Most of the £10m that was left in the accounts of the organisation that used to run National Citizen Service will go towards a “year of service”.
NCS Trust CIC, the community interest company that ran the government’s flagship youth social action programme until November 2018, has said it will spend the £10m it has left over from the programme on schemes to support the country in recovering from the pandemic.
When the CIC’s responsibilities were transferred to a new royal charter body all its public money was transferred to the new body. But its non-government income could not be transferred under the asset transfer scheme.
Today the CIC announced that £6m will be available to fund a UK Year of Service scheme. A further £3.5m will go towards other programmes such as supporting citizenship education in school and other research programmes.
All the programmes run for between two and four years. The funding announced today will use over 98% of the funds remaining in the NCS Trust CIC. Once the programmes have been completed, NCS Trust CIC will shut down.
UK Year of Service
The CIC said the UK Year of Service scheme will help around 400-450 young people develop skills through service placements, training and career support in three broad areas of healthcare, public services and the environment.
Charities and others will be involved as placement partners. Groundwork, City Year, Volunteering Matters, Catch22, Muslim Charities Forum, St John’s Ambulance, British Red Cross, The Growth Company and The Conservation Volunteers are already planning to take part.
More placement partners are expected to be invited to join the programme later this year.
The NCS Trust Royal Charter Body will act as the national partner for the scheme, providing training across placements, recruitment support and operational leadership.
The programme will last between nine and 12 months, with the first of two cohorts getting started in August.
Some young people will be recruited through Job Centre Plus as part of the government’s Kickstart scheme. Others will be recruited directly by NCS RCB and placement partners.
Other projects
Around £3.5m will be made available for other projects.
One from the Association for Citizenship Teaching aims to create a movement to support citizenship education in school and encourage young people from all backgrounds to engage in the National Citizen Service.
Research programmes will evaluate the impact of NCS and recommend ways to improve youth citizenship in the future, working with the The Institute for Community Studies, supported by The Young Foundation, several academic institutions and civil society bodies.
‘Putting young people at the heart of the recovery’
People involved in setting up the scheme said it was important that young people were not further marginalised as the country recovers from the pandemic.
Founding NCS board chair, Stephen Greene, said: “Young people have been hit extremely hard by Covid-19. It is now incumbent on all of us to provide opportunities to put young people in the driving seat.”
Former home secretary, Rt Hon Lord Blunkett, added: “I have long been an advocate for more involved citizens and better citizenship education – today we are able to change young people's lives and support the development of NCS in its new incarnation.”
Meanwhile, Chris Wright, chief executive of Catch22, which is a placement partner on the Year of Service programme, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has hit young people disproportionately hard. Many have missed out on crucial stages of their education, on employment opportunities and on the kind of social interactions that are so important when growing up.
“Despite the challenges, we’ve seen young people show incredible creativity, drive and resilience. Putting young people at the heart of the post-Covid recovery is key to helping the nation thrive in the wake of the pandemic; harnessing the skills and energy of our younger generation to build a better society.”
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