Tina Ramdeen, CLA Trustee and Associate Director, Young People at the Roundhouse provides an update on the changing policy landscape for the youth sector – including enrichment. Multiple announcements from multiple government departments in the space of several months reflect a genuine government interest in youth sector support. Tina helpfully summarises these and considers the important role Arts and creative opportunities can play in this work.
Alongside policy development within formal education with the ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review, there is a swell of activity underway across the youth sector, and we are eagerly keeping abreast of this to understand the package of support and opportunities that will be provided to children and young people both within and outside of school settings.
Several government departments are developing policies to ensure that children and young people are supported outside of statutory school provision, including the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); the Department for Education (DfE); the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP); the Home Office (HO); and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Arts, culture and heritage are widely recognised across the youth sector as effective tools for engagement – to unlock conversations, explore topics and discuss emotions. Here is an overview of key areas of policy development which provide opportunities to increase equality of access to Arts and culture to support the personal, social and emotional development of children and young people.
National Youth Strategy [Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport]
What: The National Youth Strategy was announced in November 2024 and aims to break down barriers to opportunities for young people.
The Strategy is led by DCMS and will prioritise delivering better-coordinated youth services and policy at a local, regional and national level. It will ensure decision-making moves away from a one-size-fits all approach, handing power back to young people and their communities, and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector.
The National Youth Strategy is aimed at children and young people aged 10-21 years old, and up to 25 years old for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). A key focus of the strategy is for young people from across the country to be given the opportunity to co-produce a new approach with the government towards the support services available to them.
How: The government appointed 13 diverse young people to form a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and bring lived experience across key areas including advocacy, violence prevention, social mobility and mental health to lead the National Youth Strategy, alongside an Expert Advisory Group of 14 experts from a variety of sectors to bring expertise from relevant sectors.
In March 2025 a national listening exercise was launched through the Deliver You campaign, to let young people have their say on support services, facilities and opportunities they need outside the school gates.
The consultation took place between 5 March and 16 April and young people were encouraged to contribute via an online survey, plus physical events including peer-led focus groups known as ‘Democracy Cafes’, and workshop sessions providing the opportunity to offer views and opinions in their own words. The campaign captured the insights of more than 20,000 young people.
Next Steps: An interim report of the National Youth Strategy – providing an overview of the feedback from young people – was expected in June, and we are hoping to receive this in the autumn.
On 21 July 25, the government launched the Civil Society Covenant, a new model of partnership between civil society and government. The National Youth Strategy is featured as a case study for the new Civil Society Covenant as an example of putting young people at the heart of policy development.
Youth Guarantee [Department for Work and Pensions]
What: The Youth Guarantee led by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was announced in November 24 within the Get Britain Working White Paper. It forms part of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, to ensure that every 18 to 21-year-old in England gets access to education, training, or help to find a job or an apprenticeship. There are also other reforms designed to improve the transition for young people into the world of work.
How: On 23 May DWP announced eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers under a new £45 million scheme for thousands of young people across England to receive targeted support into work.
The Youth Guarantee Trailblazers will match young people to job or training opportunities and will provide all-important foundations for the national roll-out of the programme, ensuring all 18- to-21-year-olds in England can access help to find work – breaking down barriers to opportunity as part of the Plan for Change. The eight youth trailblazers will be in Liverpool, the West Midlands, Tees Valley, the East Midlands, the West of England, and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and there will be two in London.
Young Futures Hubs [Department for Education and Home Office]
What: The Young Futures Hubs will support the delivery of the government’s safer streets, health and opportunity missions by bringing together support services for children and young people. Sitting at the heart of the government’s Plan for Change, the scheme is led by the Home Office and DfE and the Hubs are aimed at creating opportunity for all. Staffed by professionals including youth workers, mental health support workers and career advisors, they will bring together vital local services in the local community to promote children and young people’s development, improve their mental health and wellbeing, and prevent them from being drawn into crime.
The Young Futures Hubs are part of a wider Young Futures Programme that also includes Young Futures Prevention Partnerships (linked to Violence Reduction Units: VRU), which will bring local partners together to intervene earlier to ensure that vulnerable children and young people at-risk of being drawn into a variety of crime types (including anti-social behaviour, knife crime, and violence against women and girls) are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.
How: In its election manifesto, the government committed £95 million to the roll out of Young Futures Hubs. On 15 July 25, it was announced that the first wave of the Young Futures Hubs will launch later in 2025. Backed by a £2m cash injection, eight 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 expected that 50 Young Futures Hubs will be launched over the next four years.
Enrichment Framework [Department for Education]
What: When the Curriculum and Assessment Review interim report was published on 18 March, the government also introduced plans for an Enrichment Framework to support young people to access high-quality Arts education and enrichment activities as well as AI and tech opportunities. The announcement also included plans to develop the National Centre for Arts and Music Education. CLA will shortly publish a sector-generated vision and framework for the new Centre, following a series of CLA consensus workshops which took place over the summer (this has already been shared with DfE).
How: The DfE, working closely with DCMS, has committed to publishing the new Enrichment Framework by the end of the year. Building on the work of the sector, the Framework will be developed in collaboration with a panel of experts from schools, youth, sports and Arts organisations and research bodies. The Framework will highlight effective enrichment practice by identifying and reflecting practice demonstrating what a high-quality enrichment offer looks like, providing advice for schools on how to plan a high-quality enrichment offer and how to make use of specific programmes to increase access to sport and Arts.
FUNDING
To support the above initiatives, a flutter of funding schemes have recently been announced.
Dormant Assets Fund [Department of Digital Culture, Media and Sport]
On 2 June 25 DCMS announced the Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy, indicating that£132.5 million would be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. This will increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the Arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability. It also included the £15 million ‘Building Futures’ programme announced under the previous government, linked to the aforementioned Youth Guarantee, and will align with the following government missions: kickstarting economic growth; breaking down barriers to opportunity; and safer streets.
Throughout the strategy there is a strong emphasis on increasing young people’s access to attending and participating in art, creativity and culture, to enrich lives and improve wellbeing. As well as supporting local partnerships that help young people to access a variety of enriching Arts, creative and cultural experiences.
This will be delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund under a single, unified brand to be announced. The government will work with the Fund them to design the specific programmes to be delivered.
Turnaround Programme [Ministry of Justice]
On 1 April 2025, the MoJ announced that the Turnaround programme has been allocated an additional £15 million in funding. Turnaround is a youth early intervention programme led by the Ministry of Justice. It is a c.£71 million programme providing multi-year funding to Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales until March 2026, enabling them to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system. Early intervention and prevention are at the heart of the government’s Safer Streets mission.
Better Futures Fund [Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport]
On 14 July 25 the Chancellor launched a new £500m Better Futures Fund to break down barriers to opportunity for up to 200,000 vulnerable children and young people.
Better Futures Fund will be delivered by DCMS and will run for ten years, with plans to raise another £500 million from local government, social investors, and philanthropists on top of government’s funding. Further details on the fund will be set out in due course.
Building Creative Futures Package [Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport]
On 5 August 2025 the Prime Minister announced the £88 million “Building Creative Futures” package to transform opportunities for young people across the country. This investment is led by DCMS and will enable youth clubs and schools to offer more opportunities for young people to get active and connect with others, whilst building their confidence and broadening their horizons.
Music, art and dance are specifically referenced, and the package (some of which represents new funding and some existing funding) includes designated funding to support numerous initiatives such as a tailored enrichment offer in up to 400 schools; the launch of the Better Youth Spaces programme (DCMS); the roll out of the Local Youth Transformation Pilot; the Uniformed Youth Fund and the third phase of the Million Hours Fund.
CLA TAKE
It’s a complex landscape of policy and funding. However, as the government develops the new ten-year national Youth Strategy and broader policy areas to tackle the challenges faced by young people, there is an opportunity to expand traditional funding models which prioritise sports / outdoor learning / adventures away from home / youth social action / volunteering / targeted interventions and investment in youth centre facilities. Now is the moment to recognise the value and impact of high-quality Arts and creative opportunities, and their evidenced and unique role in contributing to and improving outcomes for children and young people.
We know that Arts, culture and creativity make a powerful contribution to personal, social and emotional development, providing young people with skills for life and skills for work, and there is an urgent need to increase opportunities for young people to access high-quality creative opportunities outside of school (as well as in school).
This period of policy development presents an opportunity for the Arts education sector to demonstrate that embedding Arts and creativity throughout non-formal spaces – including within community settings and wider support services – will contribute to the success of the government’s missions by ensuring that every child and young person has equitable access to the benefits that Arts and culture bring.
Given how much is happening in this space, CLA hopes that there will be a joint departmental approach to arts education from DCMS and DfE, ensuring they can work closely together to take a shared strategic overview of this complex landscape, enabling all new schemes and funding streams to align.
Image – Young Creatives at the Roundhouse. Credit Lloyd Winters.
