Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many youth centres were closed in England between 2010 and 2024.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS does not hold the data requested. Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which is almost £69 billion this year (FY 25/26).
This government recognises the value of youth centres and youth services, and has committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. This is an opportunity to move away from one-size-fits all approaches from central government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector. We plan to publish the strategy in the summer.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England has spent on (a) drug and (b) alcohol treatment in (i) prisons, (ii) young offender institutions, (iii) immigration removal centres and (iv) other secure settings in the last three financial years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A detailed analysis of NHS England’s spend on drug and alcohol treatment in prisons, young offender institutions (YOIs), immigration removal centres (IRCs), and other secure settings is not available at the level requested. This is because mental health and substance misuse are not necessarily individual contracts and, in most instances, are part of combined total healthcare contracts. Therefore, we are only able to report combined figures for both mental health and substance misuse treatment. The following table shows the combined costs of mental health and substance misuse treatment in the secure estate, from 2021/22 to 2023/24:
Schedule of mental health and substance misuse in secure settings | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Mental health and substance misuse in adult prisons | £205,900,000 | £195,700,000 | £211,000,000 |
Mental health and substance misuse in YOI's and other youth secure settings | £13,600,000 | £13,000,000 | £18,300,000 |
Mental health and substance misuse in IRC's | £2,800,000 | £4,300,000 | £4,700,000 |
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
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 help support (a) youth centres and (b) youth services in the Forest of Dean.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This government recognises the value of youth centres and youth services, and has committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. This is an opportunity to move away from one-size-fits all approaches from central government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector. We plan to publish the strategy in the summer.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of youth services on public health outcomes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Youth services play a vital role in achieving positive outcomes for public health, by promoting healthy behaviours, building resilience, and improving mental and physical wellbeing among young people. These services provide early intervention and support that can prevent the development of more serious health and social issues, including mental health challenges, substance misuse, and physical health problems.
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. Through the Young Futures Hubs we will provide open access mental health support for children and young people in every community in England.
In 2024/25, the Department is running a Shared Outcomes Fund project, backed by £8 million, to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 existing early support hubs. These drop-in centres offer mental health support and advice to young people without a referral by a doctor or school.
On 12 November 2024, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport announced the co-production of a National Youth Strategy which will aim to provide more opportunities to young people, bring power back to young people and their communities, and rebuild a thriving and sustainable youth sector. The physical and mental health and wellbeing of young people will be considered when developing the strategy.
Asked by: Bayo Alaba (Labour - Southend East and Rochford)
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 help increase access to youth facilities in coastal communities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is co-producing a National Youth Strategy with young people and the youth sector to set out a new vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this. We expect this work to cover the current needs of young people, access to safe spaces, preferences for activities to access local areas outside of school, and much more. We plan to publish the strategy in the summer.
In 2025/26, we will launch the Local Youth Transformation pilot to support local authorities and their partners to improve their capability to improve local youth offers.
We are also allocating over £85m of capital funding to create welcoming spaces for young people through the new Better Youth Spaces fund and completing the Youth Investment Fund projects.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds are currently held in the youth secure estate, broken down by (1) young offender institutions, (2) secure training centres, and (3) secure children's homes.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No children from a Gypsy, Roma or Traveller background are currently accommodated in the Oasis Restore Secure School or Oakhill Secure Training Centre.
In relation to Secure Children’s Homes and Young Offender Institutions: the information requested cannot be provided without breaching our legal obligations under data protection legislation. Where a request is made for statistical information and the total figure amounts to five or fewer, we must consider whether this would be likely to lead to the identification of individuals and whether disclosure of this information would be in breach of our statutory obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and/or the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to encourage employers to hire young people.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As part of the “Get Britain Working” White Paper the government announced that we will launch a new Youth Guarantee for all young people in England aged 18-21 to ensure that they have access to further learning, help to get a job or an apprenticeship. As a first step from spring 2025, the government will launch Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in eight mayoral authorities across England. We will work closely with mayoral authorities to support the design of the Trailblazers, including engagement with local employers. We will use the learning from these Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls-out across the rest of England.
The Youth Guarantee is part of the UK Government’s Back to Work Plan alongside a new national jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open new opportunities for young people. We will work in partnership with organisations and businesses at the national and local level to offer exciting and engaging opportunities to young people. This could include apprenticeships, work experience, training courses or employability programmes.
The Government is also reforming the apprenticeships offer into a more flexible growth and skills offer, aligned to the industrial strategy. The Department for Education is working to introduce new foundation apprenticeships for young people, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships, in targeted sectors. These will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work, fuel innovation in businesses across the country, and provide high-quality entry pathways for young people.
As the HR department for the Government’s growth mission, the Department for Work and Pensions job is to work with businesses to meet their recruitment needs. The Ministerial team and officials work closely with colleagues across government to help employers, including those in sectors crucial to growth, address their staffing needs and break down barriers to opportunity across the country.
The Secretary of State recently announced that the department is transforming its service for employers by hosting summits with employers and stakeholder representatives across sectors crucial to growth; boosting the number of training programmes in crucial sectors on offer at Jobcentres; serving employers through a dedicated team with highly experienced experts to provide recruitment support; providing an account manager for employers to get more information about how Job Centres Plus can help; and commissioning Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent review into the role of employers in reducing health-related inactivity and promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces – which is already underway.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of council run youth centres in (a) tackling youth crime and (b) supporting young people.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government recognises the vital role youth services play in reducing a young person’s likelihood of becoming involved in crime. This will be a vital element of our Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene earlier to ensure this cohort is identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of open access to mental health and careers support.
In addition, in 2025/26 DCMS will launch the Local Youth Transformation pilot, which will support local authorities to build youth service capacity. They will also allocate over £85m of capital funding in 2025/26 to create fit-for-purpose, welcoming spaces for young people, including launching the new Better Youth Spaces fund, which will allocate at least £26m for youth clubs to buy new equipment and undertake renovations. This will also include completing the Youth Investment Fund projects.
The Home Office does not measure the outcomes for council run youth centres.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of council run youth centres in tackling youth crime in South Derbyshire constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government recognises the vital role youth services play in reducing a young person’s likelihood of becoming involved in crime. This will be a vital element of our Young Futures Programme which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene earlier to ensure this cohort is identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of open access to mental health and careers support.
In addition, in 2025/6 DCMS will launch the Local Youth Transformation pilot, which will support local authorities to build youth service capacity. They will also allocate over £85m of capital funding in 2025/26 to create fit-for-purpose, welcoming spaces for young people, including launching the new Better Youth Spaces fund, which will allocate at least £26m for youth clubs to buy new equipment and undertake renovations. This will also include completing the Youth Investment Fund projects.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to provide temporary accommodation that does not have a detrimental impact on (a) local people and (b) town centres in Wolverhampton.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
The Government recognises that homelessness levels are far too high and this can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people. We will look at these issues carefully and will consider youth homelessness as we develop our long-term, cross-government strategy working with Mayors and councils across the country, to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
The Homelessness Prevention Grant is allocated to councils across England based on local homelessness pressures and is used to meet local needs. Wolverhampton will receive £1,892,940.00 for 2025-26 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant.
Temporary accommodation must be suitable in relation to the applicant and to all members of their household who normally reside with them, or who might reasonably be expected to reside with them. Applicants may ask for a review on request of the housing authority’s decision that the accommodation offered to them is suitable.
The £1.2 billion Local Authority Housing Fund will provide capital funding directly to English councils and is expected to provide up to 7,000 homes by 2026. It will create a lasting asset for UK nationals by building a sustainable stock of affordable housing for local communities. The Local Authority Housing Fund will ease local homelessness pressures, reduce spending on unsuitable B&B accommodation, and provide safe and sustainable housing for those on Afghan resettlement and Ukrainian sponsorship schemes.