A new chief executive has been appointed at UK Youth, the national youth club charity, after both the chief executive and the interim chief executive announced they were leaving to join Step Up To Serve, a new youth social action charity.

Anna Smee officially joins on 1 December. Smee was previously director of ventures at the Young Foundation.

Former UK Youth chief executive Charlotte Hill left in April to head up Step Up To Serve, which was set up in November with fundinf fromt the Cabinet Office's Youth Social Action Journey Fund. 

Dominic Cotton, who became interim chief executive at UK Youth following her departure, will also leave when Smee starts to become director of communications and public policy at Step Up To Serve.

According to the Step Up To Serve website, its goal is to almost double the number of young people participating in social action from 29 per cent to over 50 per cent by 2020 - an additional 1.7 million young people engaging in social action for the first time.

The site contains pledges to support the campaign from 26 youth and volunteering charities and umbrella bodies, including the British Youth Council, NCVO, Girlguiding, and also UK Youth.

UK Youth will explicitly promote the social action elements of this work and the double-benefits that social action brings about. (Reaching 700,000 young people through their associated programmes and 63,000 through their own directly delivered programmes).