Government defends National Citizen Service scheme

Ayesha Taylor-Camara and Mayowa Quadri completed NCS last year

The Government has defended its National Citizen Service (NCS) programme saying it's an "investment in young people."

The scheme encourages teenagers aged 16 and 17, from all backgrounds, to volunteer during the summer months.

It began last year with 8,000 people taking part. The aim is to expand that number to 30,000 in 2012 and 90,000 by 2014.

The Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg has previously criticised the scheme. He said: "Anything that helps young people to get more involved in their communities and develop skills is a good thing."

"However, there is concern that a scheme that helps a relatively small number of teenagers is a bit of a sticking plaster, when the Government is cutting £100 million from the budget for youth services."

'Room for improvement'

Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, said he had "tremendous commitment" to the scheme. He told Newsbeat that NCS had been a "hit" but thought there was "room for improvement."

He was speaking at a meeting of young people at Downing Street.

They were there to discuss how to improve awareness of the programme and look at what could be done to attract more volunteers.

17-year-old Ayesha Taylor-Camara from Essex completed NCS last year. She enjoyed taking part but said more people needed to know about the scheme.

"If I say that I'm a regional ambassador of NCS they go, 'what?', 'huh?' and 'what's that?'," she said. "I think that needs to be changed."

"Young people should be persuaded and given incentives to take part in volunteering."

No solution

The latest youth unemployment figures, for the three months to March 2012, showed 707,000 16-to-24 year olds were out of work.

Mr Hurd denied that NCS was being used to reduce that number further.

Responding to Labour's criticism, he said he hoped that politicians from all parties would be able to see "the value of the programme."

"Let's not make the mistake of thinking NCS is billed as the solution to all the challenges facing young people at the moment," he said.

"It's there as something we think is making a positive contribution to getting young people more work-ready and more confident."