Last week, the Government released Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, the first in over two decades. It sets out how it will tackle the problems young people are facing today through three major shifts – from national to local, from fragmented to collaborative, and from excluded to empowered.
Created with 14,000 young people, the National Youth Strategy is a response to the concerns set out in the Youth Matters: State of the Nation Report. This includes better mental health and wellbeing support being outlined as one of the top three choices for improving daily life in the national survey.
Engaging with 14,000 young people demonstrates what is possible when we consult with young people, which must set the precedent for further engagement. Co-design and co-delivery of the commitments set out in the National Youth Strategy must take place in order for these commitments to be more than just a promise.
A promise is a start; it gives us hope. But that hope must be harnessed through clarity, direction, and action.
What is next for young people’s involvement following the National Youth Strategy? The foundations for change are there. Now we need to see a plan drawn out clearly. The ‘how’ of the commitments needs to be established, and young people should be the ones to lead on this.
The success of the National Youth Strategy will come from the opportunities it creates, and there is plenty of room to achieve this, whether it be through the creation of a new Youth Policy Network or the establishment of new Youth Councils across England.
However, given 1 in 3 young people surveyed as a part of the State of the Nation survey rated mental health as amongst their biggest worries, it is concerning to see the scale of the ambition for Young Futures Hubs rolled back in the National Youth Strategy.
Young Futures Hubs were outlined in the Government’s Manifesto with the intent to promote children and young people’s development, improve mental health and wellbeing, and to prevent young people from being drawn into crime.
The National Youth Strategy commits to spending £70 million over the next three years to rebuild and improve local youth services and to establish a network of 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029. This falls significantly short of the £95 million promised annually to back the rollout of Young Futures Hubs in every local community.
With only 50 hubs planned over the next four years, many communities risk missing out on vital early support, which raises the question of whether the problems young people have identified have been met with adequate ambition.
The National Youth Strategy, then, is a promise – one that raises hopes and backtracks on others simultaneously.
As a result, at minimum, we expect to see the 50 hubs rolled out for young people aged 11-25 years old. Young people must be involved in every step of their development and delivery for these hubs to be truly local, collaborative, and part of an empowering journey for young people.
To ensure that this happens, we call on the Government to uphold Action 10 of their National Youth Strategy. This involves methods through which they can be held to account, including ways young people can follow the progress of commitments and involving young people in an annual national hearing on the delivery of the strategy. Ultimately, the young people involved in bringing the National Youth Strategy together need to be respected through action and accountability.
