Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 7 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to local authorities to ensure the delivery of youth work services across Scotland.
The Scottish Government recognises the valuable support provided to young people through high quality youth work. This work contributes to the Scottish Government’s priority of eradicating child poverty and tackling inequality.
The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013, in effect, requires local authorities to identify need and plan provision in their areas. These regulations require that a Community Learning and Development (CLD) plan is produced every three years by each education authority. The most recent plans were published in September 2024 and can be accessed at: Local Authority CLD Plans.
The Scottish Government respects the autonomy of local authorities to allocate resources to meet the needs of learners, including for youth work. However, the Scottish Government published strategic Guidance to Local authorities to support them to develop their CLD plans in 2024 which can be accessed at: CLD: guidance for 2024 to 2027.
Recognising the important role local authorities play in delivering local services, including youth work, the Scottish Government has increased the total resources available to local government by over £1.1 billion in 2025-26, a real terms increase of 5.5%.
Additionally, by investing national funding in youth work through programmes such as Cashback for Communities, this opens up further valuable opportunities for young people and communities at a grassroots level. This helps empower young people to grow, thrive, and shape their own futures through improved mental health, physical activity, and gain the skills they need for learning, life, and work.
Regarding quality of local authority provision, between September 2023 and June 2024, HM Inspectors carried out a programme of visits to all 32 local authorities as part of the 2023/24 annual programme of inspection. These inspections were designed to support improvement and provide external assurance of the quality of CLD provision across Scotland, specifically evaluating quality and improvement in leadership and governance. Individual reports can be found here: CLD Inspection Reports.