Thanks to National Lottery players, National Youth Theatre has received £2.3 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK. The funding will be used to support the professional and personal development of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent young people, expanding their skills through training and creative placements with theatres across the UK.

This comes from The UK Fund, one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s significant commitments as part of its 2023-2030 strategy, ‘It starts with community’, funding projects that help children and young people thrive – one of the funder’s four key missions.  

This landmark grant will support National Youth Theatre to work with leading venue partners Chapter Arts Centre, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Lowry, Mayflower, Southampton and Sheffield Theatres, to deliver its flagship inclusion programme Assemble in a landmark grant to support inclusive engagement, progression and recruitment in the sector.

Co-designed with its beneficiaries, Assemble aims to create systemic change in how the creative sector recruits, supports and retains D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent. Building awareness of creative opportunities at colleges, a network of inclusive cultural venues and leading to new sustainable career paths across the creative industries for young disabled people.

This is the first time the UK Fund is supporting a children and youth voice project that engages disabled young people in arts and culture. The £2,365,914 grant over 3 years also represents the largest grant in the history of the National Youth Theatre and provides a welcome impact boost ahead of its 70th anniversary in 2026.

95% of young disabled participants in the pilot scheme were unaware of creative career paths before taking part, with 90% keen to pursue a career creative after engaging with the programme. Half of disabled people in the UK do not have a paid job, more than double the rate of the rest of the working-age population (ONS 2024).

Current NYT member, Assemble Assistant and Deaf performer Samira Ahmed said:

‘It’s so important that disabled people have access to theatre, because how can we have a truly representative society if we’re not hearing from them? Joining Assemble made me realise how powerful inclusion can be. For the first time, I walked into a space and didn’t have to hide who I was. For me, being a disabled young person in a leadership role shows our participants that if I can do it, so can they. Assemble made me realise how vital it is to create spaces where access isn’t an afterthought, it’s built in from the start. That’s how we make theatre, and society truly inclusive.”

Paul Roseby OBE, CEO & Artistic Director of National Youth Theatre, said:

‘Making theatre more accessible, dismantling barriers faced by D/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent and working in partnerships for a more equitable future for our creative industries is at the heart of our 70th anniversary plans. We’re proud to be working with theatres and non-mainstream colleges around the country to make this big ambitious three-year change-making project possible, and I’m grateful to Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Lowry, Salford, Mayflower, Southampton, and Sheffield Theatres for collaborating with us on Assemble. Thank you to lottery players, the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting this vital work, and the disabled young creative talent who are leading the change.’

Samantha Baines, NYT alum and deaf performer and broadcaster, said:

‘Championing disabled talent and disabled young people is more important than ever. This is an incredible initiative from the National Youth Theatre, who are leading the way in supporting our future leaders in the arts’

This disabled led, youth-led and locally led programme will provide inclusive practice training for cultural employers and unlock cultural visits, work experience and new creative employment progression opportunities in mainstream cultural spaces.

Assemble’s approach will establish long-term cross-sector partnerships between 18 educational providers, 18 cultural venues and creative employers, and community organisations, foregrounding disabled young voices in challenging entrenched inequality and discrimination. Assemble aims to build on the creative sector’s potential as an employment sector for D/deaf, disabled, learning disabled and neurodivergent young people and tackle barriers around opaque career routes and the lack of connectivity between cultural venues, disabled young people and non-mainstream colleges.

Building on existing work in Greater Manchester, South Wales and London, Assemble will expand into Exeter, Sheffield, and Southampton to work with seven times more young people and five times more volunteers thanks to the fund. The expanded programme will be delivered with six flagship cultural venue partners around the UK: Chapter Arts Centre, Lowry, Mayflower, Exeter Northcott Theatre, National Youth Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, NYT will collaborate with inclusion and disabled-led companies across the UK to support and evaluate the programme to ensure it compliments existing work across the sector.

The project will lay the groundwork for many more learning disabled and neurodivergent young people to access sustainable creative careers in future as indirect beneficiaries by introducing new, inclusive and scalable creative career pipelines with and for learning disabled and neurodivergent young people that can be replicated nationally.

Over the past 7 years, NYT has developed impactful work with and for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent young people, in partnership with disabled people’s organisations, education providers, and cultural organisations. NYT is currently co-producing with Theatre Centre and Sheffield Theatres a national tour of My Brother’s A Genius by Debris Steveson, a neurodiversity-centred produced seed-commissioned as part of NYT’s 2024 new writing festival StoryFest. Its work has been recognised in national reports by The National Lottery Community Fund and Arts Council England.

Earlier this year, NYT was part of the in Access All Areas and A New Directions pilot Inclusive Progression Routes programme, which saw organisations comes together to create sustainable and inclusive recruitment practices. NYT is a Disability Confident Employer and inaugural Change Partner in Ramps on the Moon, the national disability equity consortium resident at Sheffield Theatres, embedding disability equality in cultural venues. The charity was the first youth creative organisation to be awarded the Silver Level Trauma Informed Quality Mark, by One Small Thing, recognising that the individual needs of the young people we engage are prioritised. It is a holder of the Department for Education’s Matrix Standard for high-quality information, advice, and guidance for Learners. Find out more at www.nyt.org.uk/assemble