Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the NCS Trust Annual Business Plan 2021-2022, published on 27 May 2021, whether the range of NCS experiences is offered all year round.
Answered by Matt Warman
NCS Trust runs a series of different programmes at different points throughout the year. These include:
NCS Changemakers groups which run year-round in the majority of local authority areas.
NCS part-residential programmes, normally delivered largely through summer holidays and the autumn. These programmes will not run as normal in 2021 because of covid precautions, and will be replaced by a variety of day trips focused on activities to boost skills for life and work alongside an enhanced digital offer.
NCS Skills Booster personal development programme for schools, which launched in 2020. Resources are available for use year-round, including in schools, who can also draw down sessions delivered by the NCS network of delivery partners in term-time.
NCS as the national partner for the pilot of the UK Year of Service, where young people aged 18-24 will take part in 9-12 month work placements in their community, and will access wrap-around training and support to help them become world and work ready.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department made an estimate of the running costs of the UK Youth Parliament by budget heading prior to inviting other organisations to bid to run it.
Answered by Matt Warman
DCMS monitors and reviews its grants in line with best practice. Before competing the grant for 2021/22, my department reviewed the previous UK Youth Parliament programme grants to estimate the grant recipient’s running costs for the 2021/22 programme using high level indicative budget headings.
By competing the grant for 2021/22, DCMS invited applicants to demonstrate how they would deliver the programme using the funding available, and were invited to demonstrate how they would secure external funding and partnerships to supplement the DCMS grant, as in previous years.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the Youth Covid-19 Support Fund has been allocated so far.
Answered by Matt Warman
£15.6m of the Youth Covid-19 Support Fund has been allocated. All applicants have now been informed of their outcomes, and the transfer of funds is nearly complete.
555 youth organisations have been awarded funding, including 544 small, grassroots youth groups and services, and 11 national and umbrella organisations. The full list of successful organisations will be published after the pre-election period (w/c 10th May 2021).
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to Answer of 19 April to Question 180550, on voluntary work, (a) what is the definition of a core participant; and (b) what proportion of core participants completed the whole NCS programme from start to finish.
Answered by Matt Warman
Core participant numbers reflect the young people who took part in the part-residential NCS programme during the relevant seasons. Participation numbers in other NCS activities are not counted towards this figure.
For section (b) of this Question, please refer to my answer to Question 184499.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the Minister for Sport and the Olympics received hospitality from Camelot UK Lotteries Limited from May 2010 to October 2013.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Government departments publish quarterly details of occasions where Ministers and officials are in receipt of hospitality. This is published on the Gov.uk website and covers the last 10 years.
The documents show that the Minister for Sport and the Olympics received hospitality from Camelot UK Lotteries Limited once during the period May 2010 to October 2013, on 16 May 2013, as detailed in this release.
Links to all the documents covering the period May 2010 to October 2013 are below.
Ministerial Hospitality 13 May - 31 July 2010
Ministerial Hospitality 1 August - 30 September 2010
Ministerial Hospitality 1 October - 31 December 2010
Ministerial Hospitality January to March 2011
Ministerial Hospitality April to June 2011
Ministerial Hospitality July to September 2011
Ministerial Hospitality October to December 2011
Ministerial Hospitality January to March 2012
Ministerial Hospitality April to June 2012
Ministerial Hospitality July to September 2012
Ministerial Hospitality October to December 2012
Ministerial Hospitality January to March 2013
Ministerial Hospitality April to June 2013
Ministerial Hospitality July to September 2013
Ministerial Hospitality October to December 2013
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2021 to Question 180550, if he will review the Answer to that question in the context of the NCST Annual Report 2019-20's statement that the total number of core participants in financial year 2019-20 was 91,489.
Answered by Matt Warman
The total number of core National Citizen Service participants across the Spring, Summer and Autumn programmes in 2019 was 92,041. The figure of 91,489 participants referred to in the National Citizen Service Trust’s Annual Report 2019/20 is on a financial year basis and thus covers the Summer and Autumn programmes only, excluding 552 participants in the Spring 2019 programme.
The participation numbers were reported on a calendar year basis in the 2018/19 Annual Report but reporting practices changed when the NCS became a Royal Charter Body in December 2019. Accordingly, participation KPIs for the 2019/20 Annual Report were reported on a financial year basis.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many young people have (a) commenced and (b) graduated from a National Citizenship Service (NCS) programme in (a) 2018-19 and (b) 2019-20; and what the Government's target for participation in the NCS was in each of those years.
Answered by Matt Warman
As per National Citizen Service Trust’s 2018/19 Annual Report, 99,674 young people took part in the NCS programme in the 2018 calendar year (England only) with a completion rate of 93%. This compares to a target of 100,000 young people for the calendar year 2018.
In the 2019 calendar year, 92,041 young people took part in the NCS programme. This figure includes 552 young people who participated in the Spring 2019 cohort but were excluded from NCST’s 2019/20 Annual Report (which covers the April 2019 to March 2020 financial year). The target for 2019/20 was set for the financial, rather than calendar year and was for at least 100,000 young people to take part in NCS.
The completion rate for 2019 was 88% for the calendar year. Two key factors contributed to this lower participation rate in comparison to 2018:
Significant underperformance of one of the largest providers of NCS at the time - they exited the network at the end of 2019.
A tightening of criteria around what constitutes a "graduate" from the NCS programmes on the back of process reviews and systems changes that took effect from Spring 2019.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the full cost of unrecovered monies spent on the National Citizens Services in 2019-20.
Answered by Matt Warman
The NCS programme is delivered by the National Citizen Service Trust, whose annual report and financial statements for the financial year 2019/20 are publicly available. NCST received a £158.6m grant-in-aid from DCMS in 2019/20. Other income amounted to £3.54m and total expenditure for the year was £156.4m.
As noted in NCST’s 2019/20 Annual Report, the Summer 2020 NCS Programme was officially cancelled because of Covid-19 on 7 April 2020, by which point NCST had paid out £3.6m worth of non-refundable deposits to 44 accommodation venues. A further three accommodation suppliers were further due £3.8m in non-refundable deposits.
These payments were disclosed as events after the reporting date in NCST’s 2019/20 accounts but will be accounted for in 2020-21 accounts because accommodation costs are treated as prepayments. As well as settling contractual commitments for 2020 accommodation, NCST was also able to negotiate, at no additional cost, a break from the second and third year of multi-year accommodation contracts, thereby reducing the future accommodation costs for NCST and the taxpayer.
Covid-19 restrictions meant that NCST was unable to offer its usual residential programme in 2020 but NCST worked with its core programme providers to repurpose the funds already committed to deliver an alternative programme, including digital content, volunteering opportunities and support within schools and colleges. Additionally, service user contributions received by NCST for young people to attend the Summer 2020 programme were refunded.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the full cost of the unfilled places of the National Citizens Service in 2019-20.
Answered by Matt Warman
As detailed in the National Citizen Service Trust’s Annual Report for the financial year 2019/20, the impact of Covid-19 has meant that NCST are unable to calculate standard value for money metrics on a financial year basis due to the cancellation of the Summer 2020 programme. Instead, NCST measured their performance on cost of unfilled places on a calendar year basis.
As stated in NCST’s Annual Report 2019/20, costs of unfilled places fell year on year from £9.5m in 2018 to £5.0m in 2019. This spend went to NCST’s network of Delivery Partners (mostly made up of non-profit youth sector organisations), who the Trust gives part of their revenue upfront to support preparatory activities such as running recruitment events and hiring programme staff.
The revised supplier contracts from 2020 onwards have been designed to minimise the risks of the Trust paying for places which are not filled in future. Furthermore, centralised booking of accommodation will enable the Trust to improve payment terms and minimise unfilled bed costs.