AYPH welcomes the publication of Youth Matters: The National Youth Strategy (December 2025), which recognises the growing pressures facing young people, including rising isolation, declining youth infrastructure and widening inequalities. The strategy sets out a long-term vision to 2035 and includes welcome commitments to renewed investment in youth provision, including the ambition to establish 50 Young Futures Hubs by 2029.
At AYPH, we strongly believe in the value of high-quality, inclusive youth service provision. Youth services play a critical role in supporting young people’s wellbeing, connection, confidence and access to help. Young people consistently tell us that trusted, accessible youth spaces are where they feel listened to, supported and able to seek help, before problems escalate.
However, with only eight early adopter Young Futures Hubs currently planned, access will initially be limited to a small number of areas. This raises concerns about geographical equity and whether the strategy can meaningfully address national needs in the short to medium term.
From an AYPH perspective, a significant gap in the strategy is the absence of young people’s health as a core priority. While the strategy acknowledges wellbeing and mental health pressures facing young people, it does not include clear commitments to improving health outcomes or aligning delivery with adolescent health services and systems. Crucially, the strategy does not reference referral pathways to health services, nor does it set out mechanisms for referral into NHS mental health, physical health, sexual health or substance misuse services. This risks placing additional responsibility on youth provision without ensuring young people can access timely, appropriate healthcare when needs are identified. As one AYPH Young Ambassador reflected, “Youth workers are often the people we trust first, but they need proper links into health services – otherwise you’re just telling your story over and over without getting help.”
Young people involved in AYPH’s training programmes have repeatedly highlighted that support is often reactive rather than preventative. As one Young Trainer put it:
We also share wider sector concerns about limited cross-government join-up. Although partnership working is referenced, there is insufficient clarity on how the Youth Strategy will align in practice with health, education, employment, housing and the recently published Child Poverty Strategy. Given the strong evidence linking poverty to poor mental and physical health outcomes in adolescence, the lack of explicit integration risks weakening the impact of both strategies.
On funding, it is positive that the eight early adopter hubs will be supported through ring-fenced central government funding, rather than relying solely on already stretched core local authority budgets. However, young people consistently warn against short-term approaches. As one AYPH Young Ambassador noted, “We’ve seen youth projects come and go. What matters is knowing a service will still be there next year, not just for a pilot.”
If the National Youth Strategy is to deliver lasting change, young people’s health must be recognised as foundational to wider ambitions on education, employment, participation and poverty reduction. This requires sustained investment in youth services, stronger alignment with health systems, and clear referral pathways into specialist services. Crucially, it also requires young people to be meaningfully involved in shaping, delivering and evaluating the services and policies that affect their lives. AYPH looks forward to working with partners to ensure that youth service provision, young people’s health, and authentic youth participation are fully embedded in the delivery of this strategy.
Author: Kirsty Blenkins
December 2025