One of the charities behind David Cameron’s £1.3billion flagship youth scheme has been sacked after thousands of teenagers missed out on places.
Around 4,000 youngsters, whose families paid £50 each to join the government-backed National Citizen Service, failed to get promised spots this summer.
The NCS, launched by the then Tory prime minister in 2011 as part of his “Big Society” idea, offers three to four-week courses working on community projects.
The Challenge charity has now lost its multi-million pound contract to run the NCS programme for 16 and 17-year-olds in the South East and West Midlands next year.
It’s a fresh embarrassment for the scheme which has been slated for spiralling cost and poor management.
A 2017 National Audit Office report said that only 12 per cent of applicants eligible to take part in the previous year had done so.
NCS bosses blamed the latest setback on an IT problem at The Challenge, which it claimed had “let down” youngsters who did not get a place.
It also said it had been unable to reach an agreement with the charity over a shared IT system.
NCS Trust boss Michael Lynas said: “We need to ensure a consistent customer experience, secure value for money for the taxpayer and safeguard the data of the young people who take part.”
