No official statistical series or open dataset on youth participation and provision

There is no regular official measure of youth civic participation (the Community Life Survey covers 16+ adults in England only, with small youth samples) and no national register of youth provision: the sector relies on YMCA's reconstruction of council s.251 returns, ad hoc NYA audits, and the one-off 'State of the Nation' report accompanying the National Youth Strategy. Government could not say, when planning Young Futures Hubs, where existing provision actually is; academic evidence rests on charity-funded polls (John Smith Centre) with no guaranteed continuation.

You cannot manage what you don't measure: the strategy's 2035 targets (500,000 more young people with a trusted adult; halving the participation gap) currently have no official baseline instrument, and every funding debate re-litigates contested numbers.

An ONS/DCMS annual youth participation and provision statistical series (including 11-15s) plus an open, machine-readable national youth-provision dataset maintained as part of National Youth Strategy delivery: a cheap, high-leverage commission.

// Build together: Counterparty: ONS/DCMS commission; council provision data FOI-able for a shadow dataset meanwhile.

No official baseline exists for the strategy's 2035 targets and the sector relies on charity polls, making an ONS commission cheap, high-leverage and unowned though not acutely time-pressured.