National Citizen Service, also known as the NCS, is a Government-funded[2] personal and social development program in England available for 16-17 year olds.

It was formally announced in 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's Big Society initiative, and it was launched in 2011.

The bill received Royal Assent in April 2017 and the resulting National Citizen Service Act created a statutory framework for the programme.

[citation needed] However, setting the NCS up at arm’s length, because its users were likely to distrust a government programme, contributed to a lack of financial control in its early years.

[citation needed] In November 2024, it was announced that the programme would be wound down from March 2025 as part of the new Labour government's National Youth Strategy.

[10] In January 2017 the National Audit Office reported that the NCS had "weaknesses" in governance and had "not prioritised cost control".

[11] In March 2017 the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons said that the high cost of the scheme could not be justified and its participation targets remained challenging despite being significantly reduced.

[12] Current Regional Delivery Partners for NCS are listed on their Web site, and have included[17] APM,[18] The EBP,[19]English Football League Trust,[20] Ingeus, Inspira,[21] Inspired Education and the National Youth Agency.