Blog

​​In December 2025, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) launched its new National Youth Strategy, Youth Matters, setting out a vision for improving opportunities for young people across England.

For SQW, the launch marked a particularly significant moment. Since 2023, we have carried out a series of research projects for DCMS’s Youth Team, helping to strengthen the evidence base around different aspects of the youth sector. This includes research into the workforce that supports young people, as well as young people’s participation in youth sector provision.

In this blog, I reflect on how insights from SQW’s youth work research are reflected in the strategy.

TheYouth Matters strategy’s three radical shifts

The strategy sets out three radical shifts;

1. From national to local, rebuilding local youth provision and directing funding to the areas that need it most.
2. From fragmented to collaborative, strengthening partnership working across the services and sectors that support young people
3. From excluded to empowered, ensuring young people have a voice in the decisions affecting them.

Youth Matters was created through extensive consultation and insights from a wide range of individuals and organisations. Through DCMS’s commissioning approach, which effectively engaged us as a learning partner, we can reflect on how SQW’s research has helped inform the thinking behind these priorities and the policies announced alongside them. It is worth acknowledging up front our deep thanks to all research participants and partners who contributed their time and insights to each of the research projects we delivered. 

From national to local

This shift focuses on rebuilding local youth provision and ensuring investment is targeted towards people in places where it can have the greatest impact. Our research provided the context and rationale for this, highlighting both the value of local youth provision and the inequalities that shape young people’s access to services and support:

• Our Youth Evidence Base study demonstrated the wide ranging benefits of youth provision for young people’s outcomes, while also showing that the sector has faced sustained funding cuts and that local provision is increasingly uneven.
• Our Youth Enrichment study examined what enrichment provision looks like across the youth sector, including who can access it, what young people value and the barriers that prevent participation. We found geographic and socio-economic variation, with young people in rural areas, deprived communities and places with limited youth infrastructure facing the fewest opportunities to take part.
• Our research on the barriers and enablers of youth participation reinforced the importance of local factors, particularly transport and the availability of nearby provision, in shaping whether young people are able to engage consistently.

Taken together, this evidence supports the case for locally focused investment in youth provision, recognising the role of place, infrastructure and investment in the availability of opportunities for young people.

These findings are clearly reflected in several key policy commitments within the Youth Matters Strategy, including:

• The £60 million Richer Young Lives Fund, designed to increase access to high quality youth work and enjoyable activities in areas of greatest need.
• The £350 million expansion of Better Youth Spaces, supporting both the improvement of existing facilities and the creation of new local youth infrastructure.

From fragmented to collaborative

This shift focuses on strengthening the youth workforce and encouraging services to work together to support young people. The Youth Matters Strategy places emphasis on partnership working and the co-location of services to enable young people to access timely, joined-up support that is appropriate for their needs.

Our research into youth sector interactions explored how youth organisations interact with other sectors – such as health, education, the police force, and housing – to support young people. We found that:

• Cross-sector working enables earlier and more effective intervention by creating clearer referral routes and engagement pathways.
• Co-location plays an enabling role, with youth work and other services operating in one location helping to facilitate both formal partnerships and informal, trust-based relationships (both between organisations and with young people themselves).

These findings are reflected in one of the strategy’s flagship policies - the creation of Young Futures Hubs. These are local spaces where youth workers and other professionals are co-located to improve young people’s access to support. Initially, the strategy set out plans to open 50 hubs over the next four years, however the Government’s recently expanded this through funding for 80 new Young Futures Hubs.

From excluded to empowered

A core commitment of the Youth Matters Strategy is to embed youth participation in decision making, recognising that when young people are genuinely involved in shaping the policies, services and spaces around them, those services become more relevant and more trusted.

The emphasis on participation aligns with findings from SQW's youth volunteering research. The research showed that young people already play active roles in the youth sector through volunteering and that doing so helps boost their skills and confidence, whilst supporting other young people and building capacity within youth organisations. 

This principle also closely reflects how SQW approached its research for DCMS. In partnership with UK Youth, who convened a Youth Panel, young people were placed at the centre of our research methodology. The panel played an active role in shaping research questions, interpreting findings and sense checking conclusions, ensuring that young people’s perspectives were embedded throughout the research process.

Conclusion

The launch of the Youth Matters Strategy marks a significant moment for youth policy, and we are proud to have contributed to the evidence base underpinning it. Across the strategy’s three radical shifts, the strategy reflects many of the insights emerging from SQW’s research for DCMS: the importance of place and local infrastructure, the value of partnership working across services, and the role young people can play in shaping the decisions and services that affect their lives. We look forward to continuing to support the development of youth policy and practice through evaluation and research in the years ahead.