Spring Budget 2024: UK Youth disappointed by lack of dedicated funding for youth sector

UK Youth has expressed its disappointment at Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget announcement today.

Mr Hunt made a number of key announcements on tax reliefs, public sector efficiencies, child benefits, and the Household Support Fund. However, UK Youth is disappointed in the lack of dedicated funding provided for the youth sector, and the lack of focus on the biggest challenges facing young people today, writes Kate Roberts, UK Youth Policy and Influencing Officer.

Jacob Diggle, UK Youth Chief Impact Officer, said: “Today’s Spring Budget was another missed opportunity for Government to meet the needs of young people. We cannot wait much longer.

“Increasing access to quality youth work is not just a moral imperative, it has much wider economic value. Youth work is a proven solution to the challenges young people are facing but it is being ignored. We cannot afford not to invest in youth work.

“The government’s National Youth Guarantee promises all young people safe places to go, meaningful things to do, and experiences to develop and give back to their communities. We need the investment to make this guarantee a reality.

“As we head into the next General Election, it is vital all political parties prioritise support for young people. We urge all parties to guarantee sustainable investment in quality youth work not just for the next generation, but for the benefit of the whole country.”

Among the announcements today, UK Youth is pleased to see the Government channelling investment into violence reduction units as a way of reducing violence and anti-social behaviour. VRUs are a great example of how cross-sector collaboration can bring about change for, and with, young people.

We know youth work is an effective preventative invention for violence affecting young people and provides a ready-made solution for Government investment.

We encourage all VRUs to work with local youth services to increase access to youth work. Youth workers have a key role in providing vital support to help young people navigate the challenges they face.

When this preventative support is taken away, young people are more vulnerable to crime and other anti-social behaviour. Reductions in local youth provision are associated with a rise in certain types of crime and anti-social behaviour, including increases in the number of children cautioned or sentenced, the proportion of young people who reoffend, bike thefts, weapon possession offences and shoplifting. We strongly encourage future investment in local youth services.

We have seen through our work with the Hope Collective partnership how important listening to the voices of young people on the issues affecting them can be.

We are pleased to have worked closely with VRUs on this through Hope Hacks and look forward to continuing to work with VRUs as they expand across England and Wales.

The Hope Collective is driven by a shared purpose – to establish real change that enables UK’s most vulnerable communities to be free from poverty, violence and discrimination.

The Hope Collective co-designs solutions that deliver for young people, amplify their voices and focus on their hopes for the future. Through this work, young people can discuss their thoughts and solutions on issues that affect them, their lives and their communities.

Overall, we urge the Government and local authorities to invest in youth work for the benefit of young people nationwide – UK Youth’s Untapped research has shown increasing investment in youth work can actually save billions of pounds in the long-term, alongside transforming the lives of young people, whether through improving employment, health outcomes or reducing crime. Youth work is a vital resource for our young people.

However, we know funding for youth work has fallen by more than 60 per cent in a decade. Recent studies undertaken by UK Youth and SQW published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, reveal that from 2011-21, local authority youth provision funding in England fell in real terms from £1,058.2 million to £408.5m, while the number of youth clubs operated by local authorities nearly halved in number.

Our Untapped report, delivered with Frontier Economics, shows that for every £1 the Government invests in youth work, the benefit to the taxpayer is at least £3.20 and could be up to £6.40. According to the Government’s own benchmarks, this return on investment is considered ‘high’, or ‘very high’. Investment in youth services is necessary for society.

Frontier Economics estimates the direct economic value of the youth work sector in England to be £5.7 billion. On top of this, it has found the total indirect value of the youth work sector is £3.2bn to the country, including £0.5bn from decreased crime, £1.7bn from improved health and £0.8bn from increased employment and education.

UK Youth also urges local authorities to invest in youth services at local authority level for the benefit of young people.

However, we know this requires stable and sustainable finances to deliver. Local authorities are facing enormous financial pressures, as we have seen with the cuts made by Birmingham City Council this week, but vital services for young people must be protected.

Youth work provides life-changing and at times life-saving support, alongside being economically beneficial to society in preventative outcomes.

As the next General Election will need to be called before January 2025, we are expecting to see manifestoes from all political parties released this year.

We would like to see all parties make robust policy commitments to young people, including significant investment into youth services and youth work.

All manifestoes should build on the National Youth Sector Advisory Board’s Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy recommendations and the calls made by the Back Youth Alliance for a targeted youth development offer for the most marginalised and at-risk young people, a universal youth work and enrichment offer, and youth voice and representation at all levels of policy and decision-making.

We are calling on all parties to:

UK Youth is a leading charity with a vision that all young people are equipped to thrive and empowered to contribute at every stage of their lives. With an open network of more than 8,000 youth organisations and nation partners; UK Youth reaches more than four million young people across the UK and is focused on unlocking youth work as the catalyst of change that is needed now more than ever. To find out more, visit ukyouth.org

UK Youth is involved in various programmes designed to help young people thrive, such as outdoor learning, physical literacy, social action and employability, including Hatch, a youth employability programme run in partnership with KFC. For more on UK Youth’s programmes, see ukyouth.org/what-we-do/programmes