Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reallocating the funding for National Citizen Service to the youth sector from April 2025.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We appreciate the disappointment many will be feeling following the decision to wind down the NCS programme from March 2025 and close the NCS Trust when parliamentary time allows.
This Government acknowledges the great work NCS have done over the years providing thousands of young people from all backgrounds with opportunities to become ‘work-ready and world-ready’.
We also acknowledge the challenges facing the sector and the changing needs of the young people it supports. That is why this government has launched the co-production of an ambitious new National Youth Strategy, which will be developed together with young people and the youth sector.
Funding allocations for specific programmes will be communicated in due course.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure youth voice is integrated into the new national youth strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The National Youth Strategy will be co-produced in partnership with young people and the youth sector.
DCMS has already conducted Ministerial roundtables with young people and over the next couple of months will conduct a number of different engagement activities with young people, including focus groups. In the coming weeks, we will be launching a wide-reaching survey, and a series of youth engagement activities across the country to ask young people about their issues and priorities.
We have also set up a Youth Advisory Group and an Expert Advisory Group to work alongside us throughout the development of the strategy.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the need for the National Youth Strategy to register the importance of long-term sustainable revenue funding in providing youth services.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government will publish the National Youth Strategy this summer. The detail and scale of the funding commitments included in the strategy will be shaped by engagement with young people and the youth sector and will be dependent on Spending Review decisions.
In 2025/6, DCMS funding for Youth will include over £85 million of capital funding to create fit-for-purpose spaces in places where it is most needed. This includes the £26 million Better Youth Spaces Fund for youth clubs to buy new equipment and do renovations, the Local Youth Transformation Fund to start the journey of building back lost capability in local areas and completion of Youth Investment Fund projects underway.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to invest in heritage buildings in (a) Stoke-on-Trent North constituency and (b) Kidsgrove.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is committed to investing in heritage buildings, ensuring these buildings serve the needs of local communities. Historic England, the government’s statutory advisors, have taken several steps to do this through;
Supporting the Stoke-on-Trent North Council to find sustainable new uses for historic buildings in Burslem and the surrounding area.
Funding emergency safeguarding repairs at the Wedgwood Institute, providing conservation architectural and surveyor expertise at no cost at The Leopard, Price & Kensington, the Wedgwood Institute and Burslem Market.
Provided funding to support Re-Form Heritage, whose office is based in the constituency, in employing staff dedicated to delivering heritage projects.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has identified Stoke-on-Trent as one of twenty Heritage Places across the UK. Heritage Places is a UK-wide initiative to help places thrive by unlocking the potential of their heritage. Stoke-on-Trent council has been awarded £250,000 for collaboration and development of plans for preserving the city’s heritage. The Architectural Heritage Fund has also chosen Re-Form Heritage in Stoke-on-Trent to be part of its Heritage Development Trust programme.
Specifically in Kidsgrove, The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded £9,700 to Engage Communities CIC for a project to explore the heritage of games and sports traditionally played by South Asian people engaging local young people in the project.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to (a) enter the youth sector workforce and (b) become youth workers.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and the vital role that youth workers play in delivering those services and building trusted relationships.
This government has committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy, which is an opportunity to look afresh at the training, recruitment and retention of youth workers. As part of the Strategy, we will be consulting closely with young people and the youth sector over the coming months to fully understand their needs and the issues they consider to be most crucial in addressing.
The Strategy will be published next year.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the accessibility of cultural activities in (a) Stoke-on-Trent North constituency and (b) Kidsgrove.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
After 14 years of indifference and cultural vandalism, this government is committed to making sure that arts and cultural activities will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few.
DCMS supports its Arms Length Body, Arts Council England (ACE), to improve accessibility to culture. For example, ACE is working in partnership with other arts councils in the UK and Ireland to develop All In, an access scheme dedicated to removing barriers and improving the experience of D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people when attending creative and cultural events. This scheme aims to increase overall attendance by making it easier for people with access requirements to find and book tickets; and develop standards for creativity and culture to promote quality and consistency across the UK and Ireland. There will be a pilot of the scheme this autumn, ahead of a wider roll-out in the second half of 2025.
Claybody Theatre, which receives funding from ACE as a National Portfolio Organisation, makes arts more accessible to the people of Stoke-on-Trent, North and beyond. Claybody brings theatre to non-traditional venues in local communities, as well as delivering audio drama in virtual spaces. ACE also provides funding for ‘The Lost Note’ project, an immersive theatre project for family audiences that reworks the idea of the seasonal grotto. Working with local neurodivergent and autistic young people from Water Mill School and Fegg Hayes Futures, both based in Stoke-on-Trent North, the project will see children create stories and songs for a series of performances over nine days in January 2025.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to provide youth services with adequate funding in (a) Stoke-on-Trent North constituency and (b) Kidsgrove.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area. This government is aware that after 14 years of decline, many local authorities are struggling with budgets and this has had a direct impact on young people across the country.
That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed. We will provide further updates to the House in due course.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her planned timetable is for introducing a National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
On 17 October, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed. Further details will be shared in due course.