National Citizen Service Evaluation 2023 to 2025
An independent study covering the evaluation of the 2023 to 2025 delivery of the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme, delivered by National Citizen Service Trust (NCST).
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The ‘National Citizen Service Evaluation’ outlines combined findings across both years of the new NCS programme. DCMS commissioned an external consortium (Verian, The Social Agency and London Economics - led by Verian) to lead the independent evaluation. A process and impact evaluation were carried out in both years of the evaluation, and an economic evaluation was conducted in the first year due to data limitations.
The process evaluation used monitoring data, interviews and participant discussions. An impact evaluation sought to understand the impact of participation on young people’s outcomes. A baseline and follow-up survey of NCS residential and community open to all participants and a comparison group took place in both years, with difference-in-difference analysis applied to estimate net impact. An economic evaluation explored the average household’s willingness to pay in taxes to support NCS, as well as estimating economic benefits and providing benefit-cost ratios associated with the residential service line in Year 1 in relation to the impacts on participants.