Baroness Burt of Solihull
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Young Futures Hubs
Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts(3 days, 7 hours ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right. In thinking about the partnerships and the existing provision on which Young Futures hubs will be built, the voluntary sector will have a really important role to play—as she says, quite often reaching the parts that the statutory sector cannot reach. It is precisely those sorts of partnerships that will make Young Futures hubs effective. I take the opportunity to wish her a good break too, because I know we will spend several days together when we return in September.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, it is a tough old time for young people right now, not helped by the reduction in funding for youth services that we have seen over quite a few years. It is great to see the plethora of innovations coming through for them, but I worry that these hubs seek to be all things to all people, with the idea that they can help with mental issues, knife crime, drug issues, work skills and so on. As these hubs roll out, what assessments are planned to make them as successful and cost effective as possible?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is definitely right. We have seen a reduction in spending on youth services of 73% since 2011, but that is a reason to be ambitious in the way that the Government are being with the Young Futures hubs. Good-quality youth provision has always been able to tackle all the issues that the noble Baroness identifies—it has just been undercut and reduced very considerably in the past 13 or 14 years. In bringing back those opportunities, with what we have learned about how to tackle mental health, divert young people from crime and provide the range of opportunities that enable young people to succeed in their lives, it is that ambition that the Young Futures hubs will deliver. The eight early adopters will help us to find the models that work well and, as the noble Baroness says, to evaluate them to ensure that we are building on the best practice.