A New Deal for Young People

What is this mission about?

By 2024 all young people in need will be entitled to a personal mentor and all young Londoners will have access to quality local youth activities.

This mission will continue to ensure young people's voices are front and centre of recovery.

What are we doing about this?

Many young Londoners face barriers to realising their potential. They need support developing their confidence and social skills, boosting their mental health, and improving their educational and employment prospects.

On top of this, many of our city’s young people have experienced increased mental illness, stress and trauma as a result of the pandemic. Their educational, training and employment experiences and prospects have been negatively affected too.

We recognise the value of youth work, mentoring and encouraging positive relationships between youth practitioners and young people in need.

Youth practitioners have a big influence on maintaining positive mental health for young people, as well as their physical health and safety. Their essential work has been all too often undervalued in the past. London’s youth practitioners will be central to delivering this mission.

To recover from the economic, social and health impacts of the pandemic, City Hall has set out a missions-based approach. This will bring together the public, private and voluntary sectors, and involves working with all Londoners to make it a success.

We propose to achieve this mission by:

• listening to young people’s expectations and experiences of mentoring and youth activities
• working alongside voluntary and community sector (VCS) and local authority partners to establish a picture of quality provision across London
• ensuring funding and working with delivery partners to launch a mentoring movement and London–wide youth programme.

Short term actions:

• Develop an approach to delivery based on agreed principles for best-practice mentoring.
• Gather evidence to determine geographical areas for enhanced support and characteristics of young people with greatest need.
• Engage with young people and partners to explore perspectives on what does and doesn't work, and existing activity, to inform our approach to delivery.
• Develop a communication campaign promoting mentoring and existing networks.

Mission co-leads:

• Jeremy Crook, CEO, Black Training and Enterprise Group
• Lib Peck, Director, Violence Reduction Unit (VRU)
• Martin Pratt, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director, Supporting People at London Borough of Camden

Lead organisations and partners:
GLA family and London Councils working with VCS organisations, grassroots youth groups and networks, and London funders.