The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) was established in 2019 with an initial investment of £200 million from the Home Office to build the evidence base on what works to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence including knife crime and gang involvement.

The YEF Violence Prevention Toolkit summarises the best available research evidence on approaches to preventing children and young people’s involvement in violence, including focussed deterrence, mentoring and youth clubs, and assesses the evidence of their effectiveness.

Apprenticeships and employment support are both fully transferred to the Northern Ireland Executive, with funding devolved in the usual way. This response therefore provides information on apprenticeships in England only, and on Youth Guarantee measures across England, Scotland, and Wales.

There are a number of apprenticeship standards available to support the hair and beauty sector, including the Level 2 Hairdressing Professional standard and the Level 2 Barbering Professional standard.

We are investing an additional £2.5 billion in the Youth Guarantee (across Great Britain) and the Growth and Skills Levy (in England) over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.

To support non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) to meet the additional costs associated with employing young people, the UK government are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 when they take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees.

Additionally, the UK government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers [in England] for all eligible young people aged under 25 from the next academic year, to boost small business starts. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16 to 21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.

We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care.

The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises around 3,000 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.

Through Youth Matters, this Government is delivering better spaces and more engaging activities for young people. We are investing in 250 new or refurbished youth centres alongside 50 Young Futures Hubs in areas to give young people the spaces they deserve. We are streamlining local funding by merging our major youth funds, while injecting Every Child Can funding into more enriching activities. Our Enrichment Expansion Programme is on track to boost after-school opportunities across the country.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), alongside its partners Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department for Education (DfE), support a range of programmes designed to increase participation in the arts among young people from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.

ACE invests around £444 million in it’sNational Portfolio Organisation (NPO) Investment Programme and 79% of those organisations delivered in-person workshops, events or sessions which were aimed at, and attended by children and young people aged 0-19 between 2023 and 2024.

DCMS has directly invested £3.2 million to continue four key cultural education initiatives in 2026/27: the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, the BFI Film Academy, and the Art & Design National Saturday Club. These programmes help young people access creative opportunities, develop skills, and engage with culture both in and outside school.

Additionally, The Music Hubs Programme, funded by the DfE and run by ACE, works through 43 Hub Lead Organisations across England. These hubs partner with schools, music services, community groups, and professional musicians to offer a wide range of musical opportunities and provide high-quality music education to children and young people, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn and engage with music, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Lastly, the government has announced Every Child Can, an investment of £132.5 million of dormant assets funding to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services. We are designing the remaining funding and will share further details in due course and are committed to working with areas of greatest need across England.

The safety and wellbeing of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. Sport England and UK Sport (DCMS’s Arm’s Length Bodies for sport) require National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to adopt and implement safeguarding policies and practices as a condition of public funding.

Both organisations provide support to the sport and physical activity sector around safeguarding, including funding the Ann Craft Trust and the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit who provide safeguarding standards and guidance.

The data for this question is unavailable. NHS England does not report waiting times data for specific conditions unless there is an existing waiting times standard, for example Children and Young People eating disorders or Early Intervention in Psychosis.

We have launched The Young People and Work Report to investigate the persistently high numbers of young people out of work, education and training, with a holistic view of the welfare, health, skills and employment system. Led by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn, it will also identify areas for reform. The report will examine why increasing numbers of young people are falling out of work or education before their careers have begun. The Author will produce an interim Report this May, with a full and final report in September

To ensure we can take a decision in the round we are awaiting the Young People and Work Reports conclusions before making any decisions on whether to delay access to Universal Credit Health Element to 22.

The Universal Credit Act 2025, which came into force on 6 April 2026, delivered the first sustained, above inflation rise in the basic rate of UC since it was introduced. This means a little under four million households will benefit overall from government’s decision to increase the UC standard allowance, estimated to be worth around £760 annually in cash terms for a single parent aged 25 (£250 above inflation) or over £1195 (£400 above inflation) for a couple where one is aged 25 or over with children by 2029/30.

A little under 4 million households will benefit from the sustained, above-inflation increase to the UC standard allowance - worth around £295 in 2026/27, in cash terms around £110 above inflation, for a single person aged 25 or over and around £760, around £250 above inflation, by the end of the decade. For couples, where one member is aged 25 or over, it will increase by around an additional £465 this year, around £180 more than if up-rated by inflation alone.

Claimants who declared a health condition or disability before 6 April 2026 and are subsequently found to have Limited Capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), receive the higher rate - £429.80 per month. This applies even if the decision on their LCWRA entitlement was made on or after 6 April 2026.

In our Pathways to Work Green Paper we set out our Pathways to Work offer, backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade. Our Pathways to Work support offer will ensure a coherent and navigable offer of support, building on and bringing together initiatives such as Connect to Work, WorkWell and local Trailblazers.

Since July 2025, there have been around 1000 (full-time equivalent) Pathways to Work Advisors in place in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales helping disabled people and people with health conditions towards and into work. This increased deployment will help ensure that everyone impacted by the recent changes to the Universal Credit Health Element is offered support. People affected by the changes, including young people, will be able to access a conversation about their needs, goals and aspirations; offered one-to-one follow-on support, and given voluntary help to access additional work, health and skills support that can meet their needs.

We have launched The Young People and Work Report to investigate the persistently high numbers of young people out of work, education and training, with a holistic view of the welfare, health, skills and employment system. Led by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn, it will also identify areas for reform. The report will examine why increasing numbers of young people are falling out of work or education before their careers have begun. The Author will produce an interim Report this May, with a full and final report in September

To ensure we can take a decision in the round we are awaiting the Young People and Work Reports conclusions before making any decisions on whether to delay access to Universal Credit Health Element to 22.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 20 April 2026 to Question 125932.

Health is a devolved matter, and responsibility for improving access to mental health services in Northern Ireland, including for adolescents, sits with the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Government works closely with the devolved administrations on shared health challenges, including mental health. Ministers meet regularly with their counterparts through intergovernmental forums such as the Interministerial Group for Health and Social Care.

At the Interministerial Group for Health and Social Care in April 2025, ministers discussed common priorities across the four governments on mental health, including the importance of early support for children and young people delivered in schools and community settings. The Government remains committed to continuing to work with the Northern Ireland Executive and the other devolved administrations to share learning and approaches to improving mental health support.

Good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. The Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 set out how we will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity, backed by £240 million investment, for which the Northern Ireland executive received consequential funding in the usual way.

Disabled people and people with health conditions, including young disabled people can face a wide range of unique, yet intersecting barriers, relating to not just their health, but their employment and circumstance (Work aspirations and support needs of health and disability customers: Final findings report - GOV.UK). We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres in Great Britain.

DWP set out our plan for the “Pathways to Work Guarantee” in our Pathways to Work Green Paper and we are building towards our guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits in Great Britain. The guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding for the UK by the end of the decade, the Northern Ireland executive will receive their share of this funding in the usual way. We anticipate the guarantee, once fully rolled out in Great Britain, will include: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement, and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support.

In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review across the UK. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with DBT and DHSC, we are immediately launching Vanguards to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action.

Additionally, the Joint Work and Health Directorate (JWHD) has developed a digital information service for employers and continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme in Great Britain where we have recently announced plans to make the scheme more robust.

Alan Milburn will author an independent report to tackle the persistently high numbers of young people out of work, education and training. The report will examine why increasing numbers of young people are falling out of work or education before their careers have begun. It will make recommendations for policy response to help young people access work, training or education, ensuring they are supported to thrive and are not sidelined.

In Northern Ireland, health, skills, careers and employment support are transferred matters. My officials work closely with those in the Northern Ireland Executive, sharing best practice in regard to providing employment support to disabled people.

The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them has the chance to earn or learn through a Youth Guarantee.

We have already taken the first steps towards delivering a Youth Guarantee, launching Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, announcing funding to almost double our Youth Hubs across Great Britain, and we recently launched an Independent Report into Young People and Work, to identify potential areas for reform to better support young people with health conditions and disabilities.

We are now expanding the Youth Guarantee, backed by a £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people. This includes Youth Hubs in every area in Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit to get them into employment or training. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.

Employment support policies are devolved in Northern Ireland and the responsibility of the Department for Communities.

The Adult Substance Misuse Treatment Statistics 2024 to 2025 report and the Children’s Substance Misuse Treatment Statistics 2024 to 2025 report, both published in December 2025, show that in England between April 2024 and March 2025 there were 37,117 people under the age of 25 years old receiving drug and alcohol treatment in the community.

The Home Office does not hold the specific information requested.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on arrests for notifiable offences on an annual basis in the Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK statistical series.However, data is collected at the high-level offence group only, so arrests for “possession of drugs” fall within the wider “drug offences” category, and cannot be separately identified.

The Online Safety Act contains robust provisions to protect young people from online abuse.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must protect all users from illegal harassment and content and children from harmful content, including hateful and abusive content. These provisions are already in force, and Ofcom has robust enforcement powers for platforms who fail to fulfil their duties.

The Act will also require the largest categorised services to offer adults user empowerment tools to enable them to reduce engagement with abusive content. Ofcom will be consulting on these user empowerment tools this year.

We continually monitor the Act’s impact and effectiveness to ensure all users are protected online.