The Office for Civil Society spent almost half its income on the National Citizen Service in the year to March 2014, according to its annual report and accounts.
The OCS spent £170m in the year, compared to £144m in the previous year.
However, most of this increase was accounted for by spending on the NCS, the government’s flagship youth scheme, which received £84.3m, up £22.3m on the £62m spent in the previous year.
Other significant spending programmes included:
- Funding for social action, which received £20.2m compared to £27.4m in the previous year. The OCS funds this mainly through the Social Action Fund, administered by the Social Investment Business.
- Community First, a programme to encourage community engagement in deprived neighbourhoods, which received £18.2m, compared to £17m the previous year.
- The Advice Services Fund, a programme to support voluntary sector providers of advice, which received £17m, compared to only £400,000 the previous year.
- The previous year the OCS spent £15.4m on structural support – a programme to offer financial support to frontline organisations to build capacity - but this year it spent only £75,000.
