Youth Services: Finance

(asked on 22nd May 2023) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the real-terms change to funding for youth services has been in each year since 2015.


Answered by
Stuart Andrew Portrait
Stuart Andrew
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This question was answered on 25th May 2023

The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. In England, between 2015 - 2021, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), including the National Citizen Service (NCS), provided over £1.1 billion to the youth sector. Over this Spending Review Period, DCMS is investing over £500 million in youth services to deliver the National Youth Guarantee, a government commitment that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, 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, the majority of which is un-ringfenced, allowing local authorities to spend on services according to local priorities, including on youth services. The settlement is anticipated to be almost £60 billion this year (FY 23/24) for councils in England - a 9% increase on the previous year. Details of all Local Authorities’ annual spending on youth services in England can be found in Section 251 data published on gov.uk.

DCMS is committed to working with Youth Sector organisations and Local Authorities to review and improve the Local Authority Statutory Duty Guidance for Youth Services. We will publish the outcomes of the review in due course.

The devolved administrations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are responsible for their own youth services.

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