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Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of the merits of carrying out a review of the future of the Bachelor of Education course; and if he will make a statement. [260946]

Jim Knight: The Department has given no consideration to the need to carry out a review of the future of the Bachelor of Education course. Undergraduate teacher training courses remain an important route for training school teachers.

Young People: Unemployment

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of people aged 16 to 24 years were not in education, employment or training in (a) 1997 and (b) each of the last eight quarters for which figures are available, broken down by region. [254534]

Mr. Simon: I have been asked to reply.

The following tables show estimates of the number and percentage of people aged⁽¹⁾ 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training (NEET) for regions in England. These estimates are from the labour force survey (LFS).

We are unable to provide NEET estimates for 1997 as all the data necessary to produce them are not available on datasets prior to quarter 2 2000, therefore we have given the earliest data possible for reference.

⁽¹⁾ Age used is the respondent’s academic age, which is defined as their age at the preceding 31 August.

Not in education, employment or training (NEET) by region, age 16 to 24
Number
	Q 2 2000	Q1 2007	Q2 2007	Q3 2007	Q4 2007	Q1 2008	Q2 2008	Q3 2008	Q4 2008
England	655,000	828,000	833,000	909,000	782,000	810,000	840,000	973,000	857,000
North East	62,000	48,000	47,000	52,000	49,000	52,000	56,000	65,000	54,000
North West	93,000	127,000	134,000	144,000	120,000	136,000	139,000	151,000	142,000
Yorks and Humber	74,000	97,000	92,000	105,000	82,000	75,000	101,000	119,000	92,000
East Midlands	60,000	72,000	66,000	81,000	70,000	69,000	71,000	86,000	68,000
West Midlands	75,000	111,000	107,000	111,000	93,000	95,000	98,000	119,000	105,000
East of England	52,000	76,000	84,000	92,000	74,000	87,000	77,000	82,000	79,000
London	130,000	119,000	130,000	136,000	123,000	129,000	132,000	149,000	131,000
South East	67,000	107,000	112,000	125,000	116,000	104,000	111,000	131,000	122,000
South West	42,000	70,000	61,000	63,000	56,000	63,000	55,000	71,000	63,000

Percentage
	Q 2 2000	Q1 2007	Q2 2007	Q3 2007	Q4 2007	Q1 2008	Q2 2008	Q3 2008	Q4 2008
England	12.8	14.1	14.2	15.4	13.1	13.6	14.0	16.2	14.2
North East	22.6	15.2	14.6	16.4	15.3	16.2	17.4	19.6	16.7
North West	13.2	15.2	16.1	17.3	14.2	16.1	16.2	17.6	16.8
Yorks and Humber	14.3	14.5	13.9	15.9	12.3	11.3	15.1	17.8	13.6
East Midlands	13.7	13.8	12.8	15.1	13.0	13.1	13.4	15.9	12.8
West Midlands	13.6	18.0	17.4	17.6	14.7	15.0	15.6	18.7	16.4
East of England	10.2	12.8	14.1	15.2	12.1	14.1	12.5	13.5	12.9
London	14.9	13.8	15.1	15.7	14.2	14.8	14.5	16.5	14.6
South East	8.5	12.0	12.4	14.0	12.8	11.5	12.1	14.4	13.2
South West	9.2	12.7	11.1	11.2	9.8	10.9	9.7	12.7	11.1

Youth Services

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many of the myplace projects approved by his Department are to be managed by local authorities. [261746]

Beverley Hughes: To date, “myplace” funding of £240 million has been awarded to 62 projects. 33 of those projects are local authority (LA) led, however one of these LA-led projects has presented plans to transfer management to the third sector once the capital delivery phase is complete, leaving 32 projects that we expect to be managed by LAs.

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department plans to provide support to the 24 June 2009 national round table on detached youth work. [261853]

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Beverley Hughes: The Department is aware that the Federation of Detached Youth workers are planning to hold an event on 24 June. The Federation has not extended an invitation to the Department.

Youth Services: Public Consultation

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many young people were involved in consultations on each of his Department’s myplace projects; on what dates these consultations took place; and how many young people are directly involved in the management of each of the approved projects. [261744]

Beverley Hughes: All ‘myplace’ projects have demonstrated that young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, have been and will be active participants in the design, development and management of the new facility.

9 Mar 2009 : Column 208W

The Big Lottery Fund reports that it is disproportionate to cost to provide specific information at this notice about how many young people were involved in consultations on each of ‘myplace’ projects; the dates the consultations took place; and how many young people are directly involved in the management of each of the projects. The Big Lottery Fund is able to report that ‘myplace’ projects have engaged thousands of young people across the country through a variety of methods including local youth parliaments, councils or neighbourhood forums; through open consultation events, surveys and focus groups; and through their attendance at existing projects. ‘myplace’ projects have also demonstrated that young people will continue to influence directly the ongoing management of the new facility. Proposed approaches include the use of youth forums, young people sitting directly on management committees, establishing shadow youth boards, appointing a young person as the project’s assistant director and passing the governance of the whole project over to young people through the creation of a youth-led trust.

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