Policy and Public Affairs Round Up Blog – Feb 2023

August 2022 – January 2023

It has been a busy few months in policy and public affairs, not just nationally but also here at UK Youth, as we have welcomed two new teams members – Luke Maynard as Head of Policy & Influencing and Kate Roberts as Policy & Influencing Officer!

What have we been up to?

It has been a busy start for the new team, but one that has seen some real highlights already. In August 2022 our Head of Policy and Influencing was able to take a group of young people to Number 10 Downing Street to mark International Youth Day, it was a great opportunity for them to meet a number of political advisors, and more importantly to have their views heard by those in positions of power. It was also a fantastic way to build up to the political conference season, which saw staff and young people travel to Liverpool and Birmingham to engage with politicians across the political spectrum. At both Labour and Conservative Conferences we held panel events with MPs, Councillors and business leaders in which young people chaired and participated in the discussion and to make their own case for the power of youth work.

In November the organisation launched its Untapped Report, ground-breaking research by UK Youth and Frontier Economics that found that for every £1 government invests in youth work, the benefit to the taxpayer is between £3.20 and £6.40. We already knew about the improved education and employment outcomes and positive impacts on mental health youth work offers, but it was amazing to establish that it is also contributing £5.7bn annually to the wider economy through jobs, volunteering, and local suppliers. The launch itself brought together representatives from both national and local government, education, health care and employment organisations, business and of course the youth sector, showing the partnership potential we as an organisation are aiming for to best advocate for young people and youth work.

In what has been a year of political change, it was also great to get the opportunity to travel to Ipswich to celebrate #iwill week and meet Stuart Andrew MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society. While hearing about the amazing work being done in Ipswich through #iwill, as well as meeting young people from the area, we also managed to discuss the work of UK Youth and our networks with the Minister, hopefully heralding the start of a productive relationship with him to secure the investment and support youth organisations need to continue to deliver the support young people so desperately need.

We have been highlighting the National Youth Guarantee, one year on from its launch in February 2022. We reflected on what the National Youth Guarantee promised for young people, specifically that by 2025, every young person in England should have access to regular out of school activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. We also looked at what has happened since the announcement and the future of this work, and lastly we reiterated our seven key tests that the National Youth Guarantee needs to meet in order to be successful. You can find out more on our blog.

The Government announced that the planned Mental Health Strategy has been replaced with a Major Conditions Strategy, we are concerned this will reduce the focus of the Government on mental health, we are keen to see that this new strategy takes into account the previous consultation responses that we know many young people submitted.

Round two of the levelling up funding was also announced, which we were pleased to see. However, we found that only 5 of the 111 projects that were funded offer specific youth provision, we believe more needs to be done to support young people in their communities across the country.

We also submitted a response to the Left Behind Neighbourhoods All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)’s call for evidence on levelling up. We believe youth work is a vital part of improving the connectivity of communities, fostering a sense of belonging and engagement, and contributing to the levelling up agenda through supporting young people. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of this call for evidence.

What have young people been saying?

Felix Schofield is a young person who attended Party Conference with us in October;

Felix says, ‘Going to the conference was an amazing experience and something I never thought I would experience.

The main highlight for me was going to all the talks that were being held and having the chance to ask different politicians and industry leaders questions about their topics and how it relates back to young people.

My main takeaway was getting to see what the inner workings of a political party was like. The fact that we also ran our own panel was amazing and I felt like I learned a lot from that as well in terms of my technical skills.

I really hope that more young people are brought to events like this and their insights are heard in a place where they feel like it’ll have an effect.’

What’s on the horizon?

Our Back Youth Alliance representative, Kevin McKenna, will be attending a roundtable with Stuart Andrew MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society and for Equalities) who has responsibility for youth in his role. Kevin will be talking to the Minister, alongside other young people, about the National Youth Guarantee and the current cost of living crisis.

Believe it or not we have already started thinking about the next General Election and how we can work across the youth sector to ensure that young people’s voices are heard on all aspects of Government policy. Keep an eye out for more updates on this in future!

The Spring Budget is also on the horizon, we will be looking to see continued and increased support for youth organisations and charities due to the cost of living crisis. We know that many young people and youth organisations are struggling with this, and it is vital that Government provide the support needed for youth work to continue.

We’d love to hear from you!

Please get in touch by emailing kate.roberts@ukyouth.org with any feedback you have on the content of our roundup, as well as any ideas/reflections you’d like to share to feed into our policy and public affairs work!