. I know that spring can extend a long way into the distance, but people, particularly young people and those who work with them, want to know the kind of information that is going to be provided publicly. It is crucial that there is clarity for young people to be reassured that the listening exercise really has borne fruit and that the delivery of the strategy will be funded appropriately. I appreciate the difficulty of that in the current climate, with decisions that have had to be made because of our need for the defence of this country, and of course we debate those matters elsewhere.

If a shortage of time prevents the Minister from answering all our questions today—and I suspect it might—then I would be grateful if she might respond to noble Lords in writing and place a copy in the Library of the House. In the meantime, I look forward very much to hearing all other noble Lords who are contributing to this debate.