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LAST MODIFIED ON: 13/08/2020 - 11:31
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Mechanisms and actors
Youth policy and strategy is a cross-government area led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. However, each individual government department retains responsibility for policies, programmes, actions and funding in their individual areas. For example, responsibility for youth employment sits with the Department for Work and Pensions.
A number of large-scale initiatives have demonstrated a cross-sectoral approach to youth policy. These included the:
- Youth Contract, which was a package of measures designed to address youth unemployment from 2012 to 2016. Responsibility for the measures was shared across three central government departments: the then Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (now the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy), the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.
- Youth Engagement Fund, which was a cross-government fund launched in 2014 and supported by the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Justice. Over three years, it aimed to reduce the number of young people, aged 14-17 years, who become NEET (not in education, employment or training). The funding was provided through social impact bonds, which are a payment by results system: investors fund innovative initiatives and the government only pays if the initiatives achieve the planned outcome.
- The Youth Investment Fund, which is aimed at supporting disadvantaged communities across England, helping young people to get the best start in life and supporting them to fulfil their potential. It is made up of £40 million of government and National Lottery funding from the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport and the National Lottery Community Fund.
- Step Up to Serve's youth social action campaign, #iwill, is being supported by the Government up to 2020. For more information about both of these initiatives, please see the Chapter on 'Voluntary Activities'.