The National Citizen Service cost the Cabinet Office £62m in 2013 but the service provided good value for money, according to an independent evaluation published today.
The impact report into government's flagship youth volunteering scheme in 2013, commissioned by the Cabinet Office and carried out by Ipsos Mori, found it cost £49m for its summer programme and £13m for the autumn programme. Comparatively, the summer programme in 2012 cost the government nearly £37m to deliver.
In 2013, 31,738 young people took part in the NCS summer programme and 7,828 in autumn. NCS has previously stated that it aimed to provide up to 50,000 places in 2013.
The programme is expected to have 90,000 places available this year.
The report said the programme provided between £1.39 and £4.80 of benefits per £1 spent in the summer, and between £1.09 and £4.71 in autumn. This was calculated including increases to education, potential future benefits to young people, and volunteering delivered.
When taking into account health impacts, the benefits would rise to between £1.70 and £6.10 in the summer and between £1.27 and £6.09 in autumn, the report said.
The report said the cost per young person to take part in the scheme has gone down from £1,700 in 2012, to £1,550 per participant in the summer and £1,650 in the autumn programmes.
Costs of the 2013 autumn programme, which cost more to run than the summer programmes despite their shorter length due to their intensity, were driven up even higher as a result of major storms which hit southern England causing a large number of cancellations and, as a result, fewer per-participant cost savings.
Michael Lynas, chief executive of NCS Trust (pictured), said: “The 100,000 young people who have taken part in NCS since 2011 are emerging as more confident and capable. The ability to work with others, speak in public and lead teams should not be seen as soft skills; rather they are essential skills for teens who want to get ahead.”
“So far, NCS graduates have dedicated 2m hours to their communities, raising £750,000 for charities in 2013 alone. What’s more, three quarters tell us they want to do even more after graduating from the programme.”
He said he expected 1m participants to have taken part in the programme by 2020.
Findings also showed a benefit to participants by helping them gain skills for the future, with three quarters of participants feeling more confident about getting a job.
