It was great to attend a Dragons’ Den panel event with National Citizen Service (NCS) participants from schools across Sunderland, including some in my constituency.

NCS encourages young people to learn life skills and achieve their goals, whilst empowering them to give back to society and celebrate their achievements. There are almost 4000 teenagers from the North East currently taking part in the summer programme.

Before the Dragons’ Den panel, the participants had researched local community issues, and put together ideas for social action projects, including plans that would benefit local charities such as Grace House and Washington Mind. I gave constructive feedback and advice on how they could achieve the most success with their projects.