Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme

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:

• Young Futures Hubs: early adopters 
• The Local Youth Transformation Pilot 

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

Guidance for local authorities

Guidance has been produced for local authorities and partners participating in the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme. It sets out the vision and expected practices to enhance local youth service and establish new Young Futures Hubs. 

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.

Selected local authorities for roll out

50 eligible local authorities were shortlisted and invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) application, on 6 July 2026, through which 26 successful local authorities have been selected. 

• The methodology used to shortlist 50 local authorities (excluding early adopters) was based on local need, combining data on crime, deprivation and community need, and mental health. This targeted the programme’s core goals: improving mental health and wellbeing, increasing opportunities, and reducing vulnerability to crime. Further details on the shortlisted authorities are on the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme EOI page. 
• Shortlisted authorities submitted light-touch Expression of Interest (EOI) applications to DCMS, which were assessed by DCMS officials, taking feedback provided by regional stakeholders into consideration. Local Authorities were selected based on a combination of their EOI score, need score (as detailed above), and regional distribution. Young Futures Hubs will be clustered within these 26 local authorities and the 8 early adopter local authorities, with some local authorities receiving funding for two hubs.
• Local authorities were selected for a second hub based on a combination of youth population data and estimates of young people’s satisfaction with local youth services drawn from the National Youth Strategy survey data (to be published in due course). Selection also took account of local authorities EOI responses on their appetite for implementing multiple hubs.16 local authorities were selected to receive funding for two hubs, (this includes 11 out of the selected 26 local authorities, in addition to 5 of the early adopter local authorities).
• An additional 42 Young Futures Hubs will be launched across 26 selected local authorities, alongside 5 early adopter local authorities set to open a second hub in England. Early adopter local authorities will continue to be funded as part of the programme.

*In light of recent events in Middlesbrough, Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme funding has also been offered to Middlesbrough local authority to establish a hub.

Early adopter local authorities

Delivery partner

DCMS is in the process of procuring a delivery partner to provide expert support to local authorities and their partners. 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. Further details will be published in due course.

Evaluation partner

DCMS is in the process of procuring an evaluation partner to lead an independent evaluation of the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation programme. Further details will be published in due course.  

This evaluation will build on the learning from the evaluations of the pilots of these two programmes - Young Futures Hubs Early Adopters, evaluated by Ecorys UK Limited, and the Local Youth Transformation pilot, evaluated by Fortia Insight.

Read the interim evaluation findings for the Young Futures Hubs Early Adopters

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 early 2027 onwards. We will share more details on the selection process in due course.