Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's announcement of a new £500 million youth investment fund, what the (a) capital and (b) revenue expenditure of that investment fund will be in each of the next five years; how that funding will be allocated; and when that funding will be made available.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
Funding from the Youth Investment Fund will be released from 2020-21, and DCMS officials are working alongside HM Treasury to confirm the details.We will be designing the fund in close consultation with young people, the organisations that work with them and other departments. We will communicate our plans for this as soon as possible.Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2019 to Question 260670 on Youth Services and with reference to her Department's announcement on 10 July 2019 that a public consultation would be held for 8 weeks from late July 2019, when the consultation will begin; and how the process will be taken forward.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the announcement of 27 February 2019 that new youth voice projects will be launched to encourage young people to participate in making national policy, what policies will be prioritised for youth participation; and what steps she will take to ensure the work and influence of the projects is transparent.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
Three new youth voice projects were announced in February to encourage young people to participate in making national policy:
- Youth Steering Group
- Young Inspectors Group
- Digital Youth engagement research
The Youth Steering Group has already been involved in discussing the Government’s future offer for young people and the review of the guidance which sets out the statutory duty placed on local authorities to provide appropriate local youth services. The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy invited the Youth Steering Group to conduct a review of environment and climate policy. Young people are also contributing to policy development on serious violence through the Government’s Youth Advisory Forum on Serious Violence .
The Young Inspectors Group are participating in the monitoring and evaluation of national programmes affecting young people.
The Digital Youth Engagement research explored how new digital solutions can enable large numbers of young people to play a role in consultations and policy design across government.
We will make further announcements on these pioneering Youth Voice projects in due course
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2019 to Question 223803, what proportion of young people who participated and completed National Citizen Service in each year since 2011 were not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government does not currently collect data about the number of young people who participated in NCS who were not in education, employment or training. The Government does disaggregate NCS participant data by: black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME), minority religion, special educational needs and disability (SEND), free school meals (FSM) and young people in care.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2019 to Question 226156, what the Government's timeframe is for publication of the National Citizen Service 2018 participation figures.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government will publish the NCS 2018 participation figures on gov.uk by autumn 2019.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Civil Society Strategy, what the timetable is for reviewing guidance on the statutory duties of local authorities to provide appropriate local youth services.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In August last year, my department published the Civil Society Strategy, in which the Government committed to review the guidance which sets out the statutory duty placed on local authorities to provide appropriate local youth services. An announcement will be made shortly. We expect that the review will provide greater clarity of Government’s expectations, including the value added by good youth work.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 Mar 2019 to Question 226700 on Extended Services, what steps the Government is taking to ensure there is a clear pathway from Play Services to Youth Services for children and young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government is committed to supporting young people to develop the skills and resilience needed to succeed in life.
We will be working closely with young people themselves, the youth sector, and other partners to develop a new Youth Charter, which will set out Government’s vision for young people over the next generation and beyond.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential role of youth work in supplementing and augmenting formal education while also developing skills of young people not fulfilled in a formal school environment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government recognises that informal education can play a positive role in providing young people with the skills and resilience needed to succeed in life. We value opportunities for young people to build trusted relationships and to seek spaces where youth work can deliver high quality information, advice and guidance alongside positive activities that improve wellbeing and participation in their communities.
Government is committed to supporting youth workers to develop the skills they need to best support all young people. We have pledged to renew specific youth work qualifications that were due to expire in 2020, subject to a business case, and review the youth work training curriculum.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the positive effect of youth work in supporting (a) young LGBT people, (b) young people with special needs, (c) young women, (d) religious communities and (e) other groups with specific identities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government is committed to supporting youth workers to develop the skills they need to best support all young people. We have pledged to renew specific youth work qualifications that were due to expire in 2020, subject to a business case, and review the youth work training curriculum.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer 4 Apr 2019 to Question 238657 on Voluntary Work: Young People, whether the maximum budget allocated to NCS was lowered when the maximum participation ceiling allocated to NCS was revised downwards in the 2017 revised Spending Review.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The maximum budget available for NCS was lowered in line with the lowered participation ceiling in the 2017 revised Spending Review settlement.