Jayne Kirkham

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) on securing this debate; it has been fascinating so far. The Centre for Social Justice’s recent report, which a number of people have talked about, revealed that 76% of people surveyed believed that teenagers today lack proper role models in popular culture. The opportunity for young men to find positive male role models is limited. We have talked about there being 1,000 fewer youth clubs today than there were 15 years ago, and the number of youth workers has fallen by over a third. When young men feel disconnected and lack representations of positive masculinity, an empty space can open up, and unfortunately some of the loudest and most harmful voices are all too keen to fill it. That disconnection can carry real-world consequences. Between April and June 2026, 530,000 young men aged 16 to 24—13.7%—were not in education, employment or training, compared with 12.3% of young women. The CSJ highlights that the proportion of young men who are NEET is climbing. That can snowball into strain on health and relationships or tip over into the criminal justice system; when it gets really bad, we see very high suicide rates, as we have in Cornwall, particularly for men. However, there are examples of community-led interventions that help young men to find positive male role models. I see them across my constituency. We have a Men Walking and Talking Group, which brings men together to walk, talk openly and support each other. It is often much easier to talk walking side by side than face to face. That group has been meeting for over 75 weeks, with good turnout. We also have ABandOfBrothers, which mentors young men aged 18 to 25 who are caught up in or at risk of getting into the criminal justice system. They are paired with older men who volunteer to act as mentors. They get outside, talk to each other and offer a community-based opportunity to strengthen cohesion and support young men who have often had chaotic lives and are trying to navigate the complexities of growing up. Having a supportive foundation is really important when young men become dads themselves. That was the goal of DadPad, created in 2012 by Julian Bose from Truro. Having personal experience of the lack of guidance for expectant fathers, he developed a guide himself to support men navigating that transition. We need to reach boys far earlier to avoid the formation of the empty space in the first place. Across Cornwall, we have holiday and sports programmes, such as football camps run by Plymouth Argyle’s community trust, that give young people healthy environments and men to look up to outside of home and school. Those community-led initiatives are important, but they cannot fill the gap on their own. The men’s health strategy published by the Government last November provides a policy framework to tackle the empty space. By addressing early on the physical and mental health inequalities that boys and men face, we create the structural conditions whereby young men can succeed. For the last three years, I have tried to be both dad and mum. Obviously, I cannot, but I am very lucky that there are uncles, teachers, sportspeople, godparents, grandparents and cousins who can all provide effective examples for my son and other young men. In Cornwall, we have great examples of groups providing those opportunities. When the national policy and local initiatives align, we can ensure that young men have many positive examples so that they can build their aspirations, grow into their masculinity and benefit themselves, their future families and society as a whole.