Teen scheme reaches out to our youth

A TOTAL of 75 Oldham teenagers will do “national service” this summer, in a huge expansion of a scheme championed by David Cameron.

The National Citizen Service will offer 16-year-olds the chance to spend a week on outdoor-activity courses, before they are required to volunteer on community projects to help their area.

Tasks could include renovating rundown buildings, working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds or tending gardens for older people.

This summer will see a trebling of the number of places across the country to 30,000 — including 75 in Oldham, according to figures announced yesterday. The scheme will be run by The Challenge Network, a charity which is already the UK’s largest provider of National Citizen Service.

However, there is growing controversy over the cost of the National Citizen Service — a flagship policy put forward by the Prime Minister at the last general election.

The bill will be around £40million this summer, at a time when many local authorities have been forced to take the axe to youth services because of Whitehall grant cuts.

And one study suggested the annual cost of offering the scheme to all teenagers — Mr Cameron’s long-term aim — could top the £350m spent on all youth services in 2009-10.

Furthermore, teenagers signing up this summer are likely to be charged around £35 — raising doubts about whether those from poorer backgrounds will take part. However, the Cabinet Office said the National Citizen Service was a “Big Society” initiative, that would allow young people to “make a difference”.

A spokeswoman said: “It includes fun and challenging activities, away-from-home residential experiences and a self-designed social-action project.

“Young people taking part in this programme can expect to make lifelong friends, overcome new challenges and develop qualities valued by employers and educational institutions.”

Assemblies will be held in every secondary school in the coming months to urge 16-year-olds to sign up.

Ambassadors — including TV adventurer Bear Grylls, the former “Stig” from “Top Gear”, sprinter Marlon Devonish and Chris Hunter, a former bomb-disposal operator in Iraq — will encourage take-up.

Last year, the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services (CHYPS) found that average cuts to youth services were 28 per cent, reaching 70 per cent, or even 100 per cent, at some of the worst-hit town halls.