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Youth Service
6. Mr. Phil Hope (Corby): If he will outline his plans for the youth service. [64041]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. George Mudie): The Government see the youth service not only as carrying out its traditional tasks, but as constituting a vital partner in our vision of ending social exclusion and widening participation. A paper on the future of the youth service is in preparation, and will be available for consultation soon.
Mr. Hope: I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. The paper is eagerly awaited throughout the country.
Is my hon. Friend aware that youth workers in Corby play an important and effective role in working in the community with the young people who experience the greatest problems--young people with problems related to drug abuse, young people who are perpetrators and victims of crime and young people who have left school with no qualifications? The youth service plays a critical role in helping those young people to return to the community. Will my hon. Friend devote all his energies and ability to giving the service new purpose and new leadership, so that it continues to be open to all young people and can target its resources and expertise on those who are most disadvantaged and most alienated from their communities?
Mr. Mudie:
I thank my hon. Friend for what he has said, and congratulate the youth workers in Corby. As the House knows, last year we conducted and published the first national audit of youth service work. The details varied: some authorities spent just under £300 per youngster in their areas, but the amount fell as low as under £20.
I urge local authorities and those responsible for the youth service to see ending social exclusion, widening participation and returning youngsters to either education or work as a vital part of their job. They need not necessarily wait for the consultation paper, or for anything else to happen; they should get on with the job of refocusing and helping youngsters.
Mr. Donald Gorrie (Edinburgh, West):
One obstacle in the way of the youth service in my part of the country is the Government's delay in producing national guidelines or an approved scheme to deal with the registration of youth workers and youth organisations, as proposed by Lord Cullen after his inquiry into the disastrous events in Dunblane. Can the Minister give us any idea of when the Government might introduce either United Kingdom or separate English and Scottish arrangements enabling local authorities to work together to produce an approved scheme that will allow more youth workers to be properly vetted?
Mr. Mudie:
Vetting is a problem. I hear many requests from the youth service for statutory provision, but I am at pains to tell youth service workers and authorities--including local authorities--not to wait for legislation. They know the task that the Government have placed at the top of the agenda: ending social exclusion, an aim that is shared throughout the House. I urge local authorities, notwithstanding their wish for statutory backing, to get on with the job even before the publication of the consultation paper.
Given a record revenue support grant settlement and a very good standard spending assessment for education, there is little excuse for any local authority not to take the youth service seriously. I find it strange that local authorities and others who say that they approve of participation are not strengthening and refocusing their youth services.
7. Mr. Tom Levitt (High Peak):
What measures he is taking to promote the retention of people in employment when they become disabled. [64042]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Margaret Hodge):
My hon. Friend has drawn attention to an important aspect of our drive to help people with disabilities into the labour market. Clearly, it makes good sense to offer early help to people who, through disability, risk losing their job. The Employment Service already helps some 5,000 disabled people a year to retain their jobs and the new deal for disabled people will explore what further employment and training support is needed.
As part of the £30 million package of extra help that we announced in October, we are increasing the amount of help that is provided through access to work by £12 million over the next three years. I am also working with colleagues in other Departments and with the voluntary sector to ensure that all our policies work in tandem to help disabled people to remain in work.
Mr. Levitt:
My hon. Friend is clearly aware that to assist a disabled person to stay in work enhances not only their dignity and income, but their productivity, and prevents them from what could be a lifetime on the dole. It must be frustrating for an employee in middle age to lose their job because of reduced dexterity and mobility or increased sensory impairment. I welcome the measures that my hon. Friend has described.
Will my hon. Friend assure the House that not only now through the agencies of the Employment Service, but in future through the Disability Rights Commission, the retention of disabled people in their current employment will be promoted wherever possible?
Ms Hodge:
I am delighted to be able to reassure my hon. Friend on that point. I would particularly like to thank him for all his work in supporting civil rights for disabled people. Clearly, it makes good sense to try to keep people in their jobs, rather than to force them on to benefits and then to try to bring them back into the labour market, so that will be the thrust of all our policies.
Mr. Michael Jack (Fylde):
While I welcome what the Minister says, is she aware of the considerable difficulties experienced by the children who come out of a school such as the Pear Tree school in my constituency--which deals with children who have severe learning difficulties--in gaining a place in the employment sector in the first place? Will she undertake to study the matter and to look at the problems that are being encountered by the school in connection with further education, social services and the Employment Service? As a first step, will she to speak to the school's head mistress, Mrs. Jean Cooke, about her first-hand experience in that difficult area?
Ms Hodge:
I give the reassurance that, if the right hon. Gentleman writes to me, I will look into the particular circumstances of the children who leave that school. I know that he has raised the matter previously with my hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards in relation to the Green Paper on special educational needs. Clearly, it is important that young children with learning disabilities should be given opportunities in the labour market. Part of the new deal and our policies to open access to further education are geared towards ensuring that those opportunities exist.
Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley):
Will my hon. Friend give an assurance that Remploy factories, which have a tremendous history of employing disabled peopled, have an important part to play, in addition to all the other measures that the Government are announcing?
Ms Hodge:
I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that Remploy will have a crucial role over the coming period in ensuring that we provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We want not only to provide opportunities in its factories, but to ensure that we can progress people through the factory into open employment, so that we can start to deal with the discrimination that people have experienced in the labour market over many years.
Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South):
I welcome the steps that have been taken, but sometimes it is difficult to get what might be available through to people who require that help. Is the onus on the individual, or are the social security officers being trained to give guidance to those with disabilities as to the benefits and aids that might be available?
Ms Hodge:
I am working with my colleagues in the Department of Social Security to ensure that we get a joined up Government approach to ensuring employment opportunities for disabled people. I am also working with colleagues in the Department of Health, so that we can get that liaison going. We have special advisers in the Employment Service focusing on the employment needs of disabled people.
As well as educating those who work with disabled people in the public services, we hope to mount an information and education campaign among employers so that they can take advantage of the abilities that disabled people can offer in the workplace. The campaign will also encourage employers to open up job opportunities in their businesses to more disabled people.
8. Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover):
What new measures he plans to introduce to expand opportunities under the new deal; and if he will make a statement. [64043]
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. David Blunkett):
So far, 201,000 young people have entered the new deal programme and 52,500 have gone into work. In addition, we have introduced a new range of initiatives that includes the skills shortage pilot programme. Employers are able to access three quarters of the total amount available in subsidy if they are prepared to provide up-front, concentrated skills training. Also, 100,000 young people will benefit from the new mentoring programme, and the 28 new deal pilot programmes will help 90,000 people aged over 25.
All those measures mean that we can contribute to the phenomenal change that has taken place in the labour market. They also put into a reasonable context the opinions of the pundits about this week's figures for the number of people going into work and for the unemployment rate.
Mr. Skinner:
Can I suggest another idea to my right hon. Friend? He, like many Labour Members, will be aware that the local authority is often the largest employer in areas of high unemployment, so why not make more use of those authorities to implement the new deal? Unemployment is excessively high in some of the old colliery areas. Under the new deal scheme, new training centres could be established and run in co-operation with those local authorities. That would ensure that, in future, there would be people to mend the roads, repair the schools and so on. That would be a useful approach, and I hope that my right hon. Friend will take it on board.
Mr. Blunkett:
My hon. Friend is right. In replacing the old skill centres, we must look imaginatively at how the national traineeships that we are developing this year and the modern apprenticeship programme can directly impact on the skills that young people need to get into work. I am happy to assure my hon. Friend that my Department will study the way in which the national traineeships and the Employment Service new deal can be linked to build on the success that we have achieved in the task that we face.
Since the Government came to office, we have halved the number of young people under 25 out of work, compared with the total that we inherited from the Conservatives. That total was 178,000, and is now down to 88,000. I am sure that Conservative Members, even without our new numeracy programme, can do the sums necessary to see that the total has been cut by 50 per cent. We will be able to do even more if young people acquire the skills and training that my hon. Friend advocates.
Mr. Paul Keetch (Hereford):
Does not the Secretary of State agree that, given the enormous resources that have gone into the new deal programme, it is important that the House can be sure that the scheme is working as well as the Government want it to? Does he recall that page 12 of the Government's specification for the new deal programme for young people aged between 18 and
Mr. Blunkett:
I am sure that that forecast was contained in paragraph 3 of page 12. However, I think that the hon. Gentleman has missed the crucial point, which is that the key to ensuring that the value-for-money precepts built into the new deal programme are achieved is that the programme has a target for unsubsidised employment. The gateway proposals on providing advice, counselling and social skills have enabled that target to be achieved and, in fact, exceeded. The latest figures show that we reduced the claimant count for that particular group by 5,000 in December alone.
Mr. Andrew Reed (Loughborough):
While I warmly welcome the fantastic news about the number of young people who are now in employment, does my right hon. Friend agree that it is crucial to bring on line as quickly as possible assistance for those over 25 and, in particular, for people in their 40s who find themselves unemployed? We must accept that manufacturing jobs are being lost. For example, at Ladybird Books in my constituency 200 people will lose their jobs and, as they have been working on machines that are more than 30 years old, it will be extremely difficult for them to find work. Can we ensure that assistance is given to them as quickly as possible, so that they do not have to wait to become long-term unemployed before they get help from the new deal?
Mr. Blunkett:
I agree entirely that we need to be able to do that and I look forward to being able to expand on the pilot programmes that I mentioned, which will help 90,000 such individuals. It is a case not simply of the new deal, but of the whole programme from the Employment Service and the Department for Education and Employment, including the rapid response unit, which is moving in quickly where redundancies are declared, and working with the training and enterprise councils, employers and trade unions to ensure that we can immediately move those people into other opportunities for retraining or directly into jobs. Bearing in mind the fact that we face a challenge this winter, the success of that programme was exemplified in yesterday's figures.
Mr. Damian Green (Ashford):
The Secretary of State's claims for the new deal bear close scrutiny. In November, the Government said that they would spend £660 million in the coming financial year on the new deal. In December, the Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities claimed for the first time, as he repeated this morning, that each new deal job cost £1,000. With the benefit of the numeracy programme, the Secretary of State should be able to work out that that means that there will be 660,000 long-term unemployed young people later this year. Either the Chancellor's economic policy is even more disastrous than I thought, or that £1,000 figure is complete nonsense. Which is it?
Mr. Blunkett:
I was genuinely expecting more of an Oxford graduate.
Mr. Green:
Answer the question.
Mr. Blunkett:
I am about to do so. The calculations are sensible and take into account the fact that when
Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North):
Will my right hon. Friend join me to pay tribute to the staff of the Employment Service in Northampton, who have been taking new deal road shows round shopping centres, especially in places with a large number of single parents? They have done so jointly with staff from the Benefits Agency and have provided good advice and opportunities to single parents under the new deal programme. Will he ensure that such schemes are extended to other areas because they are an exercise in joined-up government, they provide real opportunities to lone parents and they also ensure that staff in Government agencies are encouraged to show initiative and imagination in the way in which they develop such programmes?
Mr. Blunkett:
I certainly agree with my hon. Friend and I congratulate those staff in Northampton who have developed that programme and worked together to make it successful. The child care initiative and the forthcoming working families tax credit, together with the announcement that the Secretary of State for Social Security and I made yesterday, which builds on the enormous amount of work that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities has done to draw up the gateway proposals, with advice, support, counselling and rehabilitation, will all contribute to making success a reality throughout the country.
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