Building Brighter Futures: Our Efforts to Shape the National Youth Strategy

During Youth Work Week, we’re reflecting on how UK Youth is helping to build brighter futures for young people across the country.

Every day, we work so that young people can access safe spaces, trusted support and opportunities to thrive. We amplify their voices, grow the evidence base for youth work, and use our influence to shape the policies that affect their lives.

This year, a major focus of that work has been supporting and influencing the Government’s upcoming National Youth Strategy – a once-in-a-generation opportunity to commit to long-term investment in the youth sector.

Here’s how we’ve been making sure young people are front and centre.

Deliver You: Putting Young People at the Heart of Policy

In February, the Government commissioned UK Youth – as part of a national consortium – to deliver what Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy described as:

“one of the most ambitious listening exercises for a generation”

Together with Volunteering Matters (who jointly power the #iwill Movement), My Life My Say and Savanta, we co-designed Deliver You: a groundbreaking campaign that gave more than 14,000 young people the chance to shape the National Youth Strategy.

• Led by young people, grounded in lived experience
• Young people aged 10–21 (and up to 25 with SEND) shared their views through:
• National surveys
• Democracy Cafés
• Focus groups
• Regional Youth Hacks

They told us what they need beyond the school gates: better access to safe spaces, trusted adults, mental health support, education and employment opportunities, and vibrant local communities.

Ten Youth Collaborators played a central role: designing activities, running events, analysing data and ensuring every voice was heard.

Oscar Bingham, Assistant Director of Impact, commented: 

“The Deliver You campaign has been an unforgettable experience – one that shows what’s possible when the right organisations and young people come together.

We were proud to see Deliver You featured by the Government as an example of putting young people at the heart of policy development when it launched the Civil Society Covenant this summer.”  

Join us this #iwill Week (17–21 November), where Youth Collaborators will be sharing what they heard from their peers and their hopes for the Strategy. Register for your space place here.

Bringing the Sector’s Voice to Decision-Makers

For years, UK Youth has called for a National Youth Strategy. We’re ensuring that youth workers and sector organisations have real influence. This has included:

• Bringing Ministers, MPs, civil servants, and young leaders together in Parliament to discuss the design of the National Youth Strategy
• Hosting an online session for Network members to ask questions and make suggestions to DCMS directly
• Sharing insights from across the Network with government – drawing on youth workers’ answers to Just One Question, evidence reviews, and national polling to inform the Strategy
• Working closely with officials from DCMS, Home Office, and Department of Education to ensure that the government’s flagship policies (such as Young Futures Hubs) recognise the vital role that youth workers play

Our Ten Tests for the Strategy

• Genuinely cross-government in scope   
• Co-produced with young people   
• Youth workers and sector orgs also have an influential voice   
• Consultation not just ‘admiring the problems’ but developing specific approaches to tackle them   
• Youth work recognised as part of the solution to many problems facing young people, not ‘another mouth to feed’   
• Strategy provides an explicit statement about how Westminster government sees its role in relation to youth sector    
• Strategy recognises the essential role of youth sector infrastructure and provides a strong statement of how government will help to organise and resource this   
• Outcomes and accountability for strategy are clear   
• Substantially increased resource allocated for youth work in Spring 2026 Spending Review   
• Implementation plan published – with cabinet level leadership and integration into ‘mission’ governance  

Once the National Youth Strategy is published, we will work with young people and our Network to measure progress against these tests – and hold Government to account.

What Happens Next

The publication of the National Youth Strategy later this year (currently expected in December 2025) will not be the end – it will be the start of a new phase.

The Strategy is unlikely to provide all the answers. How it’s implemented – and how well young people’s voices are reflected – will determine its success. 

We will be holding discussions with our Network, giving our Youth Collaborators platforms to share their views with policy makers, and holding an event (with Back Youth Alliance partners) in Parliament next year to encourage MPs and members of the House of Lords to hold the government accountable for the Strategy’s implementation.  

We are proud of what has been achieved so far – but there is still so much to do.