To receive a verbal update on the Youth Investment Fund.

The Director of Neighbourhood Delivery provided a verbal update regarding the Youth Investment Fund.  He reported that the Council had been working with the youth sector since August 2022 on bids for this fund for new or improved youth facilities and that significant time and resources had been dedicated to this work.  He stated that in autumn 2023 the Council had been informed that six bids were progressing to Phase 2, advising that, if all six bids had progressed to completion, Manchester would have received £10 million of investment in capital assets for youth provision.  He reported that the Council had received an email on 22 March 2024 informing them that there would now be no funding for this work in 2024/2025, and there was no information provided on whether there would be funding in future years.  He reported that it appeared that the funding had been withdrawn but there was a lack of clarity from the Government on this.  He informed Members that the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children's Services had written to the Secretary of State on 25 March 2024.  He reported that the Council had been informed by Social Investment Business, which was running the Youth Investment Fund on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), that there would be some funding available for architect and survey fees and that there would be an update by the end of June.

The Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children's Services reported that he and the Council were deeply dissatisfied about this, highlighting the amount of work that had gone into the bids, by both the Council and youth service providers, and how badly needed these facilities were.  He reported that, regardless of the Government response, representatives from the Council would be meeting with all the providers affected to try to find ways forward so that all the work which had taken place was not wasted, for example, identifying and supporting them to bid for other capital funding.

Committee Members expressed that they were extremely disappointed with this news, noting that youth services had already been badly affected by austerity cuts since 2010.  They thanked officers and youth service providers for all their hard work on these bids and recognised how frustrating and demoralising this news must be for them.  Members expressed concern about the lack of clarity from the Government and asked the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children's Services to continue to pursue this.  Members commented that it was important to explore alternative options with youth providers, even if these were not of the same scale as could have been achieved through the Youth Investment Fund.

The Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children's Services reported that he would continue to pursue a clear response from the Secretary of State, including escalating the matter through MPs if necessary.  In response to a question from the Chair about the impact of this news, he advised that the investment was for specific projects so it would be the particular organisations which had been bidding for the funding that would be affected, rather than the sector more broadly.  He reported that, without this funding, these smaller organisations which did not have a permanent base would be unable to scale up their provision in the areas of the city where the new facilities had been planned; however, he advised that the Council would be meeting with the affected providers to explore different ways to meet this need, for example, alternative funding sources or making use of buildings owned by the Council.

Decision

To receive a further update at an appropriate time.