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Remploy

Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what targets Remploy has been set in its 2000-01 Annual Performance Agreement. [133781]

Ms Hodge: I have, on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, written to the Chairman of Remploy approving the 2000-01 Annual Performance Agreement between the Department and the Company. This agreement covers the year from 1 April 2000. It has been negotiated by the Chief Executive of the Employment Service on behalf of my right hon. Friend. The targets are:

the average number of disabled people employed by Remploy Ltd. will be 10,400;

the average number of disabled people employed under the Interwork scheme will be 4,400;

the average number of progressions will increase to 700;

Remploy Ltd. will maintain a total unit cost target (operating deficit per disabled worker) of £9,600.

I have today arranged for the text of the Annual Performance Agreement to be placed in the Library.

Special Educational Needs

Mr. Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he will publish findings from the first stage of the Quinquennial Review of the Special Educational Needs Tribunal. [133785]

Jacqui Smith: The Prior Options stage of the Quinquennial Review of the Special Educational Needs Tribunal is now complete. The review team found clear support for a formal system of resolving disputes between local education authorities and parents in relation to the special educational needs of children. The SEN Tribunal is seen as the most appropriate body to deliver that function.

The Prior Options Review has, however, raised a number of issues in relation to the Tribunal and these will be considered in Stage 2 of the review. Stage 2 will begin shortly. Issues to be considered will include performance, quality of service and financial controls and systems.

A full report of the Prior Options stage will be published within the next two weeks. Copies will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and will be sent to key stakeholders and contributors to the consultation exercise. It will also be available on the DfEE website.

Employment Service

Mr. Anthony D. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what sustainable employment target will be set for the Employment Service in 2000-01. [133804]

Mr. Blunkett: I am today announcing that I have set the Employment Service a new target as part of their Annual Performance Agreement. It will measure sustainable employment in two pilot regions (ES' Northern region and Wales), and will be set at a level of 67 per cent. The Employment Service will aim to ensure that 67 per cent. of long-term JSA claimants remain off JSA 13 weeks after starting a job. In addition to the challenging goals that I have already announced, the

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setting of a stretching but realistic pilot target on sustainable employment will help the Employment Service to maintain the very high levels of performance that I expect of it.

The new target is contained in Objective A of the Annual Performance Agreement text which follows.

Performance Requirements

Vision and Purpose

The Employment Service aims to make a major contribution to an efficient and flexible labour market and to the Government's objectives of high and stable employment growth, equality of opportunity and social inclusion. ES works closely with employers and with its private, voluntary and public sector partners to provide a quality service for all people without a job and to promote employment opportunities for all who can work. It aims to attract a diverse range of vacancies and to fill those vacancies quickly by matching the right people and skills with the right jobs. Its chief priority is to help individuals facing particular difficulty in the labour market to move from welfare and economic inactivity into sustainable employment. It does this through correct application of the Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) regime, delivery of the New Deals and the pilot ONE service, and provision of appropriate information, advice, training and support. The Agency has achieved much over the past three years. The challenge and opportunity now facing it is to sustain continuous improvement in its services to jobseekers and employers and to make those services more accessible and relevant to customer needs, through effective use of modern technology and close working with a wide range of partners.

Aim

To help people without jobs to find work and employers to fill their vacancies.

Objectives and Targets


Objective A:

To help all people without jobs, and particularly those on welfare and at a disadvantage in the labour market, to find and keep work by providing appropriate information, advice, training and support and by encouraging employers to open more opportunities to them.

Targets

A1: To help 178,000 participants in the New Deals and Employment Zones into work, directly or in partnership with others.

A2: To help 100,000 people with disabilities into work, directly or in partnership with others.

A3: To help 295,000 disadvantaged jobseekers into work, directly or partnership with others.

A4: To help 735,000 people from welfare into work, directly or in partnership with others.

A5: To help 1,325,000 jobless people into work, directly or in partnership with others.

A6: Pilot target for Wales and Northern region: for 67 per cent. of long term JSA claimants to be off benefit 13 weeks after starting a job.

Objective B:

To ensure that the rights and relevant labour market responsibilities of people on JSA and other benefits are fulfilled, while helping to combat fraud and abuse of the benefit system.

Target

B1: To ensure that the relevant labour market responsibilities of people on JSA are fulfilled in 90 per cent. for cases checked.

Objective C:

To harness new technology, the pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement to deliver effective, efficient and accessible services to all people without jobs and to employers, in Jobcentres and increasingly through other locations and means of communication.

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Targets

C1: To achieve a 90 per cent. customer service level for jobseekers.

C2: To achieve a 80 per cent. customer service level for employers.

Milestone Targets

Modernising the Employment Service

ES will be introducing an Internet based Learning and Work Bank, a new Labour Market computer System, touch screen kiosks for jobseekers to access job vacancies and a single national telephone number for employers by March 2001.

Work Based Learning for Adults

The Employment Service will be working towards the successful transfer of Work Based Learning for Adults from Training and Enterprise Councils to the Employment Service in England by April 2001 to form part of a coherent package of support for unemployed adults.

Objective D:

To deliver services to all ES customers in a way which respects individual differences, helps to overcome disadvantages due to ethnicity, gender, age or disability and achieves the best possible outcome for each of them.

Schools (Barnet)

Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the conclusion of the discussions his Department has had with Barnet Local Education Authority on its failure to pass on the full increase of 5.4 per cent. in standard spending assessment for education to schools in this year's budget. [133296]

Ms Estelle Morris: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library.

New Deal

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what his Department's criteria are for judging an entrant to New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds to be functionally illiterate; [128819]

(2) what percentage of entrants to the New Deal for Young People are functionally illiterate; and what was the percentage when the national New Deal was established. [128820]

Ms Jowell: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library.

Dr. Strang: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many people were on the New Deal for (a) People over 50, (b) Jobseekers with Disabilities, (c) Disabled People and (d) Partners of Unemployed People in (i) Great Britain, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Edinburgh and (iv) Edinburgh East and Musselburgh at the end of March; [132730]

(2) how many people in total had entered the New Deal for (a) People over 50, (b) Jobseekers with Disabilities, (c) Disabled People and (d) Partners of Unemployed People in (i) Great Britain, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Edinburgh and (iv) Edinburgh East and Musselburgh at the end of March; [132731]

(3) how many people (a) had entered, (b) were on and (c) had left the New Deal for (i) People over 50, (ii) Jobseekers with Disabilities, (iii) Disabled People and (iv) Partners of Unemployed People in (1) Great Britain,

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(2) Scotland, (3) Edinburgh and (4) Edinburgh East and Musselburgh at the end of March; and if he will break down the figure for people who have left by immediate destination. [132732]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 27 July 2000]: I will write to my right hon. Friend and place a copy of my letter in the Library.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people (a) are on placements with the New Deal for Young People and (b) have found a permanent position through the New Deal for Young People, in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland. [133063]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 27 July 2000]: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library.

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list, from the beginning of August 1999 to the latest date for which figures are available, by unit of delivery, the number and percentage of those who have left the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds before taking up one of the options, from the beginning of August 1999 to the latest date for which figures are available. [132322]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 24 July 2000]: The New Deal tables placed in the Library each month give quarterly figures on the number of young people who leave the New Deal before starting an option, by Unit of Delivery.

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what comparison was carried out between (a) the Pathfinder areas for the New Deal for Young People from January 1998 to April 1998 and (b) areas in which the New Deal was not in operation. [131186]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 18 July 2000]: The New Deal for Young People is the subject of probably the most comprehensive programme of evaluation ever undertaken of a UK labour market initiative. The continuing qualitative and quantitative evaluation was carried out both in Pathfinder areas and nationally. The evaluation includes surveys of individuals and employers and case studies of delivery and impact, as well as a macro- evaluation of the impact of the New Deal on the wider economy and on the labour market. The evaluation studies are underpinned by monitoring information which tracks individuals through New Deal and indefinitely thereafter.

Pathfinders started in January 1998 to test processes and procedures prior to national implementation in April 1998; there were therefore no direct comparisons made between Pathfinders and non-Pathfinder areas in that period. However lessons learnt from the Pathfinders were reflected in the operation of the New Deal when it was introduced nationally.

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list, from the beginning of August 1999 to the latest date for which the figures are available, by unit of delivery (a) the number of those who have completed the full-time education and training option of the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds and (b) the percentage of these who have left to sustained unsubsidised jobs. [132324]

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Ms Jowell [holding answer 24 July 2000]: Comprehensive information on whether young people left their options having completed them or before having done so is not collected in that form. The New Deal aims to help unemployed people to move as quickly as possible from welfare into a job. Many young people will leave their New Deal options before completing them because they have found jobs in the regular labour market and are no longer unemployed. Young people do not therefore need to complete their New Deal options in order to succeed in the programme.

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 12 January 2000, Official Report, column 168W, to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis), on the New Deal, how many people joined the full-time education and training option of the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds from the beginning of August 1999 to the latest date for which figures are available, by unit of delivery; how many and what percentage of these (a) completed their courses before leaving the New Deal, (b) left their courses before completing them and (c) left at any stage for unknown destinations. [132323]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 24 July 2000]: The New Deal tables placed in the Library each month give quarterly figures on the starts to the Full-Time Education and Training option by Unit of Delivery.

Comprehensive information on whether young people left their options having completed them or before having done so is not collected in that form. The New Deal aims to help unemployed people to move as quickly as possible from welfare into a job. Many young people will leave their New Deal options before completing them because they have found jobs in the regular labour market and are no longer unemployed. Young people do not therefore need to complete their New Deal options in order to succeed in the programme.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many young unemployed people living in Greater London have benefited from the New Deal. [132636]

Ms Jowell: The latest figures to April 2000 show that 72,050 young unemployed people have benefited from the New Deal in Greater London.

Dr. Strang: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people in (a) Edinburgh and (b) Scotland were on (i) the 18 to 24 New Deal Gateway, (ii) each of the 18 to 24 New Deal options and (iii) follow-through at the end of March. [132660]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 27 July 2000]: At the end of March 2000 the information on the status of participants on the New Deal for Young People in Scotland and Edinburgh is contained in the following table:

	Scotland	Edinburgh
On the 18-24 New Deal Gateway at the end of March	6,843	447
Total on a New Deal option	5,770	264
Employer	1,611	71
Full time education/training	1,900	90
Voluntary sector	1,098	60
Environment Task Force	1,161	43
On Follow Through	2,502	116

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Dr. Strang: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people on the 25 plus New Deal in (a) Scotland and (b) Great Britain (i) found unsubsidised jobs through the Advisory Interview Process and (ii) transferred to other provision in March. [132661]

Ms Jowell [holding answer 27 July 2000]: In March 2000 the number of people on the New Deal for long term unemployed people aged 25 over, who found unsubsidised jobs through the Advisory Interview Process was 180 in Scotland and 2,200 in Great Britain. The number of people who transferred to other provision (i.e. benefits, subsidised employment, education and training opportunities and Work based Learning for Adults) was 379 in Scotland and 3,700 in Great Britain.

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