In the wake of an historic 2024 General Election, NYA’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Angel Fletcher, reflects on the results, new announcements and implications for the youth work sector.
On Friday 5 July, Sir Keir Starmer was announced as the new Prime Minister following an election with a landslide majority of 172 (see constituency level results tracker here). The Liberal Democrat Party also won big that night, gaining 72 seats and now have the third largest majority in parliament. Well worth a celebration to Sweet Caroline!
Besides a change in the elected party leading government, following 14 years of Conservative rule, the most notable thing about the results is just how many new MPs have joined the House of Commons. 335 new MPs have been elected, 300 were re-elected and 15 were historic MPs (meaning they’d been MPs previously but weren’t at the time of the 2024 election). This means that over half of the House of Commons is now entirely new and lots of young MPs have joined the cohort, which bodes well for nurturing new advocates for youth work and youth voice in Westminster.
In a series of first speeches as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer made a commitment that his government will “brick by brick… rebuild the infrastructure of opportunity” and he also emphasised the importance of preventative services. These are promising messages and we hope to see the government put opportunities for young people and rebuilding youth services at the heart of this mission.
Cabinet appointments
With a new government, comes a new Cabinet (eight of which have charity experience, according to analysis from Pro Bono Economics) and there have been some significant appointments for the youth sector:
Lisa Nandy has been appointed as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Stephanie Peacock has been announced as a junior minister at DCMS as the new Minister for Civil Society and Youth.
Yvette Cooper has been appointed as Home Secretary at the Home Office (HO), leading the Young Futures programme.
Bridget Phillipson has been appointed as Education Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE), leading on Labour’s Opportunities mission and the new Child Poverty taskforce with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.
Government announcements so far…
Though the new government has only been in post for a matter of weeks, there are some flagship announcements to note, including:
- ‘Mission Delivery Boards’ will be created to deliver the five core Labour Party missions, chaired personally by Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
- Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has announced that the Budget will take place on 30 October. Finalised departmental budgets for this financial year and the next will be confirmed in October and a multi-year Spending Review will conclude in Spring 2025 “to embed mission-led government and transform public services”.
- The title of the ‘Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ has been reverted back to the ‘Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’ – the phrase ‘Levelling Up’ having been discontinued.
- Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced that addressing child poverty, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and social care reform will be key DfE priorities. The DfE is now adopting messaging around being the ‘department for opportunity’. The Education Secretary has also pledged to pause and review the reforms to post-16 qualifications at Level 3 and below, halting the defunding of BTECs and other alternatives to T-levels until the end of the year.
On the political horizon
There will be lots more announcements to come for the youth sector as the new government gets its feet under the table, notably about the Young Futures hubs programme – a welcome recognition and investment in youth work through one-stop-shop multi-disciplinary hubs aimed at reducing youth violence. Other key youth-focused manifesto pledges for Labour to deliver include a review of the National Curriculum (led by education expert Becky Francis) and votes at 16.
The next tranche of Dormant Assets funding worth over £800 million, is still to come.
There’s a hill to climb for youth services, but hope for the future…
Although there’s much to do to rebuild the youth work sector after years of funding cuts and 4,500 youth workers being lost from the frontline (our Youth Survey 2024 and Workforce Survey highlight the extent of the challenge), we look forward to working with government and the youth sector to explore the welcome interventions already announced and increase investment in and recognition of the life-changing impact of youth workers.
Find out more about NYA’s and the sector’s collective policy recommendations to national government via the resources below:
- NYA’s Manifesto 2024 – Youth Work for All Young People
- National Youth Sector Advisory Board’s Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy.
