National Citizen Service Evaluation
About this study
National Citizen Service (NCS) aims to build a more cohesive, responsible and engaged society by bringing 16 year olds from different backgrounds together in a residential and home-based programme of activity.
In summer 2011, twelve providers were commissioned to run NCS pilot schemes for over 10,000 young people.
An interim report of our evaluation of NCS is available here.
You can read a summary of our findings here.
How we're working
We're leading a team of collaborators that includes the Office for Public Management, New Philanthropy Capital and Frontier Economics.
Potential policy impact
National Citizen Service (NCS) is one of the Government's flagship initiatives for building a bigger, stronger society. Our interim report measures the short term impacts of the programme and will influence the development of the pilots in 2012.
Methods
This is a mixed methods evaluation made up of four strands:
- Process evaluation: Qualitative case studies involving depth interviews, deliberative workshops and video ethnography.
- Impact survey: A baseline postal survey followed by two telephone/web follow-up surveys with NCS participants and a matched comparison group.
- Economic analysis: Cost effectiveness and cost-benefit calculations and benchmarking NCS against other programmes.
- Analysis of how NCS is represented in news and social media.
- NatCen Social Research
- 35 Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0AX
- Charity no. 1091768
