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 23 April 2018 to Question 135849, what recent steps he has taken to reduce the amount spent on unfilled places.

NCS Trust has regular checkpoints planned with its Delivery Partners to discuss their forecast performance in 2019 and make adjustments to the number of places commissioned where appropriate, in order to minimise spend on unfilled places

For provider contracts that begin in 2020, NCS Trust has re-designed the way its outsourced regional Management Partners will be paid, in order to significantly reduce the amount spent on places which are not filled.

In areas where NCS Trust will be providing the regional management function itself, flexibility has been created within its contracts with Delivery Partners to confirm participant numbers for each season at a later point in the year. This will allow NCS Trust to make an assessment of the level of demand for NCS places, based on the number of young people who have signed up, ensuring an accurate number are commissioned. The aim of this approach is to use performance data in-season to better align the supply and demand for NCS places, minimising the number which are paid for but not filled.