Young Offenders
(asked on 1st September 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what Government (a) funding and (b) guidance is available to voluntary and community sector organisations working to reduce youth offending.
Answered by
Stuart Andrew
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises the vital role that youth services and the voluntary and community sector has in reducing youth offending and the Beating Crime Plan 2021 highlighted the importance of early intervention for all young people; targeted support for those at risk of involvement in criminality; and targeted interventions for those who have started to offend.
The Youth Justice Sport Fund (YJSF) is a recently completed early intervention grant programme led by the Ministry of Justice, delivered across England and Wales between November 2022 and March 2023. This forms part of the £300m package of early intervention funding that was announced in May 2022. The £5m programme supported 220 voluntary and community sector organisations to work with 10–17-year-olds considered vulnerable to involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour, using sport as a vehicle to address problem behaviour.
The government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services. The Youth Investment Fund, an integral part of the National Youth Guarantee, will invest over £300 million in creating and refurbishing up to 300 youth facilities in levelling up priority areas - the majority of which contain at least one anti-social behaviour hotspot. Additionally, through the Million Hours Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will provide over a million hours of youth opportunities in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour. Phase 1 of the fund has already delivered over £3m of funding to over 400 organisations to provide positive activities over the summer holidays.