Youth Services

Baggy Shanker Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons) on securing this debate. In Derby, there are so many organisations that work really hard with our fantastic young people, whether that is Children First Derby, which provides mentoring services and support for vulnerable young children and their families, or Community Action Derby, which, through its Derby Youth Alliance, brings together partners to support vulnerable young people in our community.

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend will know that we have some incredible youth services in Derby. He has mentioned some, but there is also the local YMCA, the Derby Youth Alliance and DE23 Active. Does he agree that it is disgraceful how many other services have closed because of Tory austerity cuts?

[Baggy Shanker]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The austerity cuts have affected so many groups in Derby that either no longer exist or have had to scale back their services, and it is truly shocking.

The Derby County Community Trust does fantastic work. Safe and Sound also does excellent work in our city. The Derby promise, which we recently launched, works so hard to offer aspirational experiences to young people in our communities but could do so much more if properly funded. We know that investing in the future starts with investing in our young people—charities such as the ones my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) and I have mentioned in Derby do exactly that—but the Tories ignored this. They decimated funding for youth services, as we have heard from speaker after speaker this afternoon. Derby is no different, with youth service spending falling by a staggering 81% since 2010. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that longer-term funding for youth services is crucial, so that we can enable every young person in Derby and across the UK to thrive?