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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 41541 on Youth Services: Finance, if she will issue new guidance to local authorities on the provision of youth services in the context of proposed changes to funding for those services.

In 2023, DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing statutory duty on the provision of youth services and how to deliver it. That duty, and therefore local authorities’ responsibilities, have not changed. As such, we have no plans to issue new guidance to local authorities at this time.

However, since 2023 we have been funding peer reviews to help Local Authorities learn from each other on the best approaches to youth service provision. The Local Youth Transformation pilot will also test a new way of working and supporting local authorities, providing a package of support to assess, improve and develop impactful local youth offers. We will launch the pilot in 2025/26 and further details will be shared in due course.