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 support youth work as a profession by providing (a) financial support for students and (b) fieldwork placements.

DCMS works with the National Youth Agency (NYA) to fund bursaries for individuals to obtain youth work qualifications. Since 2019, £4 million of funding has been provided to the NYA via the Youth Worker Bursary Fund, allowing over 2,500 individuals from underrepresented groups to gain a qualification.

We have committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy, which is an opportunity to look afresh at the support, recruitment and retention of youth workers. The Strategy will be published this summer.