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Written question asked by Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 22 July 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 September 2025. It was answered by Stephanie Peacock (Labour) on Friday, 5 September 2025 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Youth Work: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure youth work funding is distributed (a) across the country and (b) rural areas.

Answer

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 in their area. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Finance Settlement in line with local need. To support Local Authorities, we launched the £8 million Local Youth Transformation pilot this year, which will support local authorities across the country to build back capability to improve local youth offers. The selected local authorities for the pilot include a mix of urban and rural areas.

In addition, we are co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. The strategy will support better coordination of youth services across the country and will increase access to opportunities, in particular in underserved areas. The Strategy will be published in Autumn and will be supported by funding, across the SR period to develop new youth facilities and improve existing ones, as well as further funding to support local youth service provision.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
70009
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Finance Youth work
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk