{"id":11806,"date":"2017-03-16T10:43:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T10:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11806"},"modified":"2017-03-16T10:43:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T10:43:23","slug":"vanity-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11806","title":{"rendered":"‘Vanity project’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Citizen Service (NCS) was always an ill-conceived \u00e2\u20ac\u0098vanity project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, now that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been shown to be a colossal waste of taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money, it needs a radical re-think if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to survive, according to Unite.<\/p>\n

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Unite, which represents thousands of youth and play workers, has condemned the spiralling costs of the NCS, its lack of transparency and low take-up, as reported by the House of Commons public accounts committee, while the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s youth services are being destroyed.<\/p>\n

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According to the committee of MPs, which published their report yesterday (March 14), the expected cost per head in 2016 of the scheme was more than \u00c2\u0141300 higher than the spending review allowed and was slammed for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098not meeting the standards of transparency to be expected from organisations funded almost entirely by the taxpayer.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is hard to defend such a costly short-term programme, when across the country universal youth services are being destroyed,” said Unite national officer Colenzo Jarret-Thorpe.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOver the last seven years cash-strapped councils have been slashing their services, youth clubs are being boarded up and thousands of youth and play workers have lost their jobs. Young people between the ages of 13-19 are losing out on the support they need to help them reach their full potential.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a slap in the face for existing struggling youth services that more will be spent funding the NCS scheme, than on the entirety of youth services provided by local councils, and yet it reaches far fewer young people for just a few weeks a year,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite firmly believes that that universal youth services are a better, and more efficient use of taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money. In 2011, the Education select committee praised the sector for providing value for money, with youth services costing just \u00c2\u0141350m a year for 13-19 year olds, compared to the \u00c2\u01411.5bn planned bill for the NCS scheme between 2011-2020.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government now needs to do two things; first the NCS scheme needs to be opened up, so that young people of all ages can take part, and secondly local authorities and employee-led community organisations should be allowed to deliver NCS schemes, without these changes the entire project will be nothing more than a colossal waste of taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe also call on the government to do more to protect universal youth services. It can start by putting the service on a firmer statutory footing and ensuring that local councils are meeting their legal obligations, and not stand by while these vital services are dismantled.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Citizen Service (NCS) was always an ill-conceived \u00e2\u20ac\u0098vanity project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, now that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been shown to be a colossal waste of taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money, it needs a radical re-think if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to survive, according to Unite.   Unite, which represents thousands of youth and play workers, has condemned the spiralling costs of the NCS, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[241],"wps_subtitle":"High cost of National Citizen Service slammed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11807,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806\/revisions\/11807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}