A new model of National Service

Today the Prime Minister has set out that a future Conservative government will introduce mandatory National Service for every 18-year-old, to be spent in a competitive, full-time military commission or spending one weekend a month volunteering in civil resilience. 

  • We have so much to be proud of as a country, but we also need to be open and honest about the long-ter m challenges that our country and our society faces. One of the challenges we want to tackle is that we have generations of young people who don’t have the opportunities they deserve. 
  • That is why we will introduce a bold new model of National Service for 18-year-olds to be spent either in a competitive, full-time military commission over 12 months or with one weekend per month volunteering roles in the community, like as a special constable, RNLI volunteer, or NHS responder. This will give young people real world skills, while contributing to their country and community.

We have so much to be proud of in Britain, but we also need to be open and honest about the long-term challenges that our country and our society faces and one of the problems in our society is that we have generations of young people who don’t have the opportunities they deserve. 

  • The Covid pandemic showed the value of civic service to individuals and our country as a whole – while national service is a major change in the way our country works, it is completely essential. During Covid, millions of people contributed as NHS responders, vaccinators, and volunteers. Our vision of a more secure country is one where we rediscover that national spirit. Only by nurturing our shared culture and fostering a sense of duty can we preserve our nation and our values for decades to come. This is an investment in both the character of young people and our security. 
  • Nearly 750,000 18–24-year-olds are out of work – volunteering can ensure young people don’t waste their best years out of work or in lives of crime. Research shows that volunteering and community service increases social responsibility and cuts criminality. National service will play an important role in making sure young people not in education, employment, or training, and young people who are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, especially for gang and knife crime, are diverted away from lives of unemployment and crime.
  • Across Europe, other countries are taking steps to shore up their civic resilience and defence with models of national service. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark already have recently reintroduced modern forms of national service. President Macron in France has announced Service National Universal – a one-month residential placement for all 16-year-olds followed by 3 months part-time voluntary service – which will be mandatory when rolled out fully. 

Our clear plan will introduce National Service for every 18-year-old. 

Young people will be able to CHOOSE between:

  1. Applying for a competitive, full-time military commission over 12 months in the armed forces or UK cyber defence, where young people will learn and take part in logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations. This placement will be selective, so that our world leading armed forces recruit and train the brightest and best. Alternatively, young people will have the option of
  2. Volunteering for one weekend per month (25 days per year) in a civic role, where they can choose between roles in our communities such as:

  • Local infrastructure: supporting flood defences and communities during natural disasters.
  • NHS: collecting and delivering food; essential items; prescriptions and other support roles.  
  • Fire services: helping to organise and promote fire safety messaging; distributing fire safety advice 
  • British Red Cross: ambulance volunteer; wheelchair volunteer.
  • RNLI: Water-safety volunteers; lifeguard; shore crew.
  • Search and rescue: non-mountain based volunteering opportunities; foot patrols.
  • Other voluntary roles to be considered by the Royal Commission we will establish. 

We are doing this by:

  • Setting up a Royal Commission to design national service, working with the military and civic society.
  • The Commission will bring forward a proposal on how to make sure the first pilot is open for applications in September 2025, and we will introduce a new National Service Act to ensure that every 18-year-old will be required to do either military or civic national service by the end of the next Parliament.

Reinventing national service will give young people valuable life skills, make our country more secure, and build a stronger national culture. Young people will receive best-in-class training in critical skill sets for the economy, from cyber to civil engineering to leadership. It will make our country more secure by diverting young people away from crime and unemployment, and training new generations to support their community and our security. And this will build a stronger national culture, where everyone shares a commitment to improving our country, and everyone shares in a sense of belonging. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more