Early Promises, Actions – and Reactions

In October 2024 Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) Secretary of State Lisa Nandy sought to clarify the new Labour government’s thinking on ‘youth policy’ – a task which, she said, had personal resonances for her because of her previous work with the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint.[1] Her starting point was ‘the more than £1 billion (73 per cent) reductions in youth services’ spending over the previous 12 years’ which – as ‘one of the deepest …made to any of our public services’ – she labelled a ‘national shame’.

She went on announce what was to become the core feature of the new government’s youth agenda: the development of a ten-year National Youth Strategy (NYS) to be co-produced with youth workers[2] and, as also later strongly emphasised, young people[3]. The Chancellor Rachel Reeves underpinned this commitment in her Budget statement later that month with plans to introduce a new youth guarantee aimed at ‘…ensuring every 18-21 year-old is earning or learning’. Later described as the first in England for 15 years[4], this was to be rolled out in the spring of 2025, implemented through eight trailblazer employment, education and training pilots and located in areas with high levels of young people not in education or training (NEET). [5]

Starting from the premise that ‘a new approach is needed to support young people with the challenges of today’, more details of the proposed NYS emerged over the following months[6]. One of its features which took even the Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency (NYA) by surprise[7] was the ‘winding down’ by March 2025 of the National Citizens Service (NCS). More positively, the DCMS – led by UK Youth’s Director of Youth Sector Innovation Kayleigh Wainwright[8] – committed itself to adopting

… a bold, transformative approach to young people – one that walks alongside them and values their experiences and perspectives, rather than assuming we can simply swoop in and fix things for them. Through the co-production of a new National Youth Strategy we will put young people back in charge of their own destiny. [9]

The process was also to include a ‘Local Youth Transformation pilot’ which would:

… provide tools, guidance, peer challenge and funding to build back local authorities’ lost capability in the youth space, sowing the seeds of a much-needed rejuvenation of local youth services.

The Strategy would also, the DCMS promised, ‘…continue to support access for young people to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities’ with a key focus here on recruiting and retaining youth workers.

In a largely rhetorical speech to the NYA’s Youth Select Committee inquiry into Youth Violence and Social Media in March 2025, DCMS ‘Minister for Youth’ Stephanie Peacock talked of working ‘cross-party’ to develop the Strategy with the aim of publishing it that summer.[10] Her speech co-incided with the release of ‘Deliver You’ – a title, the DCMS said, inspired by the on-line delivery service Deliveroo.[11] This set out a range of methods for initiating a ‘listening campaign’ aimed, ‘cross-government’, at ‘co-producing’ with young people a Strategy for England focused on ‘universal services’, ‘powered’ by the market research consultancy Savanta and two ‘youth participation’ organisations, My Life My Say and the #Iwill Movement.[12] Policy-making would be moved away from ‘one-size-fits all approaches from central government’ and have a ‘… reform focus initially on policies within the DCMS remit (eg youth spaces, out-of-school services, youth workforce, youth voice, etc)’.[13]

By then, with a deadline for responses set for April 2025, ‘an ambitious national survey’ was under way which invited inputs from 10-21 year olds and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) young people up to age 25. An ‘Express Orders’ web page had also been opened which, without asking for personal details or requiring parental consent, offered a quick way for young people to engage in response to a single question: ‘What one thing should the government do to improve things for young people?’[14] A timeline was also published which now set the launch and dissemination of the Strategy’s ‘documents and products’ for July/August 2025.[15]

To extend the consultation’s ‘reach’, a 13-member Youth Advisory Group and an ‘expert consortium’ had also been appointed[16]. Youth focus groups organised by regional youth work units had also by then begun to meet across the country so that by June 2025 the DCMS was claiming that ‘…over 20,000 young people have directly engaged and shared their hopes and priorities for the National Youth Strategy’. This had been done through ‘“Express Order” digital postcards, face-to-face and online focus groups, regional roundtables, and innovative hacks’.[17]

The following November further details of the Youth Guarantee were released. This now promised:

£820 million over three years to support job creation and training for young people;

Guaranteed paid work placements for some 18-21 year olds;

Funding for free apprenticeships for some under-25s;

Support for college, apprenticeships or personalised job support for 16-21 year olds;

Increased minimum wage and living wage rates for young people.[18]

 

Some youth sector responses

By then some in the youth work sector had welcomed the promised Strategy as a sign that improving support for young people was now near the top of ministerial policy priorities, with some adding suggestions on what it should include. The NYA, for example, proposed that the government make youth work a ‘central pillar’ of its policy and funding decisions[19] while the Summer Camps Trust urged it to raise the profile of summer camps which, it said, were at risk of dying out.[20]

Other reactions, however, were more cautious – partly because of the perceived scale of young people’s needs, party because of concerns about local councils’ continuing financial pressures. [21] There were even concerns that the government might end up reducing its financial support for open access facilities as at this point it had not yet confirmed – as the Local Government Association (LGA) was demanding – that, following the proposed closure of the NCS, its 2024-25 budget of £52.4 million would be recycled back into youth provision.[22].

Indeed, by May 2025 Vicky Browning, then UK Youth’s Chief Executive, felt the need to remind ministers that ‘warm words won’t pay for youth workers’ and called for an urgent increase in spending on a sector that had been ‘decimated’ by austerity. In support of her case she pointed to a new analysis by her organisation which had revealed that, compared with the previous Conservative government’s £191.8 million spent on youth programmes, at that stage that the new Labour government had promised only £146.5 million, £79.4 million of which was already allocated Youth Investment Fund (YIF) money.[23]

After Diggle had called for the Treasury Spending Review due in June 2025 to be made ‘a turning point’ for youth work, a DCMS Youth Newsletter that month updated how it planned to fund the YTS itself.[24] In order to ‘increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services…’[25], this was to include an increased allocation of £132.5 million from what was now being called the ‘Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy’.

 

The Strategy

A ministerial ‘Foreward’

In December 2025 – some five months after a deadline indicated at a UK Youth webinar the previous February[26] – the DCMS released full details of the rationale of the Strategy, what it was to include and how it was to be implemented. [27] Suggesting that young people had for decades faced ‘violent indifference’ from politicians[28], Lisa Nandy’s ministerial Foreward to the paper described this generation as both ‘the most connected and isolated … in history’ and as ‘… amongst the greatest casualties of a decade of neglect and austerity followed by a global pandemic’. After labelling past government interventions as ‘for too long … based on little more than pet projects or straws in the wind’, she committed her government to ‘ensur(ing) that every penny we invest helps grip the challenges facing this generation – by, for and with them’.

 

‘Conversations’ with young people

The paper also had a Foreward from the Youth Advisory Group which was explicit that, with the Expert Advisory Group, it had helped ‘co-create’ the Strategy. To do this it had ‘reached out for other young people’s views’, opening up an ‘opportunity to have our voices heard as an incredibly diverse group of individuals’. This for the Group had ‘… demonstrate(d) that this government values the thoughts of young people and is committed to having a positive impact on our lives’. As a result, the Group concluded, ‘this strategy sets youth policy on a stronger path’.

Inputs into the DCMS webinar accompanying the launch[29] also emphasised that the government had had  ‘the biggest national conversation … with young people in over a decade … in every region of England’. Carried out, for example, through the Youth Survey, focus groups and school assemblies, this had resulted in the Strategy being shaped by a range of responses from over 20,000 young people.

 

The Strategy’s evidence base

Overall the Strategy also drew on a range of research findings – particularly those of a Youth Advisory Group ‘State of the Nation’ report.[30] These pointed to key priority areas of need which, though having impacts on all young people, were seen as more likely to affect those with SEND and those from ‘lower socio-economic backgrounds’. They were defined more specifically as:

‘High levels of concern about money, mental health, and wellbeing, friendships and social life, education and the future’.

A ‘lack of local opportunities’: – ‘a cross-cutting issue’ defined by ‘the absence of local, in-person opportunities for socialising, engaging in activities, and forming supportive connections’.

‘Feeling unheard and unsafe … especially in public spaces and online’.

‘Community, connection, and belonging’ – partly explained as ‘… safe and welcoming spaces, and trust in adults and institutions’.

‘Physical, mental and digital wellbeing’.

‘Skills and opportunities for life and work: … to be better prepared for their future careers …’

‘Safety and security’ – in relation for example to crime and online activity, again indicating a need for trusted supportive adults.

‘Ambitions’, ‘vision’ and governmental ‘shifts’…

 

The Strategy set itself two ‘clear ambitions’, to be achieved by 2035: for ‘half a million more young people to have access to a trusted adult outside their home’, and ‘to have halved the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers’. These were underpinned by a ‘Vision’ focused on delivering ‘… four key outcomes’ for young people – to:

‘… feel safe, online and offline’;

‘… feel connected to people their own age and in their wider community;

‘… build skills and have opportunities at school, work and in free time;

‘… have better physical and mental health and wellbeing’.

Acknowledging that ‘change needs to start with us’, the DCMS also committed itself to ‘making three big shifts in the way the government will work’:

‘From national to local’ – by helping ‘local authorities to strengthen their local offer to young people and … to empower local communities’.

‘From fragmented to collaborative: Helping to ensure services … talk to each other and work together…’

‘From excluded to empowered: Giving young people the power to shape new policies and the tools to shape their community’.

 

Promised future actions

Three chapters of the Strategy paper headed ‘People who care’, ‘Places to go and things to do’ and ‘Seen and heard’ then explained ten key ‘actions’ to be initiated by the Strategy. These were sub-titled:

Trusted adults.

Supporting and improving the workforce – later explained as ‘skilled and sustainable paid and volunteer(s) … with the highest standards to meet young people’s needs’.[31]

Friends and relationships.

Richer lives.

Good work.

Keeping young people

Places to go.

Health and wellbeing.

Delivering with young people.

Holding us to account.

Promised, too – and supported by a private members bill introduced by the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Youth Affairs[32] – was a review of councils’ wider statutory duties focused on ‘whether the current duty is working as it should and how to empower local authorities to better deliver on their responsibilities for youth services’.[33]  .

Funding the Strategy

With the majority of the money to be made available from 2026/27, for following three years the Strategy’s promised ‘funding first steps’ totalled £500 million. This included:

‘£350 million to refurbish or build up to 250 youth facilities…’.

‘Over £60 million (for) a new Richer Young Lives Fund to improve access to enriching activities and youth work’.

‘£15 million for youth workers, volunteers and other trusted adults to better support young people’.

‘£70 million to rebuild and improve local youth services and establish a network of 50 Youth Future Hubs’.

 

Some youth sector reactions

As it was still unclear how this money was actually to be allocated, these promises prompted some questions and doubts within the youth sector.[34] Though describing the funding as ‘a welcome down-payment’ and saying that her organisation ‘look(ed) forward to partnering the government to fulfil the strategy’s promises’, newly appointed UK Youth Chief Executive Rosie Ferguson also stressed that the kind of long-term change envisioned ‘demands long-term investment’. For Denis Hatton, Chief Executive of the YMCA in England and Wales, a concern remained about ‘the disparity between capital and revenue funding at a time when youth organisations across the country are fighting to keep clubs open and maintain frontline support’.

What also led to some seriously questioning responses from the field was the Strategy’s promise to create fifty new Youth Future Hubs at the very moment that the Government was announcing it would be ending Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) funding for the Early Support Mental Health Hubs pilot which, it had claimed, were supporting its 10-Year Health Plan.[35] Not only did this suggest a serious lack of joined-up thinking across government. As a ‘Fund the Hubs’ campaign took off across the country, a Youth Access Parliamentary Briefing Paper released in November 2025 was also very explicit that ending (this) funding in March 2026 will disrupt continuity of care, with young people in some areas losing local access to early support. It will leave young people with fewer accessible entry points to mental health support and increasing the risk of escalation to higher-level services.[1]

While generally welcoming the Strategy and its promises, the Centre for Young Lives also gave particular attention to what would be needed to turn its sometimes rhetorical promises into, for young people, telling on-the-ground achievements:

Youth Matters has the potential to be a transformational strategy for young people and is an important and necessary step forward in the way we listen to and support young people. With coordinated leadership and sustained commitment, it must now be delivered for young people across the country, particularly those facing the greatest disadvantage and vulnerabilities. [37]

In other words, from this point on, actions were going to count much more that words.

Bernard Davies

January 2026

 

References

[1] Youth Work Unit, 2024, ‘Government announces new Youth Strategy’, 12 November, https://youthworkunit.com/news/natiooanl-international-news/government-announces-new-youth-strategy/, accessed 24 November 2024

[2] Fiona Simpson, 2024, ‘Culture Secretary pledges government strategy for young people’, CYPN, 18 October; GOV.UK, 2025, Civil Society Covenant, p 3, updated 21 July https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-society-covenant/civil-society-covenant#the-covenant

[3] GOV.UK, 2024, ‘Press release: New National Youth Strategy to break down barriers to opportunity for young people’, DCMS/Stephanie Peacock/Lisa Nandy, 12 November, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-youth-strategy-to-break-down-barriers-to-opportunity-for-young-people;

[4] Derren Hayes, 2025, ‘Youth Matters – strategy key measures unpacked and what sector leaders think’ CYPN, 14 December

[5] Derren Hayes, 2024, Contrasting views over funding for the new National Youth Strategy’  CYPN, 29 November     , ‘

[6] GOV.UK, 2024, op cit, 12 November, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-youth-strategy-to-break-down-barriers-to-opportunity-for-young-people; Fiona Simpson, 2024, ‘First details of the National Youth Strategy revealed’, CYPN, 12 November; Fiona Simpson, 2024, ‘Sector welcomes support for local authorities through National Youth Strategy’, CYPN, 13 November.

[7] Derren Hayes, 2024, ‘Contrasting views over funding for the new National Youth Strategy’  CYPN, 29 November

[8] Joanne Parkes, 2025, ‘UK Youth director to lead National Youth Strategy’, CYPN, 16 January

[9] GOV.UK, 2024, ‘Press release: New National Youth Strategy to break down barriers to opportunity for young people’, DCMS/Stephanie Peacock/Lisa Nandy, 12 November, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-youth-strategy-to-break-down-barriers-to-opportunity-for-young-people;

[10] DCMS, 2025, ‘Minister Peacock speech at Youth Select Committee report launch’, 27 March, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/minister-peacock-speech-at-youth-select-committee-report-launch

[11] DCMS, 2025, ‘What have we done so far?’, Youth Newsletter, March, https://mailchi.mp/fb50828b0c78/r33mijbrd1?e=67af98bae6  DCMS, 2025, Deliver You: What’s YOUR ORDER?, 5 March, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-youth-team; GOV.UK, 2025, ‘Government partners with young people to help develop new national youth strategy’, 5 March, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-partners-with-young-people-to-help-develop-new-national-youth-strategy; Joanne Parkes, 2025, ‘National Youth Strategy consultation launches with young people’, CYPN, 6 March

[12] DCMS Youth Team, March 2025, ‘Deliver You’, % March, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-youth-team

[13] DCMS, 2025, ‘Overview of the Strategy’, published for DCMS webinar via email link, 14 February.

[14] DCMS, 2025, ‘Youth Newsletter – Engagement Update’, April, https://mailchi.mp/790fa1ef8ae8/national-youth-strategy-engagement-update-dcms-youth-newsletter?e=67af98bae6

[15] DCMS, 2025, ‘Overview of the Strategy’, published for DCMS webinar via email link, 14 February.

[16] GOV.UK, 2025, ‘Youth and Expert Advisory Groups’, updated 1 September, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-youth-team/youth-and-expert-advisory-groups

[17] DCMS, 2025, ‘Youth Newsletter’, June, https://mailchi.mp/8576878e9ab9/national-youth-strategy-engagement-update-dcms-youth-newsletter-6752734?e=67af98bae6; DCMS, 2025, ‘Youth Newsletter’, August, https://communityvision.org.uk/dcms-youth-team-newsletter-august-2025/

[18] See https://www.google.com/search?q=%27Budget+2025+youth+Guarentee&rlz=1C1NHXL_enGB772GB772&oq=%27Budget+2025+youth+Guarentee&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMg0IAhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgcIBBAAGO8FMgoIBRAAGIAEGKIEMgoIBhAAGIAEGKIEMgoIBxAAGKIEGIkFMgoICBAAGIAEGKIE0gEJMTU0NzdqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[19] CYPN News, 2025, ‘Put youth work at the centre of national policy, urges NYA’, 29 July

[20] Jessica Murray, 2025, ‘Campaigners urge government to recognise “authentic childhood experience” provided by summer camps, in upcoming youth strategy’, Guardian, 19 August

[21] Derren Hayes, 2024, ‘Contrasting views over funding for the new National Youth Strategy’  CYPN, 1 December

[22] Joanne Parkes, 2024, ‘Divert National Citizens Service cash to youth services, council leaders urge’, CYPN, 29 November

[23] Jessica Murray, 2025, ‘Labour spending less on youth work that the Tories did, analysis finds’, Guardian. 15 May

[24] [24] DCMS, 2025, ‘Youth Newsletter’, June, https://mailchi.mp/8576878e9ab9/national-youth-strategy-engagement-update-dcms-youth-newsletter-6752734?e=67af98bae6

[25] See DCMS, 2024, ‘Youth enrichment: Discovery phase’, 5 November, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-enrichment-discovery-phase/youth-enrichment-discovery-phase-executive-summary

[26] UK Youth webinar, ‘DCMS Youth Strategy Development’, 6 February

[27] DCMS, 2025, ‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’, 10 December, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-matters-your-national-youth-strategy/youth-matters-your-national-youth-strategy

[28] Pippa Crear, 2025, Culture secretary announces first national youth strategy in 15 years to help “vulnerable” generation’, Guardian, 10 December

[29] The Strategy details which follow have been sourced mainly from an attachment to an email from Rupert Croft dated 16 December 2025, sent on behalf of DCMS ‘Youth Team – Civil Society and Youth’ and headed “Youth Matters Webinar Slides: YOUTH MATTERS – YOUR NATIONAL STRATEGY’. See also DCMS, 2025, 10 December, op cit

[30] GOV.UK, 2025, Policy Paper: Youth Matters: State of the Nation, 10 December, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-matters-state-of-the-nation/youth-matters-state-of-the-nation. See also GOV.UK, 2025, ‘The Big Ambition Analysis for the National Youth Strategy’, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-big-ambition-analysis-for-the-national-youth-strategy

[31] Derren Hayes, 2025, ‘Youth Matters –strategy key measures unpacked and what sector leaders think’, CYPN, 14 December

[32] Joanne Parkes, 2025, ‘Labour MP introduces bill to strengthen councils’ youth services statutory duty’, CYPN, 16 December

[33] Abraham Armstrong, 2025, ‘Government commits to review council services youth work duty in £500mn national strategy’, CYPN, 14 December

[34] Derren Hayes, 2025, ‘Youth Matters –strategy key measures unpacked and what sector leaders think’, CYPN, 14 December

[35] ‘A blueprint for Young Future Hubs: Fund the Hubs’, March 2025, at https://cypmhc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Briefing-for-young-people.pdf

[36] Youth Access, 2025, ‘Parliamentary Briefing on Early Support Hubs: Urgent action needed to prevent loss of mental health support for young people’, November

[37]  Centre for Young Lives, 2025, ‘The government’s new youth strategy sets out an ambitious plan, by young people and for young people’, 10 December, https://www.centreforyounglives.org.uk/news-centre/the-governments-new-youth-strategy-sets-out-an-ambitious-plan-by-young-people-and-for-young-people