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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate she has made of the number of qualified youth workers.

To support the youth workforce, DCMS funds the National Youth Agency to set professional standards, qualifications and a curriculum for youth work, including a new youth work apprenticeship and free-to-access training. DCMS bursaries have fully-funded hundreds of individuals to gain youth work qualifications who otherwise may have been excluded due to cost. Over the past two years we have worked with the National Youth Agency to help more than 900 youth workers gain qualifications and institute a new youth work apprenticeship.

In addition, through the Volunteering Futures Fund, £7 million will be made available to improve the accessibility of volunteering in the youth sector, as well as the arts, culture, sports, civil society, and heritage sectors. The fund will help a diverse range of people to access the benefits volunteering can bring. There will be a strong focus on young people, those experiencing loneliness, those with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds.