Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with the Guide Association on Government support for outdoor adventure centres in (a) Waddow Hall in Lancashire and (b) other places.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people.
We have guaranteed that by 2025, every young person in England will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities. This is supported by over £500 million of investment in youth services.
As part of the National Youth Guarantee, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is providing over £16 million to Uniformed Youth Organisations, including Girlguiding, to support them to tackle their waiting lists and create more opportunities for young people to participate in these groups.
As an independent organisation it is for Girlguiding to set its own policy. However, the government recognises the importance of Girlguiding’s outdoor adventure centres to many girls and is engaging with Girlguiding on these issues.
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, if she will publish the programmes that were allocated funding from the Youth Investment Fund for youth programmes and supporting youth service delivery between 2017-18 and 2020-21.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport originally launched a Youth Investment Fund programme in September 2016, which ran from 2016 to 2021. Following two rounds of applications, 91 funding awards were made in the six areas targeted by the programme. The six targeted areas were:
Bristol and Somerset
East London
Eastern regions
Liverpool City region
Tees Valley and Sunderland
West Midlands
A list of award recipients allocated funding from this programme, delivered between 2017 and 2021, can be found here.
In autumn 2019 the government announced a new Youth Investment Fund which is being delivered in two distinct phases.
Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund (YIF), administered by BBC Children in Need, delivered £12 million of funding in 2021-22 to over 400 local youth organisations in levelling up priority areas in England. Recipients of YIF Phase 1 can be found here.
Phase Two of the Youth Investment Fund opened for applications on 1 August 2022. No awards have yet been made.
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 she has made of the adequacy of long-term funding for youth services.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28/04/22 to Question 159010.
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 plans she has for strengthening the duty on local authorities to provide youth work services.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
DCMS officials are currently reviewing the statutory duty and its associated guidance to assess its effectiveness after a call for responses from key youth stakeholders. We will publish the outcomes of the review 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, what her strategy is for ensuring that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people are reached by youth work in England.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Local Authorities have a statutory duty to secure sufficient youth services in line with local need. Before securing such services, local authorities are required to take steps to ascertain the views of young people in their area and must take those views into account when deciding on the services to be provided. Funding for these services come from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion last year. DCMS are currently reviewing the guidance associated with the statutory duty.
DCMS funds Universal Youth Services that are open to all young people and is investing £560 million over the next 3 years in a new National Youth Guarantee, so that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.
Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund, administered by BBC Children in Need, has delivered £12 million of funding this year to over 400 local youth organisations in levelling up priority areas in England. Five organisations working with Gypsy, Roma and/or Traveller communities were awarded funding. The grants have a total value of £202,346 which represents 1.7% of the total amount awarded. Phase Two of the Youth Investment Fund is expected to open in summer 2022.
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, how much and what proportion of the funds allocated from the Youth Investment Fund have been to organisations working with Gypsy, Roma and/or Traveller communities.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Local Authorities have a statutory duty to secure sufficient youth services in line with local need. Before securing such services, local authorities are required to take steps to ascertain the views of young people in their area and must take those views into account when deciding on the services to be provided. Funding for these services come from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion last year. DCMS are currently reviewing the guidance associated with the statutory duty.
DCMS funds Universal Youth Services that are open to all young people and is investing £560 million over the next 3 years in a new National Youth Guarantee, so that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.
Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund, administered by BBC Children in Need, has delivered £12 million of funding this year to over 400 local youth organisations in levelling up priority areas in England. Five organisations working with Gypsy, Roma and/or Traveller communities were awarded funding. The grants have a total value of £202,346 which represents 1.7% of the total amount awarded. Phase Two of the Youth Investment Fund is expected to open in summer 2022.
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 discussions officials in her Department have had with their counterparts in the Department for Education on the adequacy of youth work training places.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
DCMS is the department responsible for the youth sector workforce and is committed to supporting its development. DCMS funds the National Youth Agency to set professional standards, qualifications and a curriculum for youth work, including a new youth work apprenticeship and free-to-access training. DCMS bursaries have fully-funded hundreds of individuals to gain youth work qualifications who otherwise may have been excluded due to cost.
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 NCS Trust Annual Business Plan 2021-2022, published on 27 May 2021, and the announcement by the Government in the December 2020 Spending Review of almost £100 million of funding to deliver the National Citizen Service (NCS) and invest in youth facilities, how much of that funding he has allocated to the NCS Trust for the purposes of delivering that business plan.
Answered by Matt Warman
Of the almost £100 million of funding announced in the December 2020 Spending Review, £60.8m was allocated to the NCS Trust. This was in addition to £35.2m of funding that had already been allocated to NCS Trust for the purposes of delivering its 21-22 Annual Business Plan.
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 NCS Trust Annual Business Plan 2021-2022, published on 27 May 2021, what target the Government has set for participation in the year 2021-22.
Answered by Matt Warman
For April 2021 - March 22 we have delayed setting annual participation targets for the number of young people participating in the NCS programme. This is because of the uncertainty caused by Covid and the need for NCS Trust to change the way it is delivering services. We will be setting participation targets shortly as we now have more certainty over the services that can be provided by NCS Trust.
While residential programmes were not possible due to Covid last year, NCS remained focused on offering young people valuable opportunities, resulting in 85,000 young people taking part in groups in NCS activities and hundreds of thousands accessing NCS digital content.
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 NCS Trust Annual Business Plan 2021-2022, published on 27 May 2021, whether the range of NCS experiences is offered all year round.
Answered by Matt Warman
NCS Trust runs a series of different programmes at different points throughout the year. These include:
NCS Changemakers groups which run year-round in the majority of local authority areas.
NCS part-residential programmes, normally delivered largely through summer holidays and the autumn. These programmes will not run as normal in 2021 because of covid precautions, and will be replaced by a variety of day trips focused on activities to boost skills for life and work alongside an enhanced digital offer.
NCS Skills Booster personal development programme for schools, which launched in 2020. Resources are available for use year-round, including in schools, who can also draw down sessions delivered by the NCS network of delivery partners in term-time.
NCS as the national partner for the pilot of the UK Year of Service, where young people aged 18-24 will take part in 9-12 month work placements in their community, and will access wrap-around training and support to help them become world and work ready.