United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, youth policy is primarily the responsibility of the devolved governments.

In England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced the National Youth Guarantee in 2022 as a means to allocate the �560m budget allocated to youth services in the 2021 Spending Review. It aims to deliver up to 300 new and refurbished youth facilities in the most deprived parts of England, alleviate waiting lists for youth groups, and expand the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to all state secondary schools in England. It also intends to create thousands of new youth volunteering opportunities and provides funding to maintain the National Citizen Service. The Guarantee emerged in response to the 2020 review of youth services led by the DCMS.

In Scotland, the main document of youth policy is the National Youth Work Strategy 2014-2019 (see section "Youth Work"). This strategy has been updated, and according to YouthLink Scotland, the upcoming National Youth Work Strategy (2023-2028) currently sits with the Scottish government awaiting publication.

In Northern Ireland, the Children and Young People's Strategy 2020-2030 serves as a cross-departmental strategy to "improve the well-being of all children and young people in Northern Ireland."

Wales also has a Youth Work Strategy (2019) and a set of Children and Young People's National Participation Standards (2016).

In 2011, several government departments published the UK-wide policy framework Positive for Youth, "a new approach to cross-government policy for young people aged 13 to 19." The statement brings together all policies regarding youth to present a cohesive vision for youth policy across national and local authorities. In 2013, a Progress Report was published; however, since then there has been no follow-up on the statement. In fact, the Civil Society Strategy: Building a Future that Works for Everyone reports that "the guidance which sets out the statutory duty on local authorities [regarding youth services] has not been revised since 2012."

According to the Country Sheet on Youth Policy, United Kingdom (2010), the responsibility for youth policy in the UK is devolved to the respective administrations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

In England, the Civil Society and Youth Directorate, formerly known as the Office for Civil Society, "is responsible for policy relating to young people" under the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

In Scotland, youth affairs are mainly the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, specifically of its supporting Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise and Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans.

In Northern Ireland, the Department of Education holds the main responsibility for youth affairs. In Wales, there is no single authority responsible for youth, and the various tasks are shared between different departments. However, the Minister for Education and Welsh Language is responsible for youth-work policy.

The British Youth Council (BYC) is an umbrella organisation made up of over 200 national and local youth organisations, which supports young people "to influence and inform decisions that affect their lives." Member organisations elect an annual board of young trustees (aged 16 to 25) which guide all policy and strategic decisions. BYC delivers campaigns such as Votes at 16, and participation programmes such the UK Youth Parliament and the international UK Young Ambassadors. BYC is a full member of the European Youth Forum and Commonwealth Youth Council.

In all of the UK, youth work is a formally recognised profession. Further, the Youth Work National Occupational Standards exist throughout the whole of the UK. They "have been written to enable the differences [between the four countries in their approach to youth work] to be accommodated."

In England, the National Youth Agency (NYA) is the national body for youth work and the Professional Statutory Regulatory Body. It sets a national framework for youth work and for youth work qualifications - distinguishing between Youth Support Workers and Professional Youth Workers.

In Scotland, YouthLink Scotland is the national agency for youth work, acting in a representative function for over 100 youth organisations, collaborating with the government on policy issues, and conducting research themselves. Together with the Scottish Government and Education Scotland, YouthLink Scotland developed the National Youth Work Strategy 2014-2019. The strategy provides a set of ambitions, including to "measure the impact of youth work" and to "put young people at the heart of policy". An interim report was published in 2017 to assess the progress of the strategy, and the updated National Youth Work Strategy 2020-2028 is awaiting publication by the Scottish government. The professional body responsible for youth workers is the Standards Council for Community Learning and Development for Scotland.

In Northern Ireland, youth work is covered by the Department of Education and the policy paper Priorities for Youth: Improving Young People's Lives through Youth Work (2013). A Regional Assessment of Need is published every three years, with the purpose of identifying "the key issues affecting young people in Northern Ireland [�] and to give an indication of where resources may be best focussed to meet their needs." A draft for the years 2020 to 2023 was released in 2019.

In Wales, the Youth Work Strategy for Wales (2019) is the main policy document regarding youth work. It provides an overview of the Welsh government's understanding of youth work and defines goals for the development of the sector. A separate implementation plan (2019) "sets out the governance and delivery arrangements for realising the commitments identified in the Youth Work Strategy for Wales 2019."

Since youth policies are cross-sectoral, as well as devolved to the national governments, a specific amount allocated to youth UK-wide cannot be identified. According to the World Bank, the United Kingdom spent 10.6% of its government expenditure and 5.5% of its GDP on education provision in 2020.