The government’s flagship volunteering programme for 16-year-olds, National Citizen Service, is to grow nine-fold by 2014 to provide 90,000 places.
Following the first pilot this summer where 10,000 positions were offered, up to 30,000 places will be offered next year and 90,000 by 2014.
The government gave no indication of budget for the scheme by 2014, but given that funding was £13m this year and is due to reach £37m next year, 90,000 places are likely to cost somewhere in the region of £100m. A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: “This commitment is fully funded through the Spending Review. However, we expect that the cost per head will be reduced with scale and development through the pilot stages.”
Critics within civil society
The announcement, by Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday at the Conservative Conference, comes despite the fact that a quarter of places on offer this year were not filled and that the scheme has attracted some disapproval from within the voluntary sector. Critics have pointed out that a position in the Scouts costs £600 for a whole year, while NCS costs almost double that for just six weeks.
And youth volunteering charity Sea Cadets has complained that NCS doesn’t deliver the slow-burn approach that uniformed volunteering, such as his charity or the Scouts offers. It claims that engaging at 16 years of age is too late, and six weeks is too short.
In response to the NCS rollout, Kevin Curley, CEO of Navca, said: "Navca supports the NCS. But local volunteer centres and youth volunteering projects are suffering badly from both local authority cuts and cuts to 'v' programmes. Most local voluntary sector leaders think that more young people will be drawn into long-term social action in their communities through permanent local projects than through participation in a short-burst national scheme. And that's Navca's view too."
NCS brings people together, says government
The government says NCS brings together young people from different backgrounds and gives them the opportunity to take on new challenges, learn new skills and make a difference in their communities.
Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, said: “I’ve met so many young people who completely changed their outlook on life during this year’s National Citizen Service.”
Tim Loughton, minister for children and young people, added: "NCS is not just about volunteering, it's about personal development, mixing, community engagement, transition to adulthood and rites of passage. The young people I met at the pilots running this summer, from a wide range of social backgrounds, were really enthusiastic about the project. Many said they would recommend NCS to their friends and wanted to return to support NCS as volunteers in future years."
Evaluation of this year’s pilot is currently underway and the results will inform the future model for NCS. According to the Challenge Network, which was the largest provider of the scheme this year, more than 15,000 young people expressed interest for 3,200 places; attendance was nearly 100 per cent and retention 95 per cent throughout the full-time stages of the programme; and there was a diverse mix of participants.
