Councils say money for National Citizen Service would be better spent tackling knife crime

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

David Cameron’s flagship youth scheme, which has faced criticism for using large amounts of government funding to reach relatively few teenagers, is to receive a rebrand costing up to £10m.

The request for a brand and creative agency partner to revamp the National Citizen Service (NCS) prompted condemnation from councils, who say the money would be better spent on severely cut local youth services.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said the money could usefully be spent countering the recent spate of knife crime among young people.

The NCS was one of Cameron’s early announcements as prime minister in 2010, part of his “big society” policy. It offers three to four-week programmes in which 15 to 17-year-olds work in teams on projects connected to skills and the community.

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Last year parliamentary questions to the then-culture minister, Tracey Crouch, found that in the four years from 2014-15, the NCS used up 95% of all central government spending on youth services, or £634m of the £668m outlay.

However, other figures showed that just just 12% of eligible young people, 93,000 in one year, took part in the NCS. In some areas the take-up was as low as 4%.

The advertisement for tenders says the NCS is seeking a creative agency to “help us deliver a razor sharp brand proposition, a brand identity that is fit for purpose in the digital age and a creative platform that can not only cut through the clutter but live and breathe through every single touchpoint in our customer journey to make NCS the best known and loved youth movement brand in the UK”.

The contract would run for two years and would be worth between £4m and £10m, it says.

The maximum outlay would be slightly more than than a new £9.8m government fund announced in February to help community projects around England steer young people away from gang culture and knives.

The LGA argues that both the rebranding money and the wider budget for the NCS would be better channelled into council-run youth services, which have seen a 52% reduction in funding since 2010, saying that more than 600 youth centres closed between 2012 and 2016.

Anntoinette Bramble, a councillor in Hackney, east London, who chairs the LGA’s children and young people board, said the proposed rebrand “sends the wrong message at a time when councils are being forced to cull vital youth services as a result of government funding cuts”.

She said: “While we recognise that the National Citizen Service can be a positive experience for those who take part, funding all-year-round youth services in local communities would be far more effective in reaching out to young people and helping them to thrive and prosper.

“The shocking surge in children and young people tragically involved in knife crime and gang activity only reinforces the need to invest in local youth services to support and work with children and young people to help them stay safe.”

A spokeswoman for the NCS said £10m was an upper limit for the rebrand, and the expected spend would be more like £1m a year.

The NCS wanted to expand “and it is necessary to market a national programme of this size”, she added.

She said: “NCS wholeheartedly agrees that local youth services must see a strong surge in funding, and is an advocate of making youth services statutory.”