NCS Trust expects to invest £1.5m in the Scout Association over a three-year period as part of a new partnership announced today.
Through the partnership the Scout Association will deliver National Citizen Service programmes and see NCS graduates offered opportunities with the Scouts. Both organisations will also be able to test new approaches.
NCS Trust expects to invest £1.5m in the Scouts over three years, as long as its board approves the final detailed proposal from the Scouts.
There are four strands to the partnership:
- Enhance the Scouts’ Explorer Scout and Young Leader programme through integrating it with NCS
- Offer personal development opportunities to NCS graduates through ongoing volunteering opportunities
- New roles for NCS graduates to support growth of scouting in disadvantaged communities
- Both organisations will develop and test new approaches
Matt Hyde, chief executive of the Scout Association, said: “Marrying the scale, reach and 110 years of experience of scouting with the resource and innovative delivery of NCS will mean we have an even greater impact on many more young people. We hope that NCS graduates will become the scout volunteers of the future. With some 50,000 young people waiting to join scouting due to a lack of leaders, there has never been a more pressing need.”
Bear Grylls, chief scout, is also joining the NCS Patrons board, which is led by David Cameron. He said: “As chief scout, I am proud to recognise this exciting new partnership with NCS by becoming an NCS Patron. Together, we will help prepare more young people for the adventure of life.”
NCS Trust looking for more partners
Michael Lynas, chief executive of NCS trust, said: “The Scouts are a great part of our national life and we are proud to launch our new innovation programme with them - working together to offer more life changing experiences for young people from all backgrounds.”
NCS Trust said this will be the “first of many” partnerships that the NCS announces with children's charities, and that it its innovation programme is open to expressions of interest.
The programme intended to “allow NCS Trust and partners to test new approaches to deliver social cohesion, social mobility and civic engagement through NCS,” a statement said today.
More information is available online and applications to pilot innovations in summer 2018 will run from 14 August to 12 September.
‘A step in the right direction’
NCVO said today’s announcement represented a “step in the right direction”. The umbrella body has previously said that NCS should work more closely with others in the voluntary sector.
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said in a blog: “I hope today will mark a turning point in NCS’s relationship with the voluntary sector. All these concerns are being addressed as part of their nascent partnership with the Scouts Association.”
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