The Office for Civil Society failed to hit its minimum recruitment targets for the most recent round of the National Citizen Service despite spending £130m on it in the most recent financial year, government figures show.

In 2014 the OCS recruited less than 58,000 participants for the National Citizen Service – its flagship youth volunteering scheme – according to the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts, published last week.

The initial target for the scheme was 80,000 participants and the minimum target was 60,000.

Less than 53,000 people completed the course, which included a two or three week full time programme plus 30 hours of community volunteering, and ran in two tranches in summer and autumn 2014.

The programme cost £130m in the year to March 2015 – just under half the total OCS budget of £270m.

The previous year the NCS budget was £84m out of a total of £170m.

Funding for the 2014 NCS was split between the two budgets.

The figure for total participation was up from just under 40,000 participants in the previous year – a growth of 43 per cent.

The OCS is hoping to grow the NCS again this year and the next. Its target is to attract 120,000 participants in 2015 and 150,000 in 2016.

Other funding includes one-off items

The next biggest item of OCS expenditure, according to the report, was a one-off £36m investment in Access: the Foundation for Social Investment – paid for by repayments of loans handed out by the Futurebuilders fund under the Labour government. The foundation will provide funding, support and training to help charities take on social investment.

The OCS also handed out another £10m in grants paid for by Libor fines.

In the next year the NCS will have a budget of £140m, while the rest of the OCS will have a budget of £56m, the annual report said.