The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Combined Authority will establish a Fenland Youth Hub
in Wisbech to ensure more young people can access the
support, skills and opportunities they need to
succeed.
It will build on
the successful Youth Hub established by the
Combined Authority and partners at Peterborough United
Football Club last year, bringing together skills, training, and
wider support services to help young people progress
into education, training or employment. It will
provide a relaxed, welcoming
one-stop-shop' centre which will also provide
outreach to Fenland towns and villages,
helping young people get the support they
need to find opportunities to
succeed in life.
Fenland has one of the worst
educational and skills outcomes in the whole of
England according to the Index of Multiple
Deprivation.
The £140,000 funding comes
from the Combined
Authority's Youth
Guarantee Trailblazer funding. The
Government's announcement to launch more Youth Hubs in
Cambridgeshire under the wider Youth Guarantee on June
15 did not include Fenland. But the Combined
Authority acknowledges the need for better youth support in this
part of Cambridgeshire. In 2025, 3.9% of 16-17-year-olds
living in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were identified as
being not in education, employment or training
(NEET), which was above the national average of
3.4%.
As well as the evidence of
deprivation, low social mobility and barriers to
opportunity, the
approach of setting up a Youth Hub has been developed
in response to extensive engagement with young people through
Fenland Youth Voice.
The Combined Authority intends to
seed fund' the hub to get it set up and
trialled. Subject to a procurement process,
those operating the hub would then be
required to set out how they would run the hub
sustainably into the future, including through
partnerships, external funding and joining up with existing
local services.
Mayor of Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough
said: This
hub will help give young people at
risk of being left behind a chance to have a successful
future. It's clear that action is
needed on this in Fenland, and bringing this
facility to the heart of the district will
help make sure they have access
to all of the opportunities, advice and
support available to them.
