Young Futures Hubs
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-09)

Information about the Young Futures Hubs (YF Hubs) and the eight participating Early Adopters including their aims, delivery model and participating local authorities.

Programme aims

This government is committed to ensuring that success is not determined by background. Some young people face considerable challenges, including poverty, discrimination, and a lack of social and educational support. This can impede their progress and make them vulnerable to negative outcomes.

The government’s manifesto committed to a Young Futures programme, made up of: Young Futures Prevention Partnerships and Young Futures Hubs.
- Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive.
- Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will identify young people vulnerable to being drawn into crime at local authority level and provide them support at the right time (including via Young Futures Hubs).
On Tuesday 15 July, the Prime Minister set out plans to open 50 hubs over the next four years. £2 million is being made available to eight local authorities this financial year to design and implement ‘early adopter’ Young Futures Hubs. Beyond this year, Young Futures Hubs forms part of a £70 million transformation programme to local authorities until March 2029 to enhance and improve local youth service offers.

We will launch 50 YF Hubs in total, creating a network of inclusive, youth-led spaces for 10 to 18-year-olds. Each YF Hub will be designed locally and will meet three outcomes: increasing opportunities, improving mental health and wellbeing, and reducing crime. The design and implementation of the programme in future years will be informed by our work with early adopters.

YF Hubs will offer inclusive, welcoming spaces, both physically and digitally, to provide coordinated support for young people. Building on existing spaces and local expertise, their locations will be determined by accessibility and need. Activities will be designed to be youth-led where possible and will offer enriching opportunities such as arts, sports, volunteering, and skills-based projects, all aimed at fostering confidence, resilience, and a sense of belonging.

An additional £4 million is being made available through the Local Youth Transformation (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-local-youth-transformation-pilot) Fund for Early Adopters to apply to help ensure YF Hubs are built on a strong foundation of capability and leadership to deliver youth services.

Delivery and evaluation partners

The National Youth Agency (NYA), with UK Youth, Regional Youth Work Units, YPF Trust, Centre for Young Lives, Streetgames, Local Government Association, Youth Access and Solve, are working as delivery partners supporting the Early Adopters.

RSM UK Consulting LLP will be evaluating the role of Local Youth Transformation in supporting establishment of Early Adopter YF Hubs. We will be procuring an independent evaluation partner to evaluate the YF Hubs delivery.

Delivery model

We recognise that local authorities and their partners are best placed to understand their own areas and needs of young people, which is why our delivery approach focuses on working with and supporting local authorities in a way that works for them.

These early adopters will act as a pilot for the YF Hubs Programme, working with statutory partners, service providers, young people and local communities to develop a core model for the design and delivery of further hubs.
- Stage 1: Planning and co-design (September 2025 to January 2026). Each Early Adopter local authority will receive £100,000 to undertake preparatory work to ensure readiness to deliver a YF Hub by March 2026.
- Stage 2: Implementation (February 2026 to March 2027). A budget of £3.4 million (inclusive of capital funding) will be available to support Early Adopter local authorities until March 2027.
Participating local authorities

Early Adopter locations have been selected in areas where there are high volumes of anti-social behaviour and knife crime, maximising impact of the YF Hub by placing them where it will benefit the most at-risk young people. Early Adopters will select the precise location of their YF Hub based on local needs.

Using knife and anti-social behaviour metrics, the highest ranking Top Tier Local Authority (TTLA) in the following eight regions of England have been selected to participate. This will ensure we test the best way to reach young people in a diverse range of locations, before rolling out to further locations in future years.

Early adopters

Cross-government Youth Hubs

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Youth Hubs is an established initiative that brings together employment support for 16 to 24 year olds from a Jobcentre work coach and place-based support from local partnerships to help young people into work. While employment and skills support remain at the core, DWP Youth Hubs also connect young people to a wider range of services such as health and housing support. These hubs are hosted in community venues across Great Britain. From 2026, we are expanding DWP Youth Hubs and have created a core blueprint minimum service, marking a significant step forward in delivering more accessible, joined-up employment support with other services for young people.

YF Hubs are establishing links with the DWP Youth Hubs, facilitating smooth, warm handovers for 16 to 18 year olds who require career support.