Charities invited to run National Citizens Service

Charities, voluntary groups and businesses have been invited to apply to run the government's flagship youth volunteering scheme, the National Citizens Service.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has opened the application process to run the scheme.

At a reception at 10 Downing Street yesterday, Maude said there will be a competitive tendering process and the government would announce in October which organisations would be delivering the scheme.

Under the programme, young people will spend the six summer school holidays after taking their GCSEs volunteering for programmes including residential schemes, local community action projects and a physical challenge event.

It's expected that 10,000 young people to take part in the programmes next summer.

The Government will publish a detailed specification for the pilots, inviting potential providers to submit bids, at the beginning of August 2010 on the Cabinet Office website 

Successful candidates will be announced in late October, at the latest. 

As with all Government programmes, the scale of the pilots will be subject to the Spending Review.