---

New Deal (Age Restrictions)

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on his plans to modify age restrictions under the New Deal, indicating the date from which all changes will take effect and the categories of restrictions which will remain after limiting the payment of £10 per person per week above benefit levels for unemployed people taking up job opportunities on such schemes. [103299]

Ms Jowell: From April 2001, we intend to introduce a substantially strengthened New Deal for long-term unemployed people aged 25 and over, which will provide high quality, job-focused opportunities, including job search help, training and work experience. The detail of these arrangements will be decided in light of the lessons learned from the current New Deal 25 plus pilots. We are also reviewing the support available in England under work-based learning for adults to ensure that we meet the aim set out in the White Paper, "Learning to Succeed", that there should be greater coherence with other support for unemployed people, once responsibility has transferred to the Employment Service in April 2001. A similar review is being undertaken in Wales.

New Deal

Mr. Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many young people have participated in the New Deal in each region of the United Kingdom in the (a) current and (b) last year. [101301]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 6 December 1999]: The following table shows the number of young people who have started New Deal in each of the Employment Service regions in Great Britain. New Deal started in January 1998 in the first 12 Pathfinder areas, followed by the main roll out across Great Britain in April 1998. The 1999 figures are to the end of September.

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 47W

	1998	1999
Office for Scotland	22,617	17,095
Northern	16,073	11,010
North West	30,728	20,704
Yorkshire and Humber	25,783	16,802
Office for Wales	13,615	9,310
West Midlands	20,501	15,600
East Midlands and Eastern	17,913	12,782
South West	12,607	9,191
LASER	52,992	36,334
Great Britain total	212,829	148,828

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 48W

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the independent expert studies which he has commissioned into each of the New Deal programmes. [102102]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 9 December 1999]: We have an independent programme of evaluations of the New Deals. The independent studies which have been commissioned into each of the New Deal programmes are as follows:

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 47W

Evaluation studies	Independent contractor
	New Deal for young people
1. Qualitative Research with individuals:
(i) Pathfinder Gateway
(ii) Pathfinder Options
(iii) Pathfinder Follow-Through	National Centre for Social Research (NSCR)
(iv) National Gateway
(v) National Options
(vi) National Follow-Through
2. Quantitative Survey of individuals:
Stages 1 and 2	Policy Studies Institute/British Market Research Bureau
3. Case Studies of Delivery and Impact	Tavistock Institute
(i) Pathfinder Case Studies
(ii) National Case Studies
(iii) Audit of 30 Partnerships
4. Qualitative Research with employers Stages 1 and 2	NCSR
5. Quantitative Survey of employers	NCSR/Institute for Employment Research (IER)
6. Survey of Leavers to Unknown Destinations	NCSR
7. Evaluation of Intensive Gateway Trailblazers	Ecotec
8. Evaluation of New Deal for Musicians	Community Economic Development Associates
9. New Deal Gateway: A Labour Market Assessment	Institute for Employment Studies (IES)
10. Literature Review: Employers	Institute for Employment Research (IER)
11. Literature Review: Labour Market Programmes for Young People	Policy Studies Institute (PSI)
12. Macro-economic evaluation of the impact of NDYP on the labour market	PSI and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR)
	New Deal for the Long Term Unemployed
1. Quantitative Survey of individuals receiving pilot and national provision	PSI
2. Qualitative research with individuals in pilot and national areas	NCSR
3. Case Studies of implementation and delivery in national areas	Tavistock Institute
4. Case Studies of implementation and delivery in pilot areas	IES
5. Quantitative survey of participating employers in pilot and national areas	NCSR/IER
6. A macro-economic evaluation of the impact of NDLTU on the labour market	NIESR and PSI
	New Deal 50plus
	An extensive programme of research has been commissioned to assess the effectiveness of New Deal 50plus. It includes qualitative work with individuals and with Employment Service and Benefits Agency employees, a longitudinal survey of individuals and a qualitative survey of employers. All the work is being carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
	New Deal for Lone Parents
NDLP National Programme (Phase 3) Evaluation
(i) Qualitative research with Lone Parents (ii) Client Satisfaction Survey (iii) Case Studies on Delivery	Cragg, Ross, Dawson Martin Hamblin Research GHK Economics and Management
(iv) Employer Research	NCSR
(v) Quantitative research with lone parents	(contractor to be confirmed)
(vi) Macro-evaluation	(contractor to be confirmed)
NDLP Phase 3 Innovative Pilots Evaluation
(i) Evaluation of Innovative Pilots	Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) Sheffield Hallam University
	New Deal for Partners of the Unemployed
	No contractors have yet been appointed for the evaluations of New Deal for Partners of the Unemployed (voluntary programme) or for NDPU Joint Claims for JSA.

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 47W

Mr. Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many long-term unemployed people who have entered the New Deal have found full-time employment in each of the past two years. [101311]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 6 December 1999]: In 1998, 62,900 young people gained employment from the New Deal for young people and 6,300 under the New

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 48W

Deal for long-term unemployed people aged 25 and over. To September 1999, the equivalent figures for this year are 92,700 and 20,500 respectively.

Professor Barber

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on what date Professor

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 49W

Barber gave a presentation to a group of officials in the Education Department in Washington DC; and what were the names of the officials who attended. [103140]

Ms Estelle Morris: Professor Barber gave a presentation to a group of officials from the Education Department in Washington DC on 11 August 1999. The seminar, which was organised by Emma Harrell on behalf of Terry Peterson, Counselor to the Secretary of Education, allowed an informal, round-table exchange of ideas with officials from the US Department of Education. Roughly 12-15 officials attended. No formal record of attendance was kept but those invited were:

Michael Smith--Acting Deputy Secretary of Education


Michael Cohen--Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education


Susan Frost--Special Advisor to the Secretary, Office of the Secretary


Terry Dozier--Special Advisor on Teaching, Office of the Secretary


Carol Rasco--Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Director of America Reads Challenge, Office of the Secretary


Judith Johnson--Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education


Kent McGuire--Assistant Secretary, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

Alan Ginsburg--Planning and Evaluation Service Director, Office of the Secretary


William Kincaid--Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education


Jim Kohlmoos--Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education


Susan Wilhelm--Education Program Specialist, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education


Patricia McNeil--Assistant Secretary, Office of Vocational Adult Education


Linda Roberts--Director of Education Technology, Office of the Deputy Secretary


Mario Moreno--Assistant Secretary, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs


Menahem Herman--Partnership for Family Involvement in Education Coordinator, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs


Judith Heumann--Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services


Lenore Garcia--International Affairs Director, Office of the Under Secretary.

If we are to create a truly world-class education service, it is vital that we have a broad international perspective against which to benchmark our levels of achievement. It is important to keep in touch with, and learn from, best practice and innovations from abroad. The USA, because of its size and diversity, provides many instructive examples.

---