Youth Provision: Universal and Targeted Support Debate
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Natasha Irons
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Youth Provision: Universal and Targeted Support
Natasha Irons Excerpts(1 day, 13 hours ago)
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Harpreet Uppal
I support my hon. Friend’s call, and it is disappointing that we do not have any Members from the official Opposition present.
Research shows that, for every £1 invested in youth work, the return to the taxpayer is between £3.20 and £6.40. Additionally, for every £1 invested in child and adolescent mental health services, the return on investment is an estimated £2.85 in benefits to the individual and an additional £1.40 in savings to the Government.
Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)
If anyone does not get to intervene today, I would ask them to please sign up to my Backbench Business debate on youth services, because we need more time to discuss this matter. As my hon. Friend rightly points out, supporting youth services is not just a moral case, but a financial one. Does she agree that the 73% decline in youth services points to the fact that we need to give them statutory protection and to have benchmarks for provision?
Harpreet Uppal
I do agree that we need more protections, and I am sure the Minister has heard my hon. Friend’s point about statutory protection. I, too, urge hon. Members to sign up to my hon. Friend’s application for a Backbench Business debate.
As hon. Members have said, providing youth services reduces the need later in life for more costly interventions, from social care to the criminal justice system. It also means that we give young people an opportunity to thrive.
A thriving youth sector depends on a strongly skilled workforce, so we need to ensure that the youth sector can attract, train and retain skilled professionals. The National Youth Agency’s 2024 workforce survey found that more than 4,500 youth workers have left the profession in the past decade, and only six undergraduate youth work programmes remain, down from 37 in 2013. At the same time, the demand for youth services is constantly increasing, with 82% of youth sector organisations reporting growing demand for mental health support.