To be baffled at Rishis National Service Plan

[frankentall]

I have never voted Tory and don't intend to start at this election. Maybe it is due to my late father who did National Service who was vehmently opposed to it, but even allowing for the idea - surely it simply isn't practical. How has he cooked up such a batshit idea?

It's like they aren't even pretending to be coming up with actual policies for govt any more. The national service thing is just a hurrah, a bit of campaign colouring. It is crazy that anyone in the media or MN is actually discussing it as if it was meant as a serious suggestion. There is no way on earth the Tories have thought about how and why it would be implemented. They have all gone full Liz Truss.

It would be good if 18yo who have done some volunteering through schemes like DofE are exempt.

DS is at university and they encourage students to get involved with volunteering opportunities

@WinterMorn Actually the majority of teens are perfectly good human beings. It seems to be you who thinks they are responsible for the pervasive selfishness of society.
So why should my kids be lumped in with with these teens who apparently have no sense of society or consideration. They sound pretty low by your account.

You'd get a massive buy in from a lot of 18 year olds in England if they remove or reduce uni tuition fees for those taking part.

This is a really important point - you don't just rock up and volunteer - what about CRB checks, health and safety training, training in general, supervision - all for a measly commitment of 25 hours?

I work with young people who are NEET for complex reasons - there aren't the volunteering opportunities out there as it is. I also worked as a volunteer/volunteer recruiter and trainer for 10 years - it's complex and you have to give volunteers something back - training and skills for one!

Again, I didn’t say that anywhere! Don’t let that interrupt your own little narrative though 🙂

@WinterMorn who is going to employ an 18 year old if they are going to have to have regular time off that would interfere with being able to run your business?
You wouldn't.

Also the point about NCS - probably the only decent thing Cameron did - when it was fully running it offered a really good opportunity for all young people. We would advocate for our care experienced young people to go and they where excellent at providing additional support for ND young people. Opening that up to more people and younger ages would be a better option - the Gov basically shut it down though!

@ghostyslovesheets it's still going.....but they keep it secret for some bizarre reason.

Well firstly, not many teens work 7 days a week, every week. Secondly I imagine there will be some sort of employer agreement or incentive.

@Needmorelego it is but not everywhere and a lot of it is online - we can't access it here sadly. It should be relaunched and expanded.

I'd also be looking more at the model of The King's Trust - there is a charity expert at engaging and supporting young people with a wide range of challenges and needs and actually making a huge difference.

An old boyfriend of mine did national service. His dad was a pastor so military service wasn't an option. He did a year as a health worker in a facility for very elderly, very unwell, very dangerous criminals with dementia instead.

So apart from the potential film rights in later life, I'm a no.

@WinterMorn yes generally nobody works 7 days a week.
But an 18 at university will be studying Monday to Friday and usually working weekends. If you run a business that wants weekend staff - but they can only work 3 weekends out of 4 then would you employ them? No - you wouldn't.
(Then if you have an 18 year old who is actually working full time then technically yes - they would have a couple of days free.
But why should their free time be dictated?
They work full time, pay tax, pay bills - they are a functioning adult)

@ghostyslovesheets I think COVID had a lot of impact on NCS because obviously it couldn't run as normal.
Such a shame.

@Needmorelego I really is - they did great stuff and worked very closely with us to meet the needs of our kids.

Exactly.

It's a such a ridiculous idea. No one working in volunteering would want to have to work with forced 'volunteers'.

How is it volunteering if they’ll be forced in to it or blackmailed to do it?

It’s all academic anyway seeing as the Tories will be out in 6 weeks time. Did somebody say deadcat?

He's clueless.

I'm not a Tory fan anyway but the National Service idea would be a spanner in the works for both my teenagers' carefully thought out academic plans.

I don’t have all the answers, but I would imagine that there will be some sort of agreement or deal with businesses. Someone earlier mentioned the possibility of discounted tuition fees as well.

They wouldn't have a chance in hell of putting this in place. It won't happen.

I think if the Tories were planning on discounting tuition fees as a ‘reward’ for this, they’d have mentioned it by now!!

The geezers a twat.

Someone earlier mentioned the possibility of discounted tuition fees as well.

They plucked that from the air, it's not something the Tories have said.