Full board for new National Citizen Service announced

15 Oct 2018 News

The Queen has appointed ten board members for the new royal charter body that will take over the running of the National Citizen Service. 

New board members include Dame Julia Cleverdon, a Labour peer, a former Conservative MP and two people who have been involved with the organisation currently runing the programme. 

NCS Trust was set up as a royal charter body following the National Citizen Service Act 2017, so that the programme would be accountable to parliament. It has been run by a community interest company, NCS Trust, and now that the full board has been appointed, progress can be made on transitioning to the new body. 

Brett Wigdortz was appointed as chair earlier this year and was involved in the selection process for the ten other board members. The prime minister re-ran the selection process for the chair after failing to find the right candidate. 

The full list of board members is: 

  • Lord McNicol of West Kilbride, former general secretary to the Labour Party
  • Tristram Mayhew, founder, chief gorilla and chairman of Go Ape 
  • Ndidi Okezie, digital and customer voice strategy, Pearson PLC
  • Dame Sally Coates, NCS Trust patron and director of Academies United Learning
  • Dame Julia Cleverdon DCVO CBE, co-founder and trustee of Step Up To Serve and #iwill campaign, chair National Literacy Trust and trustee Careers and Enterprise Company
  • Ashley Summerfield, global leader, board Consulting Practice, Egon Zehnder
  • Paul Cleal, non-executive director and advisor to organisations including vice-chair at Kingston University
  • John Maltby, NCS Trust non-executive director and chairman of Good Energy Group PLC 
  • Ian Livingstone CBE, co-founder of Games Workshop and non-executive director of Sumo Group PLC
  • Flick Drummond, former member of Parliament for the Portsmouth South constituency

Board members are not being paid for the role, but the chair will be paid £400 per day up to £40,000. 

All appointments will take effect on 1 December. Cleverdon has been appointed for a two-year term and everyone else has been appointed for a three-year term. 

Wigdortz said: “It is a hugely exciting time in NCS’s history, and we are privileged to have a new board that combines such a strong mix of skills and experiences to help guide us.

"All members of the new board have a passion for supporting young people, and their expertise and talents will help us ensure that NCS is a rite of passage for as many young people as possible. We want to further embed NCS as a national institution and becoming a Royal Charter body is a crucial step on this journey.”

Michael Lynas, chief executive of NCS Trust, said: “NCS has achieved so much already, helping inspire and empower almost 500,000 young people. I am immensely grateful to the outgoing board for their fantastic contribution. I look forward to working with the appointees to inspire future generations of young people to become more active and responsible citizens.”

The procurement process for NCS 2.0 launched in September.

For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here
 

 

More on