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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 13 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what progress her Department has made towards building on the cross-sector partnership created by the #iwill campaign to identify how the existing offer for young people can be improved.

Government is committed to providing meaningful opportunities for young people to play their part in society. This includes creating social action opportunities to build their skills and networks outside of school regardless of their background or circumstances.

As announced in the Civil Society Strategy, Government is committed to ensuring that young people have a say in the future of our society. Already, we have set up three youth voice pilot projects to enable young people to shape national policy, including a Youth Steering Group, Young Inspectors Group and a digital youth engagement project. The Youth Steering Group has been working across government to inform policy, including work with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to conduct a review on environment and climate policy.

In April 2019, government announced that it will be developing a youth offer to set out its vision for young people. Officials have been working closely with Step Up To Serve (SUTS), young people and #iwill campaign and youth sector partners to develop the first stages of this work. DCMS continues to work with all relevant Government Departments across this agenda, in particular the Department for Education.

On 30th September, the Chancellor announced a £500million Youth Investment Fund to support the creation of new youth centres and opportunities for young people. We will be incorporating lessons learnt from the #iwill campaign and Fund into the development of this new programme and will continue to work closely with SUTS and the wider youth sector. It is a priority that the Youth Investment Fund is designed to enable young people to have as much of a say and a choice in what activities are available to them as possible.