Crime Prevention: Young People

(asked on 4th January 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will increase the number of support workers available to support young people engaged in or at risk of involvement in gangs and youth violence.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 11th January 2022

£130.5 million has been made available to tackle serious violence this year. This investment will support Violence Reduction Units to deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes for young people, including funding support workers, youth and sports clubs. It will also provide funding for early intervention programmes, including trauma-informed training for frontline professionals as well as therapy and specialist support for children and young people in crisis moments.

Universal youth services, including youth and sports clubs, help to reduce the risk factors associated with involvement in gangs and youth violence. Following the 2021 Spending Review, we are investing £560 million in youth services in England over the next 3 years, to support young people. This investment will provide up to 300 new or refurbished youth facilities in deprived areas across the country and create hundreds of thousands of positive activities for young people.

In addition, we set out our commitment to grassroots sports, investing £205 million to build or transform up to 8,000 multi-use sports facilities; £21.9 million to refurbish park tennis courts; and up to £30 million per year to increase access to school facilities.

We are continuing to provide bursaries to help increase the number of qualified youth workers available to support young people. Over the past two years we have worked with the National Youth Agency to help more than 900 youth workers gain qualifications.

Furthermore, the government has made a £200 million investment over 10 years in the Youth Endowment Fund, to test what works in preventing young people from becoming involved in violence.

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