The Centre for Young Lives think tank is today (Wednesday 1st October) publishing a new report setting out a framework of how the Government’s Young Futures Hubs can keep vulnerable teenagers safe and support them to succeed. Young Futures Hubs are central to delivering the Government’s Safer Streets mission, seeking to intervene early to prevent and mitigate risks for young people who are most vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and mental health challenges. It is also vital to opening up opportunities and removing the barriers to success.

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Young Futures builds directly on the central recommendation of Baroness Anne Longfield’s 2022 Commission on Young Lives – the precursor to the Centre for Young Lives – which called for a “Sure Start for Teenagers” model of early intervention and support to stop vulnerable young people from falling through the gaps in education and social services. This model recognised the crucial importance of early help for young people who are struggling, a more inclusive education system, mental health support for young people, wider family support, and a care system that supports those on the edge of care and puts more emphasis on prevention and kinship care.  

The Government is now developing the first Young Futures Hubs, announcing in July 2025 that fifty hubs will be established in this Parliament, with eight early adopter Young Futures Hubs launching by the end of the year. 

Today’s report argues that supporting vulnerable young people to thrive requires a bold and joined-up national approach, underpinned by strong local delivery. It calls for Young Futures hubs to have a ‘single front door’ with integrated local system of opportunities and support and to offer a ‘hub and spoke’ model. Young Futures Hubs can become a network that endures and becomes part of the fabric of a local community, lasting for decades, adapting as society changes. 

They should be designed to be open-access community spaces, making them vibrant and de-stigmatised places that offer a range of fun and engaging activities like sport and creative arts. Like Sure Start, they will also need to provide targeted support when needed.  

To ensure that the programme reaches and engages the most vulnerable young people, the report puts forward our framework, which brings together four key principles that should be at the heart of Young Futures. 

1. A single front door with an integrated local system of opportunities and support 

2. Where the voices of young people and families are heard 

3. Embedded into communities and reach those most in need 

4. Delivering inspiring and engaging high-quality activities, opportunities, support and services 

To deliver Young Futures with these principles at its heart, the report also includes several recommendations, including: 

• To maximise impact, the DCMS should direct resources first to communities facing the greatest challenges, primarily where there are high rates of disadvantage, knife crime and mental health need. 

• Hubs need to be open when young people need them, with inspiring activities and opportunities during the week and at weekends, that draw them in and away from unsafe environments; well-trained and skilled youth professionals who can establish trusted relationships; and ambitious leaders who can drive forward systems change across the local area. For this to be possible, we recommend each Hub is backed by £1 million per year, jointly funded across government departments to cover staff, rent and activities. 

• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport should establish a cross-departmental Young Futures Plan, bringing together the Department for Work & Pensions, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and the Department for Education. This Plan should establish a shared ambition for the Young Futures programme and also join up existing and future policies to maximise the role of Young Futures Hubs as a key means of delivering a range of ambitions, including new neighbourhood health models, the Education White Paper, Best Start, Child Poverty Strategy, Growth Plan, and the Youth Strategy.    

• Departments which are co-signatories to the Young Futures Plan should also publish a comprehensive, joint guidance document for Young Futures Hubs. All departments should design and deliver a centrally mandated ‘core offer’ of services to be delivered through the Hubs, including support for girls and young women, and an offer of open-access activities and opportunities which is constantly available. 

• The DCMS should establish nationwide Young Futures Hubs brand with coordinated public awareness campaigns, akin to the Sure Start brand which was widely known. 

The report also sets out priority areas for the first Young Futures Hubs, arguing that they should be based on the social and economic factors that shape young people’s lives, primarily areas of high knife crime, as well as areas with the highest rates of children living in poverty.  

Within these local authorities with high rates of knife crime and deprivation, live local crime data should be used to target hubs at areas of high knife crime, in line with the Government’s ambitions to halve knife crime within a decade.  

Baroness Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said: 

“I’m proud to have helped shape Young Futures Hubs over the last three years. Young Futures is an exciting opportunity to turn the tables on those who exploit children and young people, to tackle the ingrained vulnerabilities facing those teenagers most at risk of involvement with gangs or serious violence, and to help vulnerable children to thrive and succeed. 

“Young Futures represents a strategic, mission-driven response to systemic failures by preventing young people from falling through the gaps, and creates pathways to safety, stability, and opportunity.  

“By targeting the most vulnerable and offering a “no wrong door” approach to support, Young Futures has the potential to transform the lives of young people, strengthen families, and reduce long-term social and economic costs associated with violence, exploitation, and unmet need. 

“We should be ambitious about the potential for developing a new way of joining up services to support children, rebuilding community trust in statutory services, and building new relationships that can plug the gaps through which too many children can fall.  

“The rewards for doing so will be in transformed life chances and a reduction in the enormous social and economic costs of broken systems. It’s an investment in young futures that will benefit us all.” 

ENDS 

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For more information: jo.green@centreforyounglives.org

Notes to editors

1. The report is available here.

2. A list of our full recommendations is below 
   
   • To maximise impact, the DCMS should direct resources first to communities facing the greatest challenges, primarily where there are high rates of disadvantage, knife crime and mental health need. 
   • Hubs need to be open young people need them, with exciting activities during the week and at weekends, that draw them in and away from unsafe environments; well-trained and skilled youth professionals who can establish trusted relationships; and ambitious leaders who can drive forward systems change across the local area. For this to be possible, we recommend each Hub is backed by £1 million per year, jointly funded across government departments to cover staff, rent and activities. 
   • The Department for Culture, Media and Sport should establish a cross-departmental Young Futures Plan, bringing together the Department for Work & Pensions, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and the Department for Education. This Plan should establish a shared ambition for the Young Futures programme and also join up existing and future policies to maximise the role of Young Futures Hubs as a key means of delivering a range of ambitions, including new neighbourhood health models, the Education White Paper, Best Start, Child Poverty Strategy, Growth Plan, and the Youth Strategy.    
   • Departments which are co-signatories to the Young Futures Plan should also publish a comprehensive, joint guidance document for Young Futures Hubs. All departments should design and deliver a centrally mandated ‘core offer’ of services to be delivered through the Hubs, including separate, safe spaces for girls and young women, and an offer of open-access activities and opportunities which is constantly available. 
   • The DCMS should establish nationwide Young Futures Hubs brand with coordinated public awareness campaigns, akin to the Sure Start brand which was widely known. 
   • The DCMS strengthens integration and joined-up working across Departments through a cross-departmental common outcomes framework for young people. 
   • The Treasury and DCMS should consider innovative means to raise investment for Young Futures Hubs, including National Social Outcomes Partnerships pilots. 
   • The DCMS should commission and issue guidance to local authorities on effective ways to embed co-production with young people into service design. 
   • The DCMS should provide guidance to local authorities and support where necessary to strengthen standardised data collection and effective monitoring of take-up, engagement, and outcomes of service delivery. 
   • The DCMS should develop a workforce and leadership programme for Young Futures Hubs. 
   • The DCMS should support the delivery of evidence-based services with a focus on high quality implementation through a national database of evidence-based programmes to support local authorities.

3. We are grateful to The Hadley Trust, a grant-making charity which aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in the UK, for their support in producing this report.