Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 29 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been identified for youth work in the draft Scottish Budget 2026-27.
The Scottish Government remains committed to youth work and continues to provide support through a range of funding streams. This includes the local authority block grant, which gives councils significant flexibility to allocate resources for youth work in their area.
In recognition of their critical role in delivering localised services, including youth work, the Scottish Government is increasing the total resources available to local government in 2026-27 by almost £651 million.
We are also investing significant funding in youth work through programmes such as Cashback for Communities which the Scottish Government has committed to finance for a further three years, supported by a record budget of up to £26 million - an increase of £6 million from the previous phase.
This is in addition to £150,000 of new funding for youth work in 2025-26, announced on 27 October, supporting measures to help re-engage young people from low-income backgrounds with school and address anti-social behaviour, and deliver investment in grassroots youth work.
Since 2023 the Scottish Government has also invested more than £2 million in community-based youth work through national youth work organisations, including YouthLink Scotland and Youth Scotland, to reach young people outside school. This includes funding for over 5,500 youth workers in 2025-26 to develop skills, knowledge and confidence to deliver youth work through training opportunities.