Dave’s national service for teens a ‘£1.5billion f lop’
DAVID Cameron’s £1.5billion flagship programme for teenagers has faced scathing criticism from MPs over its spiralling costs.
The National Citizen Service was launched by Mr Cameron in 2010, shortly after he became prime minister as part of his ‘Big Society’ idea. He said it would provide a ‘kind of nonmilitary national service’.
But a parliamentary report yesterday warned that NCS may no longer be justifiable unless bosses can prove it is value for money.
The Commons’ public accounts committee warned the programme needs ‘radical thinking’ if it is to convince MPs of its worth.
The NCS Trust, which runs the scheme, has been handed £600million of public money since 2011, and is due to get another £900million over the next two years.
Each participant was expected to cost around £1,562, but NCS spent around £ 1,863 per head last year, watchdog the National Audit Office said after a separate inquiry.
The report said it was ‘not at all clear’ why this was much higher than the £550 cost of creating a four-year place for a child in the Scouts. It also revealed NCS spends just over £100 per participant covering sales, marketing, public relations and its contact centre. When he launched the project Mr Cameron, who is now chairman of its patrons, suggested it would become a rite of passage for teenagers. Since 2011, more than 300,000 15 to 17-year- olds have taken part, usually on fourweek summer programmes involv- ing outdoor activities and community projects.
But MPs on the committee said officials could not justify the high cost, and that it was unclear whether the Trust’s management had the necessary skills and experience to oversee planned growth.
The committee criticised the Trust for failing to recover £10million from course providers for places which were not filled in 2016. It also complained that the Trust was reluctant to disclose how much its directors were paid.
The report follows a damning assessment of another Big Society initiative, the Troubled Families programme. Last year, a leading think-tank concluded that the £1.3billion scheme, designed to curb antisocial behaviour, had ‘no significant impact’. On the future of NCS, Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairman of the public accounts committee, said: ‘The Government intends to push on with plans to grow participation, citing evidence that NCS has had a positive impact on young people who have taken part.
‘However, this does not in itself justify the level of public spending on the programme, nor demonstrate that NCS in its current form will deliver the proposed benefits to wider society.’ She said the Trust ‘lacked discipline in recov- ering overpayments of taxpayers’ money, while running a programme for which there is still no clear evaluation plan’.
NCS Trust chief executive Michael Lynas said: ‘Achieving value for taxpayers’ money is of central concern to NCS Trust and independent research shows between £2.20 and £4.15 of benefits are returned to society for every £1 invested.
‘The vast majority of NCS funding goes to more than 200 local charities and community groups and helps them to ...attract young people to NCS and deliver lifechanging programmes.’
‘There is still no clear plan’