This establishment of Young Futures Hubs, which aim to increase opportunities, improve mental health and wellbeing, and reduce crime – especially knife crime – represents a key part of the Government’s National Youth Strategy. With the Government seeing them as key to reversing what they call ‘a decade of decline in local youth services.’
For young people, to have somewhere to go
The Hubs, which will be accessible for young people aged 10 to 18, and extending to the age of 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities, will provide open access to sports, creative activities and trusted youth workers.
By bringing together mental health support, skills and training, routes into employment, and crime prevention, the Government is hoping to provide seamless, holistic support to young people without them having to repeat their story to a different service every time they visit.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy said:
“Last year we spoke to thousands of young people who told us that they needed somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to. That’s what these new Young Futures Hubs will give them. It is a symbol of this Government wrapping their arms around young people, telling them we believe in their generation and that we know they can succeed.”
An earlier scheme showed engagement and good results
The expansion of the Young Futures Hubs follows an early adopter scheme that saw positive results reported across eight initial centres. A Government-led interim report found that there was ‘strong early evidence related to improved engagement, access to support and the development of trusted relationships between young people and hub staff.’
To mark the announcement, new Minister for Young People Vicky Foxcroft visited the Manchester Young Futures Hub, which, as one of the early adopter sites, has been operational since April 2026 and offers physical activity, informal education, mental health support, enterprise schemes and social activities across a network of local venues.
Vicky Foxcroft said: “It was wonderful to see first-hand the difference the Manchester Young Futures Hub is already making. By backing local authorities and their partners to build services that work, we’re making sure that wherever you grow up in England, you have somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to.”
The Young Futures Hubs are just one part of a major cross-government programme to support young people, especially the 1 in 8 young people not currently in work, education or training.
‘Every Child Can’ is another scheme aimed at the youngest generation
In addition to the Young Futures Hubs, £132 million has been invested in the ‘Every Child Can’ programme, which funds in-person activities at weekends and in the holidays, and £22.5 million is also being invested in the Enrichment Expansion Programme. This programme will work with up to 400 schools in the most deprived areas of England to support them in offering enrichment activities in line with the Department for Education’s new Enrichment Framework.
The Government’s announcement of Young Futures Hubs has been broadly well-received amongst groups and charities providing support to young people, with Louise Norris, manager of the KFC Youth Foundation, stating: ‘Young people deserve access to opportunity, both in their life and to get into work. But we cannot expect them to seize those opportunities without guidance to get there. We need to meet young people where they are, bring services together around them and make support easier to access. Youth Hubs do exactly that, and (the) announcement is a welcome step towards making sure more young people have access to them.’
Ninety Hubs were promised, but only 42 are materialising?
However, there has been criticism of the Government’s decision to downgrade on Labour’s general election manifesto pledge for 90 hubs. A statement signed by the chief executives of eight major mental health charities, including The Children’s Society and Mind, stated:
We welcome the roll out of the hubs model, which has been proven effective in local communities for decades (however)… the commitment to only around 50 hubs backed by £250,000 per hub falls short of the comprehensive network of support and funding initially pledged.”
Furthermore, the Chief Executives were critical of the Government’s framing of hubs as a crime prevention initiative, stating that these “risks deterring young people from accessing them.
Opposition parties call them a ‘soft touch’
Opposition Parties have been less enthusiastic about the establishment of Young Futures Hubs, often seeking to portray them as part of a ‘soft touch’ approach to crime and crime prevention.
Speaking earlier in the year, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, questioned the Government’s plans to use Young Futures Hubs as part of their strategy to target knife crime, arguing instead that
I believe that the thing that will bring down crime is people knowing that they will be caught and punished.
Likewise, Reform UK’s Home Affairs Spokesman, Zia Yusuf, argued against relying on community centres or social initiatives to solve knife crime, calling for a shift from community-led prevention to strong police intervention:
The Met Police should be given ‘vastly expanded’ stop and search powers to tackle knife crime… areas suffering from high knife crime need to be flooded with police officers under ‘saturation policing’ in ‘zero tolerance’ crackdowns.
