7 days ago
Join the Scouts to beat phone addiction, Starmer tells young people
Sir Keir Starmer is to hand extra funding to the Scouts to get children off their phones and into the real world.
Pledging an £88m package for youth groups, including the Scouts, the Prime Minister warned on Tuesday that children were 'too often isolated at home' and immersed in the online world.
The funding will deliver services including new climbing walls, music lessons and outdoor activities.
Groups such as the Scouts and Guides will receive £7.5m to help offer more places for children, while £30.5m will go to improving youth club infrastructure in areas with the highest levels of child poverty.
Some £22.5m over three years will be used to fund access in 400 schools across the country to extra-curricular activities such as sport, art and music, outdoor activities, debating or volunteering.
The expansion is part of wider efforts to 'reconnect young people with the world around them' amid concerns children are spending too much time online or in their bedrooms, Downing Street said.
Announcing the package, Sir Keir said: 'Growing up today is hard for young people. As they navigate their way through the online world, too often they find themselves isolated at home and disconnected from their communities.
'As a Government, we have a duty to act on this worrying trend. Today's investment is about offering a better alternative: transformative, real-world opportunities that will have an impact in communities across the country, so young people can discover something new, find their spark and develop the confidence and life skills that no algorithm can teach.'
Downing Street added: 'Young people today are spending more and more of their time detached from the real world, either stuck in their bedrooms or behind a screen, throwing up huge challenges for them and their loved ones to overcome.'
Sir Keir said the plans were part of wider efforts aimed at opening up opportunities to ensure 'no child falls through the cracks' ahead of the publication of the Government's national youth strategy this autumn.
Young people have been encouraged to contribute to development of the strategy in recent months through focus groups and surveys.
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, said local youth services were the 'bedrock of thriving communities' and that Tuesday's announcement was 'just the beginning' before the youth strategy is introduced.
