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 on National Citizen Service Trust, whether delivery partners will still be paid for unfilled places under the new proposed contracts for 2019.

Some NCS Delivery Partners are not responsible for managing the recruitment of young people to their programmes. These Delivery Partners are generally small, local non-profit organisations, so in order to protect them from undue financial risk, once the number of places being commissioned is confirmed by NCS Trust, payment for these places will be guaranteed.

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

Delivery Partners managing their own recruitment are guaranteed payment for a proportion of their NCS commissioned places. This gives smaller, local organisations the financial security they need to get involved in NCS. The remaining places will only be paid for if they are filled. NCS Trust will only pay for unfilled places in a situation where a Delivery Partner does not recruit enough young people to cover the proportion of places that has been guaranteed. This allows NCS Trust to share risk with the youth and voluntary sector, so that small organisations can benefit from being part of the delivery chain.