The Budget 2024- a missed opportunity for young people

Chancellor Rachel Reeves failed to recognise the vital role youth work can play in delivering the government’s missions. 

National youth work charity, UK Youth, had highlighted the Budget as a chance to make a meaningful difference to young people by unlocking the power of preventative services, including youth work. 

Jacob Diggle, UK Youth chief impact officer, said: “We are pleased to see increased investment in services supporting young people’s employability, health and education; these are areas that we know young people are facing increasing pressure as a result of the cuts over the last 10 years. However, vital contribution towards youth work has been forgotten, again.

“The Secretary of State for DCMS recently called youth work cuts a “national shame” but this budget does not begin to reverse this pattern.

“The positive changes announced, including: investment in Breakfast Clubs, more teachers in our schools and new projects to join up employment services for young people will undeniably support thousands of young people but we challenge the government to reach the millions currently missed.

“The budget will lead to increased costs to youth organisations but there is no specific investment announced to support them. There has been no successor to the Youth Investment Fund announced, no announcement of Dormant Assets Funds that have been promised to young people, and DCMS funding has been reduced in real terms.

“The government needs to be more ambitious with the Spending Review in the Spring to meet its promises to young people. We need government to unlock the funding required for preventative services – including youth work – to break the cycle of crisis and failure.

“As UK Youth’s recent research with the Institute for Government proves, there is an extraordinary personal and economic impact of shifting to a preventative approach to public services. Investment into youth work would reap financial and political benefits by helping tackle the crises in the NHS, criminal justice, employment support and beyond.

“Preventative local authority spending on services like youth clubs and children’s centres was cut by more than three-quarters between 2009/10 and 2022/23, while acute spending on looked after children and safeguarding services rose by more than half over the same period. This is bad economics and it is hurting young people.”

UK Youth will be examining what the Budget means for young people and the youth sector at a special webinar. 

‘What does the Budget mean for the youth sector? Time for a prevention revolution?’ takes place online on Friday, November 1, at 2pm, featuring analysis from the UK Youth team, IfG senior researcher Stuart Hoddinott, a youth worker, and a young person.

The webinar will also feature a question and answer session, as well as presentation on the new UK Youth and IfG research, A preventative approach to public services. Register now to attend

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 9,000 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 a range of programmes designed to help young people thrive, such as outdoor learning, physical literacy, social action and employability. For more on UK Youth’s programmes, see ukyouth.org/what-we-do/programmes