A Blueprint For Young Futures Hubs #FundTheHubs
Today, Fund the Hubs campaign partners (Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, Centre for Mental Health, Youth Access, YoungMinds, Mind, The Children’s Society, Black Thrive Global and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy), have published A blueprint for Young Futures hubs.
We know that young people want equal access to flexible, safe and co-designed community services in this ever-changing world. That’s why we’re supporting the #FundtheHubsblueprint, which sets out a roadmap for the development and implementation of Young Futures hubs.
The Fund the Hubs campaign has long been calling for a national network of early support hubs to ensure that children and young people receive timely mental health and wellbeing support.
The Government’s commitment to roll out Young Futures hubs to deliver open access mental health support to children and young people in local communities now presents a timely opportunity to truly integrate and invest in early intervention for children and young people.
In Liverpool, the Mental Health Support for Children and Young People’s Partnership has long provided community-based hub support through YPAS, offering flexible, youth-led mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people for decades.
Monique Collier, Chief Executive Officer at YPAS, said: “YPAS is at the heart of Liverpool’s communities, providing open-access support to children and young people from three geographically positioned community hubs. Rooted in the Youth Access (YIACS) model, our hubs embody the values of Young Futures by offering holistic, co-designed services that put children and young people at the centre.
We know that when young people shape the services they access, engagement and outcomes improve. The Young Futures Blueprint aligns seamlessly with what YPAS has been doing for decades: delivering flexible, youth-led mental health and wellbeing services for 5- to 25-year-olds, ensuring every child and young person has a safe, welcoming space to receive the right help, at the right time, by the right service.
Crucially, our model prioritises early intervention and prevention, addressing mental health and wellbeing concerns before they escalate into crises. In line with the Blueprint’s call for sustainable, integrated, and community-based support, we offer self-referral access to evidence-based psychotherapy/counselling, wellbeing support, and practical advice and guidance. By working collaboratively with local systems, our hubs reduce pressure on statutory services and provide young people with a trusted, accessible first point of support within their community.”
The blueprint recommends a roadmap for Young Futures hubs to ensure they:
- are co-created with young people
- designed and delivered against the values and principles set out in the Youth Access ‘YIACS’ model
- are centered on mental health and wellbeing as the core service offer
- cater for young people from 10-25 to cover the whole of this crucial transitional period in a young person’s life
- build on, and integrate with, existing infrastructure and expertise within local areas that are already working to support young people
What the Blueprint calls on from the Government
The Blueprint calls for the Government to set out a roadmap to deliver a hub in every local authority area, sufficiently resourced to offer accessible outreach provision beyond the physical hub, with the aim to have achieved 70% coverage within the next five years and 100% by the end of 2035.
To achieve this, the Government should:
👉Commit to a multi-year funding package for roll out in the upcoming Spending Review
👉Carry out a comprehensive cross-government consultation on delivering open access support for children and young people
👉Take a cross-departmental approach throughout the programme’s development
👉Develop joint commissioning guidance for local areas on implementation
👉Design a clear and consistent outcomes framework with existing hub providers
👉Set out a workforce development plan to support the roll out
👉Implement a learning and quality practice mechanism to support continuous development
