National Youth Strategy

Baroness Scott of Needham Market Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Grand Committee

[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.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness D'Souza (CB)]

My Lords, there is no doubt that the announcement of a national youth strategy which will be with us by the summer is good news. The Minister will therefore forgive me if what I have to say may sound a little carping. I have three areas of concern. Where is the funding to come from? What plans are there to co-ordinate the different government departments that may be involved? How is the success of this venture to be evaluated, even in the short term?

On funding, the Government have committed £85 million, plus £100 million to come from a frozen assets fund. The demise of the National Citizen Service will remove perhaps hundreds of millions of pounds from the wider sector, including funding for about 250 youth organisations, much of which was due at the beginning of the new financial year in April. Are the £50 million savings predicted by the removal of the NCS additional to the Budget figures announced?

A further worry is which department is responsible for dispensing the budget. It would seem that the broad remit described would involve several government departments—for example, employment, health, mental health, crime, justice, education and other youth work would, by my count, involve at least five different government departments.

We all know that the best policies in the world can get lost, or modified beyond the original aims, in the business of governance. I have long argued that a Minister for children should be appointed at Cabinet level, thereby giving the planned strategy the weight it deserves and the guarantee of implementation across government. What assurances can the Minister give that the report scheduled for the summer of this year will be implemented in its entirety?

Last November, and before the announcement of the national youth strategy, UK Youth convened the Joined Up Summit. Some 500 leaders and decision-makers from all sectors, together with a representative group of 16 to 25 year-olds, discussed what, in their opinion, the strategy should include. After 15 years of brutal cuts to local government youth work budgets—by about three-quarters since 2010—the consensus was that major investment was now needed. It was agreed not only that such a strategy had to go beyond engagement to empowerment but that young voices must be heard and included from the design and implementation to the evaluation stages. Can the Minister say that this will in fact happen, despite cost and co-ordination issues that may arise?

Finally, I will look briefly at priorities. Who is doing the prioritising and what might the criteria be? It is estimated that three-quarters of youth clubs have closed down. The impact of this is profound. If young people, especially in rural areas, have nowhere to go where they can be both safe and engaged, the inevitable result is street gatherings. Recent research demonstrates that violent gangs and knife crime are significantly more frequent and more serious in those urban and rural areas lacking any youth facilities. I am sure I will get into trouble over this, but I must just say that surely somewhere for the youth to go must take precedence over, for example, one-to-one therapy on gender-change issues?

Recent surveys of generation Z people indicate support—

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

The noble Baroness has reached her time limit.

[Baroness D'Souza (CB)]

I am speaking so fast that I can hardly hear myself talk.

My most important point is this. In view of the fact that our youth is somewhat disillusioned, which we know from research, whatever else we do, we have to get this strategy right.