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Young Long-term Unemployed
4. Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster, Central): What steps he is taking to improve provision for the long-term unemployed aged 25 years and over. [123336]
The Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (Ms Tessa Jowell): The new deal for those who are 25-plus has already helped 40,000 long-term unemployed people into jobs. There are now 55,000 fewer people unemployed for 18 months or more than there were in May 1997, but there is more to do. From April next year, we intend to build on the success of the new deal for young people and increase
significantly our investment in the new deals for older people facing long-term unemployment by giving them personal advice and high-quality practical assistance to help them to move back into work.
Ms Winterton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that, even though the employment zone in Doncaster has been up and running for only about a month, it has been extremely successful in getting long-term unemployed people over 25 back to work? However, at present those who can benefit from the scheme are selected randomly and I should be grateful for her assurance that, if it continues to be as successful as it is at the moment, the scheme will be extended to all long-term unemployed people in the zone.
Ms Jowell: I thank my hon. Friend for that question and her congratulations on the early success of the employment zone. Random assignment is being used to ensure that the new approach succeeds in getting more of those facing long-term unemployment back into work more quickly. As soon as that success is clearly established, the extra support and help available to some of her constituents will be available generally.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York): Does the Minister agree that the new deal--one of the actions taken to support long-term unemployed over-25s--has been a failure, not least in North Yorkshire? Will she join me in recognising that the burdens on employers are disproportionate and increase the cost of employing over-25s?
Ms Jowell: The Opposition have been persistently hostile to the new deal--a programme that, according to independent evaluation, is getting young and older people off benefit and into work. They have always been indifferent to the fate of the long-term unemployed, hostile to the new deal and hostile to our Government's objective of opportunity for all in return for responsibility from all.
Mr. Derek Foster (Bishop Auckland): It is welcome news indeed that the success of the new deal for 18 to 24-year-olds is drawing out important lessons for beefing up the new deal for over-25s. My right hon. Friend will recall that the recent Education and Employment Select Committee report identified transport as one of the most important factors in enabling people looking for work to get to where the jobs are. What progress is she making--with my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and with local authorities--to that end?
Ms Jowell: My right hon. Friend raises an important point. Since I appeared before the Select Committee, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have launched a further stage of the travelcard for new dealers, offering half-price travel to enable young people to get to work. We are looking to extend the travel-to-interview scheme and the new job grant will begin to remove some of the obstacles that travel presents. We are determined to remove the obstacles to people getting to jobs. We are extending help to disadvantaged people, extending the opportunity of work and taking the practical action that that requires.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): Given that 81 per cent. of participants in the new deal for over-25s are on
the advisory process, 45 per cent. leave the scheme to claim jobseeker's allowance, 9 per cent. go to work-based learning, 3 per cent. go to the training and education option, 25 per cent. go to destinations unknown and, in its two years of operation, only 14 per cent. have managed to achieve sustained employment, why does the right hon. Lady not admit that no Government have ever promised so much, delivered so little and blown their own trumpet with such indecent haste?
Ms Jowell: Well, just tell that to the 40,000 people who have already found work as a result of the new deal for over-25s. We will take no lessons from an Opposition who have always been hostile to helping unemployed people into work and who have tried to thwart everything that the Government have done to extend the advantage and opportunity of work to the unemployed. We are building on the success of the new deal for young people, building on the help with basic skills, numeracy and literacy and preparation for work and removing the practical obstacles that many long-term unemployed people face in getting to work. We are investing six times more in the help that will be available to the long-term unemployed to get them into work. We want the over-25s to get work, and more than 200,000 young people have successfully moved off benefit and into work through the new deal.
Employment Service Direct
5. Mrs. Helen Brinton (Peterborough): How many jobseekers have secured employment through Employment Service Direct. [123337]
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. David Blunkett): Employment Service Direct is part of a £68 million modernisation programme, which uses old technology in the form of a telephone, and new technology in the form of touch screens, to enable people to access the jobs that are available when they need them. Since it was launched last year, 50,000 people a week have used the service and 82,000 have found jobs through it. Those 82,000 are among the almost 1 million people who have got a job since the Government were elected, but did not have a job when Conservative Members were in power.
Mrs. Brinton: I am grateful for that reply. I was pleased to learn from my local district manager that jobseekers perceive the service as successful. It means that they do not have to trot out to the jobcentre to access employment. There are also many hotlines in the community through which people can access jobs. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the excellent new service will not only get more people into the job market but increase jobs mobility? That is what we want.
Mr. Blunkett: The service is part of a more adaptable and flexible labour market, which works in the interests of growth with low inflation, and offers opportunities that did not previously exist. It is part of the development of the new learning and work bank, which will link learning opportunities and skills to the jobs that are available, help people to prepare their CVs and enable employers to access employees and call them for interview. The service is also more than that. It contributes to the employment
service's ability to reach out to those who previously sat at home, waiting for someone to find them a job. It means that we can not only draw people into the jobcentre and help them, but work outwards from the jobcentre to ensure that, wherever there is a vacancy, a person is ready and able to fill it.
Mr. Christopher Chope (Christchurch): Why then did the Government close down the successful job clubs? What advice has the Secretary of State for my 58-year-old disabled constituent who has been out of work for two years, but was previously helped back into employment by the Conservative Government's job club scheme? Why does not the Secretary of State believe that that would help in the case that I described?
Mr. Blunkett: Because we replaced what was available with the new deal for those aged over 50 and the new deal for disabled people. They provide a personal adviser service, and a service tailored to the needs of individuals. The personal adviser service provides what were previously job club activities, such as showing people how to write a letter, make a phone call or prepare a CV. The new programme has been much more successful in getting the long-term unemployed and the disadvantaged into work.
Higher Education (Ethnic Minority Access)
6. Dr. Ian Gibson (Norwich, North): What plans he has to ensure that members of ethnic minority groups have equal access to higher education. [123338]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Malcolm Wicks): Ethnic minority students are generally well represented in higher education, although some groups still give cause for concern. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently announced a further £4 million to enhance the £18 million allocated to students from disadvantaged areas. Many of those from the ethnic communities will benefit from those measures.
I congratulate the many universities that reach out to different communities. For example, London Guildhall has excellent links with the local Bengali community. The university of East London also does good work. There is good work from universities throughout the country.
Dr. Gibson: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Is he aware of the Dearing report, which, in 1997, highlighted the persistently low participation of specific ethnic groups in the pre-1992 university system? Does he know that entry applications for 2000-01 show that the position has not improved and that percentages have decreased in some ethnic areas? Does my hon. Friend know that ethnic groups are concentrated in specific post-1992 universities, and that Dearing identified one of the reasons for that as their ethnic-friendly policies? Will he ensure that the pre-1992 universities also have such policies and do not carry a tag of institutional racism?
Mr. Wicks: It is vital that all our education institutions, including all our universities, have equal opportunities policies--not just pieces of paper, but practice to back them up. In my constituency, one third of the people are from the various ethnic communities. Increasingly,
we need to look at the individual communities, rather than the aggregate, because the experience of access to universities and other institutions is very different. Of course, our universities need to be sophisticated. I am not complacent, but the numbers going to universities from ethnic communities in general have increased. We still have a lot to do.
Mr. Peter Brooke (Cities of London and Westminster): Does the Minister accept that those of us who attend graduation ceremonies at universities in London and outside are constantly and favourably impressed by the number of members of ethnic minorities who have secured higher education qualifications, under both the present Government and the previous one?
Mr. Wicks: Of course, we congratulate those young people, their families and their teachers. However, I am concerned that young men from the African-Caribbean community, many of whom have great ability and are working well in the schools, tend to be under-represented in many of our universities. That is one area in which we are not complacent; there is still much to do.
Mr. Ian Pearson (Dudley, South): Does my hon. Friend agree that getting a place at university should be based on ability and what one knows, not on having a toffee nose and a public school education? I urge him to continue to put pressure on universities to do more to improve access. Will he consider carefully the proposals from the Sutton Trust about how the Government can help in that process?
Mr. Wicks: The Sutton Trust, for which we all have great regard, produced its report this week. It tells us that the chance of getting into a top 13 university is approximately 25 times greater if one comes from an independent school than if one comes from a lower class or lives in a poor area. We are working on that, with summer schools and bursaries from the universities for many of those youngsters, and we are working with universities, many of which are doing good work. Indeed, many at Oxford are doing good work. That is what we should encourage. We should move on and make sure that each and every one of our young people, whether rich or poor, black or white, from north or south, has a good chance, with good A-levels, to get into our good universities.
Mr. Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough): Does the Minister agree that one of the problems with black Afro-Caribbean boys in particular is that they are four times more likely to be excluded from school, and therefore not to participate in the education service or go to university? What is the Minister doing about that? Will he comment on the College of Law research published this week, which shows that black and Asian students graduating from university are 30 per cent. less likely to find a place in a law firm than their white counterparts? Surely that is a disgrace at the other end of the market.
Mr. Wicks: I certainly understand the last point, and none of us is complacent about the extent of racial discrimination in this country. It has implications not only for Government, but for many institutions, including those connected with the law.
With regard to exclusions, there is a difficulty, but the numbers are improving. I am aware that not only our Department, but many schools and local authorities are working extremely hard on that issue. We need to work with parents, families and mentors in the community to get it right. We can play a major role. Education maintenance allowances will enable more children this summer to think about staying on in education. Much remains to be done--it is a big issue and we are working on it.
Mr. Tony McWalter (Hemel Hempstead): Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the key elements of the problem is that the funding basis of the further education college system, which is such an important gateway to higher education, was highly fragmented? Much still needs to be done to ensure that that conduit to higher education is made more effective than it was under the previous Government.
Mr. Wicks: I agree with my hon. Friend. That is why we are legislating for new learning and skills councils from April next year. The 47 local councils will be responsive to local needs and demands--the needs of business and employers, and also the needs of individuals--to make sure that demand and need lead the system.
We have invested record amounts in further education, because we regard it as a sector for the 21st century. We must ensure that it plays a major role in both social inclusion agendas and the economic development of local communities.
Mrs. Theresa May (Maidenhead): Magdalen college, Oxford, has offered three ethnic minority candidates places to read medicine this autumn, in preference to other applicants. As the Prime Minister has refused to do so, will the Minister now repeat the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement that that is an absolute scandal?
Mr. Wicks: I have great affection for the hon. Lady, but she is a poor substitute for Jeremy Paxman.
Mr. Wicks: People should have equal chances of getting into our best universities, whatever their socio-economic status. At present, many children who secure top A-levels do not have those equal chances. It is a scandal that we have that inequality in Britain. The difference between us and the Opposition is that we think that it is a scandal and we are going to do something about it by applying practical measures. The Opposition are complacent. They concern themselves with the elite, while we are concerned with all children.
Mrs. May: The Minister speaks of the standard of entrants. The Government have said that they want places at medical schools to be ring-fenced for certain categories of students. People would prefer their doctors to have been selected on the basis of merit rather than political correctness. Given that rhetoric and waffle are now attracting slow handclaps from middle England, will the Minister set aside the waffle and set out for the House
exactly what the Government are suggesting, and whether it involves dropping standards of entry for medical students?
Mr. Wicks: It certainly does not. Given the Prime Minister's clear target--to expand universities so that 50 per cent. of our young people have access to university education--there will be excellent places, with quality maintained, for all children with decent A-levels: yes, from the private sector, and yes, from the public sector. It is crucial for us to get the best in our universities. At present, as the Sutton Trust has demonstrated, too much talent from working-class communities is being wasted. We are determined to redress the position.
The hon. Lady may not like that answer. I may not receive a pot of jam from her.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): Sexist!
Mr. Wicks: It is not at all sexist. I know that the hon. Gentleman's application to join the Women's Institute was declined, and I can see why. What I said was not sexist at all. I will take a pot of jam from the hon. Gentleman, or from other hon. Gentlemen.
We are concerned about equal access to our top universities. That is what our party is about, and as a Government we are working on achieving it.
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