Guidance

Better Youth Spaces programme

Information about the Better Youth Spaces programme and how to apply.

From:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Published
5 August 2025

Applies to England

About the programme

DCMS is launching Phase 1 of the Better Youth Spaces (BYS) programme for England which seeks to improve the effectiveness of youth facilities to drive better outcomes. The fund is being delivered on behalf of DCMS by the Social Investment Business (SIB). 

This phase will fund small-scale capital projects that meet at least one of the fund objectives to:

  • improve the reach of activities 

  • improve the safety of youth facilities

  • improve the sector’s capacity and quality to deliver a range of enrichment activities 

  • improve facility financial sustainability 

  • fund priority areas on the basis of youth need

This page will outline the metrics used and underlying methodology to select the geographical areas Phase 1 of BYS will be targeting. 

Although DCMS has defined the areas by local government boundaries, this fund is not restricted to local authority bidders. We welcome and encourage applications from any organisation that meets the criteria of the fund and deliver for young people in the eligible areas.

Please note, this list of areas eligible for Phase 1 BYS is fixed (as published July 2025) and will not change during the lifetime of the fund. To determine which areas are eligible via postcode, please use the Better Youth Spaces postcode checker.

A single list of 42 upper tier local authorities has been chosen for a number of reasons:

  • to reflect the geography in which most youth services are delivered as part of the Statutory Duty

  • smaller geographies can lead to a youth facility being ineligible despite serving a population identified as in need as it happens to be on the wrong side of a boundary

  • to make eligibility simple and straightforward

View the eligible upper tier local authorities list

If you have any questions about the Better Youth Spaces Fund please contact: bys@sibgroup.org.uk

Methodology

This fund is designed to have a clear and simple eligibility criteria and support upper tier local authority areas that can demonstrate high levels of need. The following methodology was used to assess upper tier local authorities. 

Upper tier local authorities were ranked using their average Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) scores for 2019. This is a subset of the English Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The 42 upper tier local authorities with the highest average IDACI scores and deprivation are eligible for BYS. This process provides a subset of eligible upper tier local authorities. Organisations within these areas will need to apply for funding.

The eligibility criteria explained on Social Investment Business’s eligibility page will then be used to assess the ability of an organisation to fulfil the programme objectives.

Selected metric

IDACI was chosen based on its links to the objectives of the fund, and transparency and quality of the data available. IDACI brings together 7 factors which can influence levels of deprivation for children including:

  • income

  • employment

  • education

  • health

  • crime

  • barriers to housing and services

  • living environment

Research by the Social Mobility Commission found a direct link between household income and young people’s participation for almost all extra-curricular activities. Children from the poorest households were much less likely to take part in any extra-curricular activity, but particularly music and sport. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport Youth Participation Survey found that participation rates in clubs and activities were lower for young people in the most deprived IDACI quintile (56%) compared to those in the highest IDACI quintile (76%). This fund targets areas with higher proportions of young people that are less likely to participate in sports and cultural activities.

Limitations

The main limitation is the lack of available high quality data at lower geographies. There is limited data available on young people and their interactions with youth services and the youth sector. This meant the pool of high quality data to choose from that related to the objectives of BYS was small. Even the data that was chosen, has some limitations:

  • A lack of recent data for IDACI (the current data is from 2019).

  • The Indices of Deprivation are designed primarily to be small-area or neighbourhood measures of relative deprivation; these summary statistics will not capture pockets  of deprivation surrounded by areas of comparative affluence.

List of eligible upper tier local authorities 

  • Barking and Dagenham

  • Barnsley

  • Birmingham

  • Blackburn with Darwen

  • Blackpool

  • Bolton

  • Bradford

  • County Durham

  • Doncaster

  • Enfield

  • Hackney

  • Halton

  • Hartlepool

  • Islington

  • Kingston upon Hull, City of

  • Knowsley

  • Lambeth

  • Leicester

  • Lewisham

  • Liverpool

  • Manchester

  • Middlesbrough

  • Newcastle upon Tyne

  • North East Lincolnshire

  • Nottingham

  • Oldham

  • Redcar and Cleveland

  • Rochdale

  • Rotherham

  • Salford

  • Sandwell

  • Sheffield

  • South Tyneside

  • Southwark

  • St. Helens

  • Stoke-on-Trent

  • Sunderland

  • Tameside

  • Torbay

  • Tower Hamlets

  • Walsall

  • Wolverhampton

How to apply

Visit the Social Investment Business website to apply. 

Better Youth Spaces will be opening to applications soon.

Applications close: 

  • midnight on Sunday 31 August 2025 (if your application includes refurbishment)

  • midnight on Sunday 21 September 2025 (for all other applications)

Please note, if Social Investment Business receives more applications than they expect, they may have to close the application deadline early.

Updates to this page

Published 5 August 2025

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