Speeches by Nandy.

“We have been working very closely with the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary on this. You are right to say that the intention of youth futures hubs is to bring together all those things that young people want and need in one place. We are piloting a couple of models around that, for which funding was provided …”

“Of course I had discussions with the Education Secretary about the areas of crossover between our Departments. That was not our programme. It was not in my gift to decide what was prioritised and what was not. The problem we have is that we inherited a disastrous economic situation with very poor public finances, very …”

“No—NCS. I am talking about the NCS, Damian.”

“That means putting the right support in place. I cannot justify, for example, spending the vast majority of my Department’s budget for youth on a summer camp for young people when, as yesterday—”

“What we are trying to do through the national youth strategy is to make sure that we are really gripping the challenges facing this generation of young people.”

“It was about how we spend money well in the current context. There was no youth strategy across Government when we took office back in July. Different Departments fund different things around young people. Most of the programmes that I inherited had been pet projects for various Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State an…”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Certainly, yes. As I set out when I came to the House to announce the national youth strategy and the decision around NCS, one of the things that I was keen to stress was that this was not an ideological decision. We know that NCS did very good work and it had over a million young people through its doors, many of whom…”

“Definitely, and Health as well. Wes Streeting is on the education mission board and the opportunity mission board. We have already committed that as part of the curriculum review, we will protect time for PE in schools. Like you say, it is often to do with the level of input that those young people get in schools as we…”

“It is an ecosystem and you will know from the example of Keely Hodgkinson that you have to invest at grassroots level in order for great athletes to be able to come through. Then you have to invest to make sure that they can continue to progress without financial hardship and then to make sure that we can retain our me…”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think that there is any challenge for disadvantaged communities wanting to engage in community sports. The issue is often the lack of facilities. We have made that an absolute priority for the Department. I announced a continuation of funding beyond what had already been allocated after the Euros. We are determ…”

“Yes, very much so. We are working closely across Government. One of the benefits of mission-led government is that it does bring us together to work on shared priorities. To go back to one of the questions that the Chair asked about operating in a very difficult funding environment, through the next spending review pro…”

“The first thing to say is that we want to be incredibly transparent about how we go about this. They will have the opportunity to input into the ACE review so that by the end of it our intention is that they will see their voices and their priorities reflected in what comes out the other side of that review, whatever r…”

“There are a few things that we are looking at. The Education Secretary has initiated the curriculum review, which as part of its aims puts sport, arts, culture and creativity back at the heart of the curriculum. We are just working with Professor Francis at the moment to consider how best to do this. Our Department is …”

“I think that is absolutely right. It is interesting to hear you say that, given the Arts Council is based in Manchester, which is pretty much a stone’s throw from Leigh. If smaller organisations in Leigh do not know that that support and funding exists, then we do have a problem. It is something that I will take away a…”

“Yes, so next year, basically, we need to conclude this review. We will kick it off shortly and we will need to conclude it by the end of next year, I think is probably right to say. If that changes, I will let you know.”

“Just give me the dates on that.”

“There is a natural cut-off around the next round of national portfolio organisations that will take place.”

“For the very simple reason that we wanted to pause and reflect on whether that would address some of the issues that you just talked about, Jo. As I said earlier, I have been very concerned about the way in which arts and culture has become something that is often only accessible to young people whose parents can pay, …”