'Exciting' - Blackpool Council leader, Cllr Lynn Williams, thrilled Blackpool to get Young Futures Hub

A council boss said she is ‘thrilled’ Blackpool has been allocated a share of £70m government funding as part of the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme.

The resort will be home to one of 42 new hubs nationally, planned as part of the government’s National Youth Strategy, Youth Matters – a 10-year plan to improve local youth offers.

The Young Futures Hub will be open to 10-18-year-olds, with additional provision available up to 25 for some cohorts. Activities in the Blackpool hub are likely to include arts, sports, volunteering, and skills-based projects led by youth workers, encompassing universal access provision and targeted one-to-one support where needed. Mental health and wellbeing activities and interventions will be embedded across the offer.

Cllr Lynn Williams, leader of Blackpool Council, said: “We’re thrilled to have been chosen for this programme. Our Young Futures Hub will build on and complement our existing youth offer across the town, creating more opportunities to access activities and support.

“As our recent outstanding rating for children’s services shows, caring for and creating opportunities for our young people, and fostering their pride and ambition, is a foundational principle of all that we do as a council. We already do that through our support for existing youth provision and investment in core council services, as well as in our development of the new Multiversity and the Enterprise Zone, and in the creation of better housing and safer, more attractive neighbourhoods.

“We’re pleased the government has recognised our commitment by now including us in the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme. It’s an exciting opportunity to strengthen our wider youth offer, improve partnership working, and create a more integrated model for our young people.”

Each of the Young Futures Hubs are intended to improve opportunities, mental health and wellbeing, and reduce the vulnerability of young people being drawn into crime. By bringing services together within one connected network, the programme will make it easier for young people to access the activities, opportunities, help and relationships they want and need.

Blackpool was chosen based on the strength of the council’s expression of interest, its level of local need (calculated based on crime, mental health, community need and deprivation data), and feedback from by regional stakeholders.

Chris Webb, Labour MP for Blackpool South, welcomed the announcement: “I’m delighted that Blackpool will be getting a new Young Futures Hub.

“This is a really important investment in young people locally and means they will have better access to the support, opportunities and safe spaces they need to thrive.

“For too long, youth services were allowed to decline, leaving young people without access to trusted adults, activities and opportunities in their communities. Labour is changing that.

“The new Young Futures Hub will bring together mental health support, skills and employment opportunities, sport, creative activities and crime prevention, making it easier for young people to get the right support in one place.

“I’m looking forward to working with Blackpool Council and local youth organisations to make sure the new hub delivers for young people here, and that young people themselves have a say in how it develops.

“This is Labour delivering on our commitment to rebuild youth services and give young people in Blackpool the opportunities they deserve.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is funding the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme to improve local youth services nationwide. This will see a network of Young Futures Hubs opened across 25 areas by 2029, alongside the eight existing Early Adopter hubs in Manchester and Bristol. Lancashire County Council is also part of the programme.

Cllr Kath Benson, cabinet member for young people and aspiration, added: “Our Young Futures Hub will bring together activities, support and opportunities in one connected network, and will be shaped by our young people’s wants and needs. That could be sports or arts, skills and training, or tailored support for mental health, all put in place to divert our young people away from the risk of criminal activity.

“The model for our Blackpool hub will now be co-created between a broad range of expert voices. We’ll work with young people and families, schools and charities, and the police and health services to make sure our hub meets the needs of our town’s young people.

“We’ve seen the success of the Early Adopter hubs over in Manchester – they offer physical and social activities, informal education, mental health support, and enterprise schemes. We’re excited to learn from them and create an exciting new strand to our youth offer in Blackpool.”

The programme has two core strands: Young Futures Hubs - providing the funding to offer positive, in-person connections for young people and Local Youth Transformation – giving local authorities the funding to build their youth services capacity through systemic improvements such as workforce training and partnership building.

The government’s National Youth Strategy was co-produced with input from 14,000 young people, through a landmark ‘State of the Nation’ survey. This found that many young people felt they had been left without access to safe, supportive environments or didn’t feel they belonged to a community, and reliance on online interaction had grown in the absence of face-to-face opportunities. More than £500m government investment has now been planned to rebuild youth services nationally.