Young people across Hackney are in line for a significant boost after the council secured £1.3 million in government funding to expand youth services over the next two years.
The Hackney youth services funding, awarded through the national Young Futures Hubs programme, will allow Young Hackney — the borough’s dedicated youth service — to broaden its support for teenagers and young adults across mental health, skills training, employment guidance and early crime prevention.
The funded services will be open to young people aged 10 to 19, with support extended up to 25 for young adults with special educational needs and disabilities.
And rather than deciding behind closed doors how every penny is spent, the council says young residents will help shape the plans themselves. Young Hackney intends to work directly with teenagers and community groups to co-design services, so that what is on offer — from sport and creative arts to technical skills workshops — reflects what local young people actually want.
Where the money will go
The £1.3 million will be channelled into three broad areas: mental health provision, education and employment pathways, and targeted work to steer young people away from crime.
Mental health support will be embedded in familiar community settings, giving young people somewhere local and informal to turn to without having to navigate clinical services. Youth workers will also provide one-to-one guidance on apprenticeships, training and careers, with the aim of building longer-term resilience among school leavers.
On crime prevention, the emphasis is on diversion — supervised, positive activities in safe spaces run by qualified practitioners, designed to keep young people away from antisocial behaviour and gang involvement before problems take hold.
The expansion builds on an existing network of four youth hubs and five adventure playgrounds across the borough, increasing day-to-day capacity and extending outreach to young people who might otherwise slip through the cracks.
What the council says
Councillor Soraya Adejare, cabinet member for children, young people and early intervention, said the authority had been pressing the government for greater investment in youth provision.
She said the council had “made a commitment to increasing funding for youth services in Hackney and making the case to the government for more investment in youth centres”, adding that it was vital to offer “high-quality, properly-funded youth services to help give every young person the best start in life”.
A decade of pressure on youth services
The award lands against a difficult national backdrop. Over the past decade, youth services in London have endured sustained budget pressure, and councils across the capital have warned of painful choices as budgets tighten, with some forced to trim opening hours, merge provision or close centres altogether.
At the same time, youth workers report rising need — from anxiety and low-level mental health difficulties to cost-of-living pressures and worries about safety on the streets. The result, in many boroughs, has been a widening gap between what young people need and what councils can afford to provide.
Hackney has held on to its Young Hackney model of universal youth clubs alongside targeted early-help work better than most. But leaders have argued that demand has long outstripped resources — and the borough has not been shy about pushing back when services are under threat, including its recent call for TfL to rethink planned Hackney bus cuts.
What is the Young Futures programme?
Young Futures Hubs is a UK government programme designed to rebuild neighbourhood-level support for young people by bringing services together under one roof.
The concept is straightforward: instead of sending a teenager to one place for careers advice, another for mental health support and somewhere else again for a safe place to spend the evening, hubs combine youth workers, mental health professionals and employment advisers in a single, familiar setting.
The programme puts heavy emphasis on early intervention — reaching young people before difficulties harden into crises, and before they come into contact with the youth justice system. For Hackney, the £1.3 million is a chance to match that national blueprint with infrastructure the borough already has in place.
It also comes as town halls search for ways to protect frontline services amid the funding squeeze, with some boroughs asking residents to pay more to plug the gaps.
What happens next
With the funding confirmed, attention turns to delivery. Young Hackney will begin consulting young residents and local organisations on spending priorities, with expanded services expected to roll out over the coming months.
If the co-design process works as intended, the result should be provision shaped by the borough’s teenagers themselves — more places to go, more trusted adults to talk to, and clearer routes into training and work.
For a generation of young Londoners who have grown up watching youth provision shrink, that would be a change worth noticing.
