The independent voice of the voluntary youth sector

Established in 1936, the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services is a diverse and growing network of over 280 national organisations and regional and local networks that work with and for young people. Our mission is to work with our members from voluntary and community organisations to build thriving communities and sustainable networks that help all young people achieve their potential.

NCVYS Young Partners Award 2013

Nominations for this year's NCVYS Young Partners Award have officially opened. If you work in partnership with young people and would like to nominate your organisation for an award, then please read more information here and click here to submit your nomination.

NCVYS annual review

NCVYS's 2011-12 annual review is up on our website, so make sure you take a look via the link! Recently rated by Third Sector magazine as 17/20 in terms of design, readability, content, and transparency, the review provides a neat snapshot of our work between April 2011 and March 2012.

Research to understand the current financing landscape for youth sector organisations

Back in 2011 the Young Foundation undertook research on behalf of the Catalyst consortium, a NCVYS coordinated partnership, to understand the financing environment for youth sector organisations and the potential role that social investment could play in supporting the sector. This informed the report – Growing Interest.

Much has changed over the last two years, with changing commissioning structures, national policy changes, the introduction of the pupil premium and the launch of Big Society Capital. The Young Foundation is therefore carrying out a short survey to understand how those changes have affected the current financing needs of the youth sector. Read more here.

Youth Participation in Action Conference 2013

NCVYS invites you to participate in an exciting new youth participation conference on Thursday 18 April 2013 from 10.30am till 3.30pm at the London School of Economics (LSE). NCVYS will join forces with the winning organisations of the NCVYS Young Partners Award 2012 to deliver a conference focussing on exploring meaningful and practical ways to engage young people in the decision-making processes of an organisations work. The day will feature keynote speakers, practice sharing workshops, leadership talks with experts in the sector, a panel discussion as well as an opportunity for you to actively network with others. Read more here and register your interest to attend here.

Open letter to the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP regarding youth policy

In a joint open letter to the Education Secretary, youth sector organisations have signed up to demonstrate their strong concerns with his recent comments made during an education select committee meeting; the Secretary of State remarked that, "We believe that youth policy is a priority for local government and not central government".
Please read our letter and sign up.

NCVYS 2013 Conference partners sought

Building on the collaborative theme of our joint annual conference held on 28 November 2012 in partnership with our members UK Youth and Leap Confronting Conflict, NCVYS is now inviting other organisations interested in partnering with us on the 2013 conference to contact us.
Read more here.

New NCVYS offices

We are now settling into our new Old Street offices so please bear with us while we sort ourselves out. Hopefully there won't be too much disruption to our services. Once we're settled in make sure you pay us a visit!

Seasonal greetings from all at NCVYS

Season's greetings one and all; take a look at our festive card! The NCVYS team.

#Connect4Youth - Joint Conference press release

No change as funding for youth services remains very much a local issue: The new Communities Minister, Don Foster MP, re-iterated a commitment that allows every Local Authority complete control over the level of funding for youth provision. While he wholeheartedly endorsed the value of community support for young people, Mr. Foster ruled out any national ring-fencing of money and stressed that budgets will continue to be set locally. His comments came during last week’s a major conference held jointly by Leap Confronting Conflict, NCVYS and UK Youth.
To continue reading please click here.

DfE National Grants - consortium spreadsheet

The Department of Education recently launched its National Grants Programme 2013 – 2015, a £30m annual pot which expects to award grants of between £100k and £750k per annum. The DfE have stated that applications will score more highly if they, amongst others, ‘involve joint or consortium working'. To facilitate this process for our membership within the tight timeline allocated to the application process, we are providing space where interested organisations can post their details and therefore get in touch with each other to discuss potential bids.
Read more here.

Payment by Results and the youth sector

Social Finance has today published a report looking at Payment by Results in the youth sector, entitled ‘Youth Outcomes: a guide for service providers and commissioners’. The report is produced on behalf of the Catalyst consortium, a NCVYS coordinated strategic partnership to the Department for Education for Youth. To read more please click here.

PCC Youth Charter launched

NCVYS has launched a Youth Charter for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). The charter calls on all who are seeking to be elected as the first PCCs in November to engage positively with young people and make their views count.

The Youth Charter is the result of three months’ work by our Youth Advisory Group of nine young people who wanted to ensure that PCCs recognise the importance of listening to young people, who are largely excluded from the electorate but also more likely to be affected by crime.

To read our press release and for more information, please click here.

Early Intervention Grant - NCVYS and NYA joint press release

Following an announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister at the Liberal Democrat Conference this week that he would pledge £100m to fund childcare places for two year olds, NCVYS and the NYA have issued a joint statement expressing their concern about where this money is believed to be coming from. To read the statement please click here.

Statement on Cabinet Reshuffle

NCVYS would like to thank Tim Loughton MP, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families for his commitment and support to young people. We have valued the opportunity to work with the Minister to help develop a vision for young people through Positive for Youth. Please click here to continue reading our statement

Catalyst Investment Readiness Programme

Are you a voluntary sector organisation working with young people aged 13 - 19 in England?
Are you passionate about your work with a clear vision for the impact you want to have?
Do you need an injection of funding to help you achieve you mission?
Are you considering whether to apply for social investment?

If so, we are inviting organisations who are looking to access social investment over the next 12-18 months to apply online for non-financial support in becoming investment ready. More details can be found on our flyer, as well as via two upcoming sessions with The Young Foundation. To read more please click here.

NCVYS Trustees acknowledged in Queen's Birthday Honours

Huge congratulations to NCVYS trustees Ashley Sweetland and Kevin Curley who have been awarded an MBE and CBE respectively. The recognition of both voluntary and community sector stalwarts is both reward and endorsement for their continued hard work.
To read more, please click here.

Summer Workforce Challenge Consultation Report

Throughout July-September 2011 the NCVYS Workforce Development team undertook a broad consultation exercise with stakeholders in the voluntary and community youth sector and beyond, to inform the development of a range of products and services being taken forward through the Catalyst consortium, a NCVYS coordinated partnership.

You can read the Summer Workforce Challenge consultation report here.

Employer EoI for BIS funding bids

NCVYS is currently seeking partners for applications to several complementary funding streams available through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Our applications will build on the work already achieved through the Progress project and Catalyst consortium. They will include investment in both infrastructure for workforce development and training costs. Both will focus heavily on employer collaboration and cover a range of anticipated outcomes for the size, skill levels and productivity of the voluntary sector youth workforce (staff and volunteers).

To read more, get involved, and to access our stakeholder presentation and EoI form, please click here.

ResPublica and NCVYS launching Commission on Youth

ResPublica and NCVYS are delighted to announce a joint 12-month Commission on Youth, launching in April. Following our work with many youth organisations in the aftermath of the August riots, NCVYS has maintained commitment to help build solutions with members and partners to one of the worst waves of civil unrest in a generation.

For more information please click here.

NCVYS's new qualification for the young people’s workforce

Earlier this month, NCVYS were delighted to announce the release of two new Level 2 qualifications for the young people’s workforce. The award and certificate-sized qualifications are an excellent foundation for staff or volunteers in the voluntary and community sector working with young people. They cover three core areas: personal development; work-based skills and working with young people. It is the first time NCVYS have developed a qualification. For more information please click here.

yeah CIC info sheet now available!

Find out more about NCVYS’s community interest company and what we can do for you! Click here to take a look.

NCVYS delivers step change for sector workforce

A NCVYS-led partnership has been commended by an independent evaluation report for its role in delivering a major young people's workforce initiative on behalf of the Children's Workforce Development Council. The Progress project was delivered in 2010/2011 and according to the report achieved a ‘strategic step change' in workforce development.

>>Read the executive summary of the report here
>>Read the full report here

Catalyst consortium publishes report into sector readiness for social finance

'Growing Interest? Mapping the market for social finance in the youth sector' is a new report from the Young Foundation who are working as part of Catalyst, a consortium coordinated by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services. The report argues that social finance could offer breathing space for the sector and greater freedom to innovate in their work with young people. Join us and play a pivotal role in communicating the experiences of organisations supporting millions of young people across England every day.

NCVYS & Department for Education bring together youth sector and young people at Positive for Youth Summit

The NCVYS and DfE Youth Summit has seen youth organisations come together with ministers to discuss and debate the key issues affecting young people. It was also an opportunity for these youth organisations to explore the possibility of partnerships to strengthen the youth sector. Ministers who spoke at the event included, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Children and Families Minister Tim Loughton. >> Read more about this story here. >> See images from the event here.

Building the Big Society with NCVYS

The NCVYS Big Society Blueprint

The NCVYS Big Society Blueprint was a pilot project to support six frontline organisations working with disadvantaged young people in order to highlight the great work they do and learn lessons from what infrastructure can do for locally based organisations. The six organisations were:

1. Getaway Girls 2. Just For Kids Law 3. Stockwell Park Community Trust 4. Crime prevention Health promotion Identify awareness Sports and fitness Education support Lifeskills and Mentoring (CHISEL) 5. The Arts Partnership (TAP) 6. The Baca project

The report is now available >> Learning from the Big Society Blueprint Project and if you have any questions or comments, please contact: Jarina Choudhury Development Manager (Networks & Learning) 020 7843 6453.

Building enterprise - a sustainable big society with NCVYS

NCVYS's newly configured service development team will be working with members and networks to drive an enterprise culture within and across the NCVYS community. How do we propose to do that?

Evaluating member feedback to ensure existing services are relevant to sector needs;
Collaborating on the development of enterprising activities across the organization, which place young people and/or the benefit of young people at their core;
Brokering relationships between members; ensuring those partnerships work and thus empowering the sector;
Incorporating a CIC as a trading arm to NCVYS, to mainstream, market and license products developed with or by the membership;
Advocating to the new government the need for sustainable approaches to service delivery
And finally, to keep it fun, we'll be launching an exciting fundraising campaign very soon for the benefit of our members ... For more information please contact Beth Parker, Director of Service Development

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