National Youth Strategy

David Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2026 Westminster Hall

[Harpreet Uppal (Huddersfield) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the National Youth Strategy and youth enrichment.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight the importance of the national youth strategy and youth enrichment. I know that many colleagues share my commitment to ensuring that every young person is offered the support and opportunities they need to thrive.

Youth services are not a luxury, but an essential part of our communities. I commend the Minister and her team for the Government’s national youth strategy and its £500 million commitment to rebuild the places, relationships and power structures that young people need to thrive. It aims to right the wrongs of previous Administrations and confront the challenges faced by more than 10 million young people.

We must be honest about the challenges. Having been born and raised in Huddersfield, I have seen at first hand the impact of austerity on young people. Too many have had their futures torn away from them. Youth services have lost around £1.2 billion in local authority funding since 2010, with more than half of council-run youth centres closing in that time. Kirklees council, which covers my Huddersfield constituency, saw a 70% decrease in funding from 2011 to 2025. That leaves just over £47 per young person being spent on youth services in our community.

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

We know all about funding cuts in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire—they were more than 90% in our local area—so I welcome this investment. However, does my hon. Friend agree that we must ensure we get the revenue funding as well as capital funding? That is what makes activity work on the ground.

[Harpreet Uppal]

My hon. Friend is quite right, and I will come to that point later.

Young people who have lost access to youth clubs have been shown to be 14% more likely to engage in criminal activity in the six years following closures. A recent project in Ashbrow in my constituency saw antisocial behaviour fall by an incredible 63%. Alongside policing operations, partnerships were developed with community organisations to support children and young people, alongside regular intervention programmes designed to support those most at risk. The evidence is clear: when youth services are cut, our young people and communities suffer; when they are funded, young people and entire communities thrive.

The youth strategy sets out a 10-year vision, but current funding commitments cover only the first few years, so will the Minister outline how the Government will ensure long-term investment so that organisations have the certainty they need? Will she also confirm how her Department will work alongside other Departments to ensure greater alignment between all Government reforms focused on young people?

Since being elected, I have had the privilege of visiting many of the youth work organisations in my constituency and have witnessed at first hand the life-changing work they deliver. They include Central Stars youth club, Yorkshire Community Development, Empower, Positive Stepz, Team KickStart, Conscious Youth, Boxpower and Temple Well-Being, as well as the foundations of Huddersfield Town football club and Huddersfield Giants. I will also mention organisations working at the national level, such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s award team, some of whom are here today—thank you for joining us [Hon. Members: “Hear, Hear!”]—the National Youth Agency and all members of UK Youth. All those organisations and many others deliver outstanding community-led services and policy work, often in difficult financial circumstances.

Crucially, many of the organisations also offer opportunities to access sustained enrichment programmes, such as volunteering, physical activity and skills development, which can help to close opportunity gaps, particularly for young people who face disadvantage. Enrichment should not be seen as a “nice to have”; activities outside the classroom also give young people direct exposure to environments that many have never previously accessed.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)]

Of course. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) on securing this important debate, and I am grateful to all those who contributed to what is an important conversation. We heard some brilliant contributions that highlighted just how important it is to support young people across the country. This generation is the most connected but most isolated one, and our national youth strategy aims to tackle that and the challenges associated with it. Members made a number of points on spaces, places and funding, which I will address throughout my contribution.

A specific point put to me was around the importance of providing streamlined funding, particularly access to both revenue and capital funding. The Government have merged some funding regimes, and I am happy to write to Members with more details. The shadow Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) not only made important points but paid tribute to their work experience students. I add my thanks to those students for their contributions.

The hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) put two specific points to me, including one about GoWild Outdoors in his constituency and the changes to school sport. I understand the concerns about the decision to replace the existing PE and sport premium for primary schools; however, despite sustained investment through that premium for more than a decade, fewer than half of children get the 60 active minutes a day recommended by the chief medical officer, and persistent inequalities remain for girls and people from disadvantaged communities. That is simply not good enough.

The Government are determined to close those gaps in participation, which is why we have committed more than £1 billion in funding for PE and school sport over the next three years. That includes £580 million for a new PE and school sport partnerships network to replace the PE and sport premium, alongside investment in improvements to school sport facilities and transitional support for primaries. That change includes secondary and primary, and capital and revenue funding. I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss that further, if it would be helpful. He also asked about the overnight levy. That policy is led by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, but of course, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Treasury have significant interest in it, and I work closely with my ministerial colleagues. The consultation on that is yet to be published, but I will happily write to him on that point in due course.

I will now take the opportunity to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award. Over the last seven decades, the award has changed the lives of countless young people; I saw that in action and at first hand when I visited Barnsley academy in Kendray in my constituency. We know the transformative power the award can have on young people: learning new skills, developing confidence and making friends are just a few of the benefits of completing the DofE award.

I am delighted to be attending the parliamentary reception for the 70th anniversary next week; it is great to see that some representatives join us today. I thank the teachers, volunteers and all those who have worked hard to achieve the award across the country. Just a few months ago, I visited Centrepoint just outside of the centre of Barnsley, which is working with homeless young people on their Duke of Edinburgh’s awards. As the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) referenced, more than six million hours of volunteering is phenomenal, and just one of the contributions made by the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.

As the Minister with responsibility for youth, I am proud of the conversations that the Government have had and continue to have with young people. Last month, I signed the power of youth charter to demonstrate our commitment to youth empowerment. That sends the clear message that we are listening and will act, and illustrates the importance that we place on youth voice, which was raised by a number of Members. We always said that our youth strategy would be not about young people, but made with and by young people. We wanted to know what mattered, and we listened. The voices of young people are right at the heart of the decisions that we made.

The Government’s landmark national youth strategy is ambitious, long term and cross cutting. “Youth Matters” radically transforms how we work, to give every young person somewhere to go, someone who cares and a community that they feel part of. We have been clear about what that means: by 2035, we want to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers, and for half a million people to have access to a trusted adult outside their home. We have the ambition to halve the participation gap because we do not believe that a young person’s background should determine the opportunities that they get. We are fiercely committed to breaking down barriers, and are working across Government and with partners to make that a reality.

[David Williams]

On closing that gap, research shows that for every £1 a year spent on a young person in a place such as Stoke-on-Trent or Kidsgrove, £10 a year is spent on a young person in inner London. I welcome all the investment via the national youth strategy, but how can we use the strategy to close the gap, to make sure that we lift young people from Stoke and Staffordshire up to those levels?

[Stephanie Peacock]

I totally appreciate my hon. Friend’s point. Under the previous Government, my area of Barnsley saw some of the worst cuts in the country, but despite that, the then Labour council invested in the youth zone and free transport for under-18s. I know that the challenges in Stoke will be similar to those in Barnsley, and of course there will be pockets of deprivation in London and other areas. We want to ensure that every young person, whatever their postcode, gets the support they need. Obviously, this is in the context of 73% cuts in England over the last so many years. That will not be reversed overnight, but we have an ambition to work towards reversing it.

The strategy is backed by £500 million of DCMS funding. That will include funding for new builds, refurbishments and capital equipment, so that organisations can improve or expand their services. I have seen the impact of schemes like that, from the reopening of the Double Six Youth Club in Sheffield, to Eloquent Dance in Birmingham.

The second ambition is increasing access to trusted adults—my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) spoke about this—because we know how important it is for young people to have someone in their corner. As the Minister responsible for youth but also civil society and sport, I often hear about the fantastic work of youth workers, volunteers, sports coaches and many others. I have also seen that at first hand in places such as East Bierley Community Sports Association in Kirklees, which I visited a few weeks ago and which is just down the road from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield. In the interest of time, I will not mention any more, but I have seen so many.

However, as many as one in five young people still does not have a trusted adult outside the home to talk to. We want to change that. Our recent joint investment with the King’s Trust of £10 million will expand young people’s access to a trusted adult. That money will be matched with corporate and philanthropic investment, bringing the total to £20 million to build young people’s skills and tackle youth unemployment. We will follow that with £15 million, over the next three years, for youth workers, volunteers and others who work closely with young people. An additional £5 million will help organisations to spread good practice, improve data and build strong local partnerships.

Expanding enrichment is a key aim of our strategy. Young people have told us that they want more in-person opportunities, whether that be through arts and culture, sports, volunteering, or being outdoors in nature. We know that those experiences are invaluable for wellbeing, belonging, school attendance and future employment opportunities. That is especially true for disadvantaged young people. Those who attend after-school clubs achieve, on average, a two-points-higher total score in their key stage 2 assessments in English, maths and science at the end of primary school. That is the value of enriching activities, and that is why the Government recently published the enrichment framework to give every school and college the tools to offer high-quality enrichment. That framework is for all pupils, to ensure that access is not limited because of who someone is or where they are from.

Building on the enrichment framework, my Department will invest £22.5 million to support up to 400 schools to meet the benchmarks. That will help them to listen to the pupils in their school about what they really want, and to act on it. We will work with schools in some of the most deprived areas of England to ensure that where young people live is not a barrier anymore. We have also announced Every Child Can—an investment of £132.5 million of dormant assets funding to fund opportunities across the five key categories of enrichment. That includes ensuring that every school has access to a library.

When talking about enrichment, I think of organisations in my own area, such as the Barnsley Youth Choir, which is giving hundreds of young people amazing experiences, opportunities and skills, Beat the Street, whereby primary schools get together and get kids more active, or our brilliant new Base71 Youth Zone.

A number of Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell), spoke about cross-Government work. We have a Young Futures ministerial group. Delivering for young people is a shared responsibility; we are not doing that alone. Across Government, we are working with incredible partners that are delivering on the ground and galvanising action—uniformed youth organisations, the Duke of Edinburgh’s award of course, and many others. We are working closely with local authorities and developing a network of up to 50 youth hubs. We have already opened eight pilot hubs, and the learnings will inform the remainder of the programme. That includes how we align with other Government initiatives such as the Young Futures panels and the Department for Work and Pensions youth hubs.

My hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons), who of course is the chair of the all-party group, and my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan), as well as others, spoke about strengthening the statutory duty on local authorities to provide a sufficient youth offer. We are already taking steps to address that. Our local outcomes framework outlines key priorities and accountability for local government. We will explore reviewing the statutory duty, but we must ensure that any change is properly funded in order to empower, not burden, local authorities.

Every time a young person discovers their passions and pushes themselves outside their comfort zone, that has an impact far beyond the youth club or sports pitch. It is a step towards them becoming a more resilient, positive and connected adult, and it is a powerful reminder of our nation’s story—one that has produced world-famous musicians, actors, athletes, inventors and entrepreneurs. They all started as a young person who was told that they could reach their potential. This Government are ensuring that young people hear that same message again.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield and all other Members who contributed to the debate.