Redefining access to youth opportunities in the UK.
Opportunities are expanding across the UK. Access to them is not.
GET THERE, a YOUTHOOD initiative, is generating evidence to show how opportunity systems operate in practice, and what must change to ensure they are accessible to all young people.
The Access Gap
Across the United Kingdom, there has been a significant expansion in the visibility of youth opportunities. More programmes, events and engagement spaces are available than ever before.
However, this has masked a deeper issue. Many young people can identify opportunities, but cannot realistically take part in them.
YOUTHOOD defines this as the Access Gap: The gap between being able to find an opportunity and being able to participate in it.
This gap is not driven by a lack of aspiration or engagement.
It is shaped by structural conditions that determine who can participate and who cannot.
Why access remains uneven
Evidence from across the sector and insight from GET THERE highlights three consistent drivers of unequal access.
These factors create a system where participation is not evenly distributed, but predictably patterned.
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Opportunities remain heavily concentrated in major urban centres, particularly London, creating structural disadvantage for young people elsewhere.
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Many opportunities described as “free” still require travel, food and incidental costs, which determine whether attendance is possible.
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Young people connected to organisations or institutions are more likely to be informed, supported and able to attend, while others remain excluded.
From open access, to equitable access
Current approaches often define access as:
publicly available
free to attend
open to apply
This reflects a model of open access.
However, open access assumes that all young people have the same starting point, can absorb the same costs, and can navigate systems in the same way
This is not the case. An opportunity is only accessible if a young person can realistically attend and participate.
If access depends on personal circumstance, the opportunity is not accessible.
Testing access in practice
GET THERE operates as a practical mechanism to test how access to opportunity functions in real-world conditions.
By removing a key barrier, travel cost, it enables participation in opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach.
This allows us to:
identify who is currently excluded
understand the conditions shaping participation
test how small, targeted interventions affect access
The purpose is not to create a long-term funding mechanism.
It is to generate evidence that informs how opportunity systems should be designed.
Emerging system insight
Early insight indicates that:
there is clear unmet demand for opportunities
barriers to participation are often practical and low-cost
participation increases when access barriers are removed
This suggests that current systems are not failing due to a lack of opportunity, but due to a lack of alignment between opportunity design and lived reality.
What Needs to Change - Our Four Priority Areas:
Defining accessible opportunity
1
A shared definition is needed that includes financial, geographic and practical conditions of participation.
Establishing access responsibility
2
Responsibility for access must sit with systems and organisations, not individual young people.
Building access infrastructure
3
There is a need for a national provision to support participation in opportunities.
Measuring access meaningfully
4
Systems must track who participates, who is excluded and why
These shifts move the system from opportunity as availability to opportunity as realised access
Addressing the Access Gap requires coordinated action across the system.
Opportunity providers need to design opportunities that are realistically accessible, including consideration of cost, location and timing and reflect on event attendance insight.
Local and national government should establish infrastructure and policy frameworks that support equitable access across the country, that responds that the pace of opportunity listing.
Youth organisations and networks must extend access beyond existing networks and contribute to system-level change, as this requires a collective commitment to improving opportunity access.
Building insight over time
This work is ongoing.
As GET THERE progresses, this page will be updated with:
pilot findings
participant insight
data on access and participation
refined policy positions
This ensures that the case for change is grounded in both lived experience and real-world evidence.
Work with us to strengthen access to opportunity
We are engaging with organisations, partners and system leaders to strengthen how access to opportunity is understood and delivered.
If you are designing opportunities, shaping policy, or working with young people we invite you to engage with this work.
Are you aged 16-25? Help us understand access to opportunity
We are currently gathering insight into how young people find opportunities and what prevents them from attending. This includes understanding; how opportunities are discovered, what barriers exist in practice, and what makes participation possible or impossible. You do not need to be applying to the fund to take part. Your experience helps us build a clearer picture of how access to opportunity works across the UK.
This insight will be used to identify patterns in who can and cannot access opportunities, strengthen the design of the GET THERE pilot, and inform our wider work to improve access to opportunity systems. With this, we will be pushing for a national funding provision for all young people across the UK. Take 2–3 minutes to complete our short survey and help shape how access to opportunity is understood and improved.
