Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will increase the number of grant schemes aimed at capacity building for third sector organisations.

This government is providing significant investment and support to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations. For example, in March we announced a package of over £100 million to support charities and community organisations in England with cost of living pressures, and over this spending review period we are investing over £500 million in youth services in England.

Alongside this we are also providing targeted support that will build capacity across the VCSE sector. For example, we are delivering one-to-one business support and peer learning for early stage social enterprises in disadvantaged areas through the £4.1 million Social Enterprise Boost Fund. Similarly, the £900,000 VCSE Contract Readiness Programme is boosting the capacity of VCSE organisations in England to better compete for government contracts.

In addition, we recently announced further support for the youth sector. We have allocated £250,000 through the Local Youth Partnerships Fund to support the set up of additional local youth partnerships to boost the range, quality, accountability and sustainability of frontline services for young people through greater local coordination and cooperation. We are also providing core funding for 8 regional youth work units in England to improve their practices and ensure a consistent minimum level of regional leadership to develop and support the delivery of youth services. Finally, in order to further build the youth sector capacity, we have also announced £800,000 of new funding to provide bursaries for 500 people who would otherwise be unable to afford to undertake youth work qualifications. This builds on over 2,000 bursaries funded to date.

The department remains in regular dialogue with key VCSE sector stakeholders to monitor the health of the sector and to identify shared priorities.