National Youth Strategy

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)]

For too long, young people have not been sufficiently part of decisions that affect their current and future lives, not just at a national level but in every part of Government. We are determined to change this, building a future where young people are in the driving seat. Young people are not a problem to be solved but a powerful asset for our nation’s future.

In November last year, we announced the development of a new, ambitious direction for young people to begin that change. Today, we have published “Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy”, our cross-Government plan for the next decade to give young people a safe place to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel a part of. We have two clear ambitions underpinning this plan. By 2035, we want

to have halved the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers; and

half a million more young people to have access to a trusted adult outside of their home.

Over the past year, we have co-produced this strategy with young people from very different places and backgrounds and ran one of the biggest national conversations the Government have had with young people. We heard about the challenges that they face regarding their education, health, safety, relationships, community engagement and many more. Their insights and priorities are captured in our landmark “Youth Matters: State of the Nation” report, published alongside the strategy. We have also worked closely with our Youth Advisory Group and our Expert Advisory Group, and I thank them for all of their help in ensuring we respond to young people’s priorities and to the youth sector’s needs.

Through our strategy, we will give young people the spaces and opportunities they need to connect with their peers, with trusted adults and with their communities. It is the beginning of ambitious reforms in national and local youth policy, with three key shifts in how we will deliver for and with young people over the next decade: from national to local, from fragmented to collaborative, and from excluded to empowered.

The most devastating consequence of local cuts to youth provision over the last decade were the services that were lost, the youth clubs that were shut, and the trusted relationships that were broken and lifelines lost. So our work starts with rebuilding a strong, sustainable youth sector. We will invest £15 million over the next three years in the youth workers, volunteers and other trusted adults who listen to young people and guide them through life. We will also launch a £70 million programme over the next three years to help local areas better support young people and develop a network of up to 50 Young Futures hubs by March 2029. We have already chosen the first eight early adopter locations that will establish a hub to meet the support needs of local young people.

Building on that, we will enable young people to have access to more and better activities which support their wellbeing and their socioemotional skills. As a first step, we will be spending £350 million over the next four years through our better youth spaces programme to refurbish or build up to 250 youth facilities in areas that need one most. We will also create a new richer young lives fund with over £60 million of funding to create more high-quality fun activities and youth work opportunities in areas that need them most.

This strategy is a fully cross-Government plan which outlines our immediate and longer-term choices to help young people get good jobs, keep them safe in our streets and online, support their mental and physical health and many other priorities.

It builds on wider reforms to the education skills system with a target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning—academic, technical, or an apprenticeship—by age 25. It also builds on recent announcements, such as the publication of the child poverty strategy which will see the largest reduction in child poverty in a single Parliament as well as the investment of £1.5 billion through the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy—creating 50,000 more apprenticeships and foundation apprenticeships for young people over the next three years.

We will engage with partners within and outside the Government to deliver our plan and we call on parents and carers, youth providers, volunteers, teachers, local authorities, health providers, police officers, employers and countless more to work with us.

This publication is just the start. For too long, young people have been an afterthought when it comes to decision making. Yet the success of the nation depends on their success. We have an opportunity to unlock the potential of a generation and this is our promise to them.

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