National Citizen Service (NCS) participation levels are not keeping pace with expectations, according to a National Audit Office (NAO)investigation into the government-backed youth programme.
The report finds that if the number of participants continues to increase at its current rate, 213,000 15- to 17-year-olds will be taking part by 2020/21, well short of the 247,000 target - a figure recently revised down from 360,000.
The report praises the three-week programme for having a higher proportion of young people from hard-to-reach groups - such as those from poorer backgrounds, with special educational needs or from ethnic minority communities - than national averages, but the NAO says in some areas the mix of participants was not diverse enough.
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