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Guidance

Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme

Information about the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme.

From:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Published
8 July 2026

Applies to England

The Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme will help local areas better support young people and develop a network of up to 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029. 

The wider rollout of the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme builds on pilots from these two programmes:

You can find out more about each of these programmes on their individual pages.

Delivering the National Youth Strategy

The Youth Transformation Programme will help deliver many of the actions and fundamental shifts set out in Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy: 

  • Young Futures Hubs will address State of the Nation report priorities of safety, empowerment, opportunities, and health. Our approach is defined by the three core shifts outlined in Youth Matters:

    • From national to local: We are empowering local communities to design and deliver programmes in line with their own unique priorities and needs.
    • From fragmented to collaborative: We are transforming a disjointed landscape into a collaborative ecosystem, where services for young people—from mental health and careers support to youth clubs—work together to ensure young people thrive.
    • From excluded to empowered: By co-creating every Young Futures Hub and Transformation plan with young people, we are ensuring they are the architects of their own future.

Find out more about the National Youth Strategy

Stakeholder engagement

The Young Futures Hubs and Transformation programme has been shaped ahead of roll out by:

  • learning and evaluation from Early Adopter Hubs and Pathfinder projects

  • stakeholder input from an External Working Group of over 20 cross-sector experts and a Task and Finish Group of 15 young people

  • broader youth consultation activities

This input will continue over the coming months.

Wider rollout

Through the wider rollout of the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation programme, local authorities will receive funding to drive local youth service enhancements alongside the establishment of a further 42 new Young Futures Hubs by March 2029.

Expression of Interest: Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme

The selection of local authorities eligible for Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme funding will follow an Expression of Interest assessment, taking place from 6 July to 29 July 2026, with local authorities being notified of the outcome on week commencing 24 August 2026.

  1. A data-driven methodology has been used to identify 50 local authorities for a shortlist. Local authorities were selected by combining data on metrics relating to crime (first-time entrants into the Criminal Justice System, FTE - 50% weighting), deprivation (Community Needs Index and Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) - 25% weighting) and mental health (Mental Health Waitlist data - 25% weighting). This methodology prioritises the three key objectives of Young Futures Hubs (improving mental health and wellbeing, providing opportunities, and reducing young people’s vulnerability to being drawn into crime). To note that early adopter local authorities were excluded from this list as their programme is ongoing. Other areas that were further down in the ranking were moved up to ensure a total of 50 shortlisted local authorities.

  2. Shortlisted authorities are invited to submit a light-touch Expression of Interest application to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Applications will be evaluated based on interest, capability, existing provision, and local context. We are looking to select up to 22 LAs to join the 8 early adopters. This means we expect some LAs to have multiple hubs which will be determined by EOI responses alongside data on youth population and geographical context.

Shortlisted EOI local authorities

The 50 local authorities shortlisted to submit an expression of interest are listed below:

  • Barking and Dagenham

  • Barnsley

  • Blackpool

  • Bolton 

  • Bury 

  • Calderdale 

  • Camden 

  • Cornwall 

  • Coventry 

  • Croydon 

  • Cumberland 

  • Darlington 

  • Doncaster 

  • Gateshead 

  • Greenwich 

  • Hackney 

  • Halton 

  • Hartlepool 

  • Isle of Wight 

  • Kingston Upon Hull 

  • Knowsley 

  • Lambeth 

  • Lancashire 

  • Leicester 

  • Lewisham 

  • Liverpool 

  • Medway 

  • Middlesbrough 

  • Newcastle-Upon Tyne 

  • North East Lincolnshire 

  • Northumberland 

  • Oldham 

  • Peterborough 

  • Plymouth 

  • Portsmouth 

  • Redcar and Cleveland 

  • Rochdale 

  • Rotherham 

  • Salford 

  • Sandwell 

  • Sheffield 

  • South Tyneside 

  • Southend-on-Sea 

  • Stockton-on-Tees 

  • Stoke-on-Trent 

  • Sunderland 

  • Tameside 

  • Torbay 

  • Waltham Forest 

  • Warwickshire 

If you are eligible to submit an Expression of Interest, visit the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme: Expression of Interest page

Expression of Interest: Local Youth Transformation Programme only

We will run a further selection process for local authorities to participate in the Local Youth Transformation only from January 2027 onwards. More details will be published on this page in due course.

Delivery partner competition

DCMS will procure a delivery partner to provide expert support to local authorities. The delivery partner’s role will be to ensure quality through acting as a critical friend to local authorities on the programme, and providing online resources open to all local authorities to facilitate shared learnings and national improvement.

Next steps

  • July 2026: Shortlisted local authorities are invited to complete an EOI for Young Futures Hubs and Local Youth Transformation funding.

  • August 2026: Successful local authority applicants for all programme funding are selected and notified.

  • August to September 2026: Onboarding period for Local Authorities who are selected to deliver both a Young Futures Hub and a local youth transformation project.

  • September 2026 to February 2027: Local authorities will complete a review of existing youth provision and services; conduct planning and co-design activities with young people and partners.

  • February 2027 to March 2027: Local authorities submit implementation plans for approval.

  • January 2027 to March 2027: Onboarding local authorities for Local Youth Transformation programmes only. Further information will be shared in due course.

Youth Hubs

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Youth Hubs are an established, separate initiative from the DCMS Young Futures Hubs. The DCMS Young Futures Hubs are establishing links with the DWP Youth Hubs to facilitate handovers for 16 to 18 year olds who require career support. Find out more about the DWP Youth Hubs

Updates to this page

Published 8 July 2026

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