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 access to heritage sites for young people.

One of the Secretary of State’s three priorities is richer lives with choices and opportunities for all.

DCMS funds Historic England’s Heritage Schools programme which has facilitated almost 3 million pupils from areas of low social mobility to discover their local heritage since its launch in 2012, with 99% of teachers involved in the scheme agreeing that local heritage boosts students’ pride and sense of place. Historic England also partnered with the Youth United Foundation in 2022, which has increased access to heritage outside of formal education settings.

Since 2001, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has awarded £23million of funding towards supporting young people’s access and engagement with heritage. Between 2017-2023, the NLHF ran a £10 million Kick the Dust Programme awarding 12 large-scale projects across the UK to transform how heritage organisations engage young people by making heritage relevant, inclusive, and youth-led. The legacy of this work with Children and Young people has transferred into their 2023-2026 strategy and delivery plan, which contains a commitment in the investment plan to “decide on approaches to support projects to engage children and young people in heritage and provide routes into skills development”.