Youth voice was at the heart of everything we did at NCS. Read our insights to learn more about what we found through delivering our programmes.
NCS Trust partnered with two leading research organisations to understand the state of youth social cohesion, and the role of youth provision in improving it.
The research findings painted a concerning picture regarding social cohesion among young people. The challenges were starkly illustrated last summer by riots and community divisions.
The findings of the first part of the research, from The Good Side in their 'Fractured Futures' report, show that young people are feeling the strain most. Social, economic and political shifts in the UK have created new challenges for social cohesion. In just five years, rising socio-economic pressures, political polarisation, a global pandemic, and a rapidly evolving media landscape have defined what belonging and connection means for a generation.
NCS also commissioned 2CV to explore what drives social cohesion outcomes for young people across different youth settings, published in their 'Connected Communities' report. Despite the various challenges, there are social cohesion initiatives working around the country to reduce division and to bring communities together.
Young people's mental health is a critical concern, impacting their present lives and future prospects. This briefing provides context on the importance of addressing youth mental health, highlights the role of youth provision and social prescribing, and summarises emerging findings and recommendations from recent research commissioned by NCS Trust and delivered by University College London (UCL) and the Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN).
These insights aim to inform policy, research, and practice, contributing to an early intervention and preventative approach to mental health support for young people.
A report commissioned by NCS Trust and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and undertaken by the Centre for Young Lives, shows how enrichment activities like sports, arts clubs, volunteering, social action and adventures away from home can encourage children and young people at risk of missing school to attend.
The report calls for the introduction of an enrichment guarantee, with a minimum of at least 80 hours enrichment across the academic year, an enrichment premium to create a long-term funding stream for enrichment and argues for the extension of enrichment partnership pilots to schools with high rates of absence.
In November 2024, NCS Trust submitted evidence to the Government's Curriculum & Assessment Review.
This commission has been set up to review the national curriculum and statutory assessment system in England, including qualification pathways. It will consider children and young people's education and experiences from ages 5 to 19. The Government wants to achieve a curriculum and assessment system that ensures young people leave education prepared for life and work, equipped with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to thrive and become well-rounded citizens, who appreciate the diversity and pluralism of our society. The call for evidence will help the Government to understand the wide range of views and the best way to achieve this.
This evidence will inform the publication of an interim report in early 2025 which will set out the Review's interim findings and confirm key areas for further work. A final report and recommendations will be published in Autumn 2025.
In April 2024, NCS Trust submitted evidence to the Oracy Education Commission. NCS experiences supported young people to grow their strengths and build essential skills, including oracy. The Commission examines the vital skills of speaking and listening at a time of technological and social change and will shape recommendations that lead to a shift in access to oracy education in England.
The Commission responds to the growing recognition of the importance of spoken language to children’s learning and life chances, and increasing evidence and concern as to the impact of the inconsistency, quality, and accessibility of oracy education in schools across England.
The report makes a series of important recommendations for sector leaders that, if acted upon, will increase accessibility to high quality enrichment opportunities for young people.
Research for the report, carried out by The Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY) and UK Youth, included a literature review, input from a cross-sector advisory group, and case studies from 11 education and youth sector partnerships. This is the first in-depth research on models of effective collaboration between the education and youth sector of its kind.
New academic research shows how NCS had a substantial positive effect on young people’s political participation. Specifically, it shows how taking part in an NCS experience increased young people’s participation in politics by up to 12%. Findings are taken from a four year research project with UCL’s School of Public Policy and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), and make an important contribution to our wider understanding of the impact of service learning programmes, like NCS, on democratic engagement among young audiences.
Read BIT’s blog
Read the summary report
We're delighted to launch a discussion paper, in partnership with the Centre for Education and Youth, that explores the role of non-formal learning, extracurricular and enrichment activities in delivering a transformational education recovery experience for young people.
Drawing on key evidence, together with views garnered from a range of experts, the paper identifies a number of opportunities for expanding access to enrichment activities for children and young people.
We also collaborated with the Scouts Association, and pollsters YouGov, to conduct new research into the views of children and young people, parents and teachers to inform our thinking and discussions.
Both the discussion paper and polling were launched at an event on 15th October, a recording of which will be made available here soon.
Our latest survey, conducted in February 2021 with over 1,000 16 to 19 year olds, reflected our commitment to having youth voice at the heart of all we did.
We know the pandemic had been particularly tough on young people. But, we felt it timely - as we reach the one-year anniversary of COVID - to look forward. We wanted to hear from young people about their priorities as we came out of lockdown, and understand what they saw as their role in rebuilding our nation to become the next greatest generation.
Our CEO, Mark Gifford, shared his thoughts on the findings from our exclusive survey of 16-19 year olds. It’s clear young people see themselves playing a key role in supporting the nation’s recovery. Mark explains how NCS helped them to do this.
Research shows that 74% of 16-25 year olds believe their generation can change their future for the better. 88% of young people care about making the world a better place. In the first of a series of new short reports, we set out how NCS empowered young people to help the nation ‘build back better’ during the pandemic. Throughout 2020, NCS supported young people to deliver over 500,000 hours of social action and volunteering. We discuss how important this has been not only to supporting communities, but to improving young people’s own key skills, confidence and wellbeing.
Poor mental health among young people is a growing issue. Sixty percent of teens told us they had been feeling more isolated and lonely than normal due to COVID-19, and almost two in five had been struggling to cope with everyday things. As we seek to help the nation build back better from the pandemic, young people’s mental health and wellbeing must be placed front and centre. In our latest report, we discuss how NCS supported young people’s mental health over the past year, and what our plans were for the future as we started to emerge from lockdown.
Our country continues to face significant youth employment challenges, which were exacerbated by COVID-19. Huge skills shortages and a lack of a young talent pipeline remain in many sectors of strategic significance for our society and economy. However, too often young people are not being engaged in a way that encourages and supports them to take part in, and stick with, existing initiatives such as apprenticeships. UK Year of Service, an NCS initiative, was a new approach that set out to help to address this challenge.
On Wednesday 21 September 2022, NCS Trust responded to the Department of Education-led consultation, Skills for jobs: implementing a new further education funding and accountability system. Our response focused on the Skills Fund allocation proposal on innovative provision, and highlighted UK Year of Service as a positive example of new, tangible, employer or employability-focused non-qualification provision.
In December 2022, NCS Trust submitted a response to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Employment’s inquiry on mental health. More than 700,000 young people have taken part in NCS over the last decade, and NCS programmes have been demonstrated to have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing. Our response included an evidence review and insights from NCS experiences on young people’s skills for life and work, young people’s mental health and wellbeing, and enrichment in education.
In February 2023 NCS Trust was asked to submit evidence to the Government's Independent Review on Social Cohesion and Resilience. The review was led by Dame Sara Khan, appointed by the Prime Minister as the Independent Adviser for Social Cohesion and Resilience at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Our response included an evidence review and insights from NCS experiences on young people’s wellbeing and their perceptions of social cohesion. Our evidence demonstrated that NCS had a strong positive impact on young people’s sense of responsibility towards their local community.
In 2022, NCS Trust submitted a response to the APPG on Youth Affairs' Inquiry on skills and youth employment. The purpose of this inquiry was to explore barriers to youth employment, skills gaps across the country, and solutions that the government and other partners could implement to build the workforce of the future. Our response included an evidence review, insights from NCS experiences, and findings from our thought leadership work on young people's skills for life and work, mental health and wellbeing, enrichment and non-formal learning, and employment outcomes. The submission was incorporated into the final APPG report led by YMCA - Empowering Youth for the Future of Work: Addressing Challenges and Enabling Opportunities - which was published in August 2023.