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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help increase the number of youth workers in rural areas.

As announced in the National Youth Strategy, we are investing £15 million over the next 3 years in youth workers, volunteers, and other trusted adults to upskill the existing youth sector workforce and increase the number of trusted adults, including youth workers, providing safe support to young people. This will provide funding to youth organisations to help them get and keep the staff and volunteers they need, covering training and qualification bursaries, volunteer support, safeguarding, and new ways to help adults navigate the benefits and challenges of the digital world for young people.

​​Further work is underway to develop detailed plans for our future workforce funding, in partnership with the youth sector and with young people. This includes consideration of how to ensure young people in underserved communities have access to the support they need.