Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 37 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what progress has been made on his Department's target of training a further 3,500 people in community organising through a national network of Social Action Hubs and partnerships with public and social sector organisations by 2020.

Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. Following the success of the Community Organisers Programme (2011-2015), we launched the Community Organisers Expansion Programme in early 2017 to train 3,500 more individuals, across England, by March 2020.

By March 2019, 2,000 people have been trained in community organising through a variety of routes; via 20 Social Action Hubs (grass roots organisations developing local practice of community organising and social action), public sector training courses, and partnerships with organisations including Local Trust, NALC, Neighbourhood Watch, and the National Citizen Service.