17 July 2025
This week, the Prime Minister announced the launch of Young Futures Hubs at a Youth Opportunity Summit attended by the King, Idris Elba and the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime.
What are Young Futures Hubs?
Paid for by a grant of £2million, Young Futures Hubs will offer support to young people ranging from mental health and wellbeing to careers advice, aimed at steering them away from crime.
Moreover, the Young Futures Hubs are part of a wider Young Futures Programme that also includes Young Futures Prevention Partnerships. Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will include Panels run in Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) areas. These Panels will aim to proactively identify and refer vulnerable young people to a range of different support services much earlier, including the Young Futures Hubs.
The new Young Futures Hubs connect into the Government’s safer streets, health and opportunity missions by bringing together support services for young people.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the Hubs will “open greater opportunities” for vulnerable young people.
When will the Young Futures Hubs begin to operate?
Eight hubs will launch this year and the Government plans to launch a total of 50 Young Futures Hubs over the next four years.
Where will the Hubs be?
The locations of the Young Futures Hubs have yet to be announced. However, the Government have committed that the Hubs will be targeted in areas with high levels of knife crime and antisocial behaviour and offer a lifeline to vulnerable young people. It is key that Hubs are designed to meet the specific needs and context of the communities that they will be based in.
What has UK Youth been doing to support the rollout of Young Futures Hubs?
UK Youth has long backed the need for Young Futures Hubs. Last year at Labour Party Conference, we hosted a panel with the Youth Minister Stephanie Peacock on the Young Futures Programme and the need for the voices of young people and youth organisations to be involved in the design of the programme and its services.
Following the Conference, UK Youth endorsed a report alongside partners entitled, “Impact that lasts: Ensuring Young Futures Hubs fulfil their potential”, based on academic research, including UK Youth’s 2018 study into youth loneliness, A Place to Belong, and the four-year Public Health, Youth and Violence Reduction study.
Vicky Browning, Interim Chief Executive at UK Youth welcomed the announcement of the Hubs launching this year:
“It is positive to see increased recognition and support from Government this week of the challenges facing our young people. Young Futures Hubs can make a huge difference in the lives of young people across the country.
Now Government must ensure that the first eight Hubs will be located in spaces where young people already gather – both offline and online. Youth voice should be front and centre when it comes to designing these services for young people and the Hubs need to be spaces where young people feel comfortable and understood.
The Hubs must build on existing youth work and social prescribing initiatives to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing, alongside their aspirations and pathways to employment. Even with the best intention, £2million will not stretch far across eight Hubs. This critical support to young people must be properly resourced and we await further detail from the Government on the level of investment it is committing to, to deliver on its promise to young people over coming years.
Youth work is the key to making this policy work in reality. Youth workers play an essential role in the support system available to young people. As UK Youth has continued to make the case to Government, successful implementation of the Young Futures Hubs will require upstream efforts to bring in new cohorts of youth workers and invest in the leadership skills of the existing workforce. The Hubs need to embrace youth work principles, delivering direct relational support to young people that learns from their cultural contexts, rather than making assumptions about their needs.”
Oscar Bingham, Acting Director of Impact at UK Youth also welcomed the announcement, highlighting some important considerations for the Government:
“We welcome the government’s multi-year commitment to Young Futures Hubs. They will take time to become embedded within communities and part of the social infrastructure. With that in mind, the Government should think carefully about how it measures success – short-term outcome measurement in this first year may present a very limited picture of the Hubs’ potential and it’s critical that learning from these first eight Hubs can inform replication and roll out in other areas over the coming years.
A final note of caution is that the Young Futures Hubs must interact with the National Youth Strategy, the Youth Guarantee and other key policy developments that will shape young people’s futures. The youth sector needs a clear, joined-up vision supported by Departments across Government.
UK Youth works closely with the Government and we are committed to making Young Futures Hubs work in the best interests of young people and the youth organisations in our network. It’s so important that they are shaped by the voices of young people in local communities. Young people know their communities best and each Hub must respond to local needs and preferences.”