The National Citizen Service (NCS) Trust has seen its income fall by 69% since 2019, according to government documents.
Annual reports and business plans show that NCS Trust received £158.6m in grant-in-aid from the then Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) in 2019-20 compared with £49.2m for 2023-24.
In its latest business plan, published earlier this month, NCS Trust said that it went through “significant organisational restructuring” to ensure it can deliver its new offer.
It also took the “tough” decision to reduce its number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff as part of central cost cuts but did not disclose its previous and current staff numbers.
Funding reduction
NCS Trust’s total budget has fallen to its lowest level since 2019, from £158.6m to £50.3m for 2023-24.
Its budget for this year includes £49.2m of grant-in-aid from DCMS and £1.1m of “self-generated income which is expected to be raised via service user contributions”.
NCS Trust was initially allocated £131.5m for 2020-21 but only received £72.4m due to the impact of Covid-19.
That year also saw the Trust pay £2.8m to youth charity The Challenge following a legal dispute between the two organisations.
Grant-in-aid funding continued to fall in 2021-22, at £63m, before growing to £72.1m in 2022-23.
‘Significant organisational restructuring’
NCS Trust said in its business plan that it went through “significant organisational restructuring” last year while reducing costs, with savings of £24m (32%) between 2022-23 and 2023-24.
“We will continue to drive efficiencies to deliver value for money for the taxpayer,” it wrote.
It added that it “successfully managed down FTE throughout 2022 and into 2023”.
“Whilst cost of living and inflation create pressure on staff costs, the Trust expects to be around or below the 155 FTE throughout FY 23/24”.
‘Tough decisions’ on staff headcount
A spokesperson for NCS Trust told Civil Society that internal restructuring was required to deliver new experiences to young people and meet its new funding amount.
“Over the last year we have been busy redesigning our experiences for young people not only due to funding, but importantly, the changing needs of young people post-pandemic. This required us to restructure our staff to deliver this new, choice-based offer, all the while ensuring that we flow down the most funding possible to young people,” they added.
“NCS is focused on controlling costs and driving better value for money for taxpayers. Our annual report 21/22 shows we reduced costs by 45% and this trend continued into 22/23 and this financial year. Reducing central costs has required us to make some tough decisions regarding headcount. Despite this the Trust is proud that the numbers of young people experiencing NCS have increased and this year we expect a record number of young people will be supported to become world ready and work ready.”
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