Peers praise NCS success at attracting disadvantaged young people

A report by the House of Lords select committee on citizenship and civic engagement found that the government's flagship youth participation scheme, for 15- to 17-year-olds, compares well against more established youth programmes in ensuring young people from hard to reach communities are involved.

Peers said they were impressed with data presented from the NCS that 17 per cent of attendees are eligible for free school meals. This is more than double the eight per cent of the population that are eligible for the benefit.

In addition, 28 per cent of participants are from non-white communities and 15 per cent are from minority religions, compared with 18 per cent and 10 per cent of the overall population respectively.

A key factor in this success is that the NCS has access to free school meal statistics, which makes it easier to measure its performance in targeting disadvantaged young people, according to peers.

Duke of Edinburgh's Award representatives told the committee that they are unable to apply a "disadvantaged" measure as they can only collect participants' postcodes and do not have access to free school meal data.

The Scouts told peers that they struggle to gather information on the deprivation level of participants as they rely on volunteers to collect such data.

"The NCS's efforts to include hard to reach communities compare well with other national programmes," states the Lords report.

It adds: "Whilst it is admirable that these other organisations are putting efforts into reaching into disadvantaged areas, it is clear that the NCS has much better data on its participants.

"Crucially, it has data on the disadvantages of participants, and not just on the area they live in.

"Beyond this data advantage, the NCS is actually achieving better representation than other youth organisations. The NCS is over-representing young people from deprived families, whilst other youth organisations' targets, even if achieved, would still under-represent these groups."

However, peers said more can be done to ensure that young people from low-income families in rural areas are able to take part.

Their report cites research from Loughborough University and the University of Northampton which found that young people participating in the NCS in these areas are being hit with hidden costs, particularly around transport and travel times.

This research found that around one in 10 have to travel between 45 minutes and an hour each way to take part, relying on buses and parental car travel to do so.

Peers are urging the government to work with the NCS to help tackle such costs and found that only a small number of providers offer transportation for young people.

"If the NCS is to be truly inclusive and to have participants from all backgrounds, it must minimise related costs for those who would struggle to afford them," states the report.

"It is understandable that lower population density in rural areas will mean that participants will have to travel further to attend an NCS programme. However, families that would struggle to afford this should receive assistance to enable them to do so."

The NCS told peers that among the hardest groups to target is white working class boys in the North of England.

The report also raises concerns that the NCS may be failing to offer young people long-term opportunities to be active citizens.

It said that evaluation is "sorely needed" to determine the long-term effect in promoting citizenship through the scheme's three- to four-week programme of activities over summer and autumn.

Last month the government's Integrated Communities Strategy laid out plans to encourage more young people, from areas where cultural and social segregation is a problem, to take part in the NCS.

An NCS Trust spokesman said: "NCS exists to support young people from all backgrounds reach their full potential, to help create a more cohesive, mobile and engaged society. We are proud to be working alongside many other organisations in the government's opportunity areas, to develop successful, innovative approaches to ensure more young people than ever before have the chance to participate in NCS.

"For example, we are trialling a project where we work collaboratively with schools to have specific teachers championing the programme. We are already starting to see success in these areas - in Scarborough alone we have seen twelve times more young people signing up than ever before.

"We will continue to develop new and exciting ideas to help reach young people from disadvantaged areas, helping to make a lasting and tangible difference to both the young people themselves and the communities they live in."

The NCS is backed by £1.2bn in government funding up to 2020.