Uniformed youth groups: Promoting Skills and Resilience in Young People

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I pay tribute to all those supporting uniformed youth organisations, including my noble friend. Our new national youth strategy has been co-designed with young people. We are engaging further with young people in youth groups, including uniformed youth organisations, to ensure that their perspectives, needs and proven outcomes are incorporated. As for transitional funding and funding arrangements, I will take my noble friend’s points back to the department ahead of her meeting with Minister Peacock, which I understand is taking place early next month.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

It is definitely the turn of the Conservative Benches. Can we make our mind up?

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as the chair of the cadet health check team. The value of the uniformed services to our young people throughout the country is beyond doubt, particularly in the poorest communities in the country. The real challenge now is adult volunteers. The entire service is based on adult volunteers, so what work are the Government doing to improve recruitment and retention of those very valuable volunteers?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I agree with the points the noble Lord raised around the value of uniformed youth groups. One of the things our new funding arrangements will do is support the development of volunteers. I will be very happy to share some examples and discuss that further with him.