First Full APPG Meeting of the Parliamentary Year: Launching the Report Process

The APPG on Youth Affairs was delighted to welcome nearly 60 people, including many young people, to Parliament on Monday 15 December for the first full APPG meeting of this Parliamentary year. The meeting saw the launch of a new report “Youth work in 2035”, collating evidence to inform its development. Additionally, we were delighted to welcome Minister for Youth Stephanie Peacock MP for a discussion on the recently published National Youth Strategy.

Chair of the APPG Natasha Irons MP welcomed everyone to the meeting and detailed the importance of youth work, and how the upcoming report will look to make recommendations to Government to try and bolster it for the future. She was joined by APPG Officers David Williams, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, and Dr Lauren Sullivan, MP for Gravesham, as well as APPG Members Josh Dean, MP for Hertford and Stortford, and Baroness Lister.

Three young people were selected from sector organisations to give individual presentations on youth work. Amy from YMCA England & Wales, Dazo from Youth Futures Foundation, and Florence from Sea Cadets all spoke brilliantly. They discussed what youth work means to them, how they see it changing over the next decade and the importance of youth workers in ensuring face to face connection for young people. They also mentioned funding for youth services, and the need to properly invest in order to support young people adequately.

As well as the young representatives, panellists included Leigh Middleton, Chief Executive of National Youth Agency, along with Nathan Singleton, Chief Executive of LifeLine Projects, and Karen Fulton, a volunteer with Sea Cadets who also has many years of youth work experience. They spoke about the changes in youth work since 2000, with youth workers representing the importance of human connection for young people and how it is important that this is preserved, even with the development of technology. In addition, the need to recognise volunteers and their contribution was also raised, as well as the necessity for long-term, multi-year sustainable funding for youth services across the country, as some local authorities currently have no provision.

Minister for Youth, Stephanie Peacock MP, also attended the meeting, and set out the key themes of the National Youth Strategy which include ensuring more young people have trusted adults in their lives, places to go, and things to do. She highlighted that the strategy was just the start of the conversation with young people, and mentioned that there would be opportunities for young people to chart the progress of the strategy online, as well as come together every year to discuss with Government how it is being implemented. She also answered young people’s questions about funding for the strategy, engagement with hard-to-reach young people, youth hubs, AI and technology. We are grateful for her attendance at the meeting.

The presentations, questions and concerns raised in this meeting will be collated as part of our evidence collection for the upcoming report on youth work. We hope to convene a number of sessions next year to discuss specific issues related to youth work and to hear more about how it might look in ten years’ time.