National Youth Strategy

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I will have to write to the right reverend Prelate on this, but we are clear that having a rich breadth of activities is crucial to supporting young people’s mental health. As I alluded to in my response to the noble Lord, Lord Bailey, some of these organisations are working with children and young people who do not have a trusted adult elsewhere. Throughout the thread of our work, we are looking at how we can support young people in every way, but I will need to come back to the right reverend Prelate on those specifics.

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister to her place and start by declaring an interest. Macclesfield is a long way from the sea, but we are very fortunate to have a wonderful sea cadet unit, TS Ardent. My two children had 10 years of fun and frolics on the water. By happy coincidence, the president of TS Ardent is the admiral and noble Lord, Lord West, who does a fantastic job and is very popular with the students and sea cadets. The previous Government set up the uniformed youth fund, which came to an end in March. In November 2024, the Department for Education also ended its £1.1 million grant to the cadet expansion programme. The national youth strategy highlights the Government’s ambition to expand in-school and community-based cadet forces by 30% by 2030, with £70 million of funding from the Ministry of Defence. Can the Minister confirm that this target and funding will remain in place despite the £5 billion black hole in the defence investment plan?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

If I was being ungenerous, I would refer to previous black holes that have been a matter of debate from this Bench. We are investing a significant amount of funding in and behind the strategy. We have over £400 million to improve access to enriching activities and youth work and for refurbishing or building up to 250 youth facilities. We have £22.5 million for a new programme to create brilliant enrichment offers in up to 400 schools. We are investing £15 million in youth workers, volunteers and other trusted adults. We are investing in rebuilding local youth services and establishing a network of 50 Young Futures hubs. We have £5 million to improve youth infrastructure at local and regional levels. That is before you even get to the funding coming through the dormant assets scheme. We are funding this. When you look at how important some of these activities are, including the sea cadets—my brothers were sea cadets in a landlocked county as well—you have to put the money behind it. We are doing that. The previous Government did not.