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 Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts, on the Forty Sixth Report of Sessions 2016-2017, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, National Citizen Service, Cm 9505, published in October 2017, what steps the Government is taking to ensure safeguarding is embedded into National Citizen Service; and what policies and procedures around safeguarding the National Citizen Service Trust has enhanced since October 2017.

Safeguarding is of paramount concern to the National Citizen Service Trust and following the recommendation made by the Committee of Public Accounts, the NCS Trust continue to enhance their policies and practices. Since October 2017 the NCS Trust has developed:

• NCS Trust Safeguarding Capability Assessment Framework which sets out safeguarding standards and can be used for self assessment by partners;
• NCS Trust Drugs, Alcohol and Psychoactive Substance Policy which provides guidance for partners on how incidents relating to these substances should be managed on NCS programmes; and,
• NCS Trust Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Assessment Tool which gives guidance to partners on how to assess if a young person may be at risk and the actions they can take to support individuals deemed to be at risk.