European Union Committee - Ninth Report
Making it work: the European Social Fund

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Here you can browse the report which was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 23 March 2010.

CONTENTS

Terms of Reference

Summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

Aims and objectives of the European Social Fund

The context of our inquiry

Box 1: Europe 2020 Strategy—a successor to Lisbon

Our rationale

Facts and Figures  

Box 2: ESF Allocations, 2007-13 programme

Rules and Regulations

Our inquiry

Chapter 2: The ESF in practice

Experience with the ESF

Box 3: ESF projects in London visited by Sub-Committee G

Targeting the "hardest to reach in the labour market"

Box 4: The hardest to reach in the labour market

Challenges faced by the Third Sector

Green skills

Lower and higher level skills

Box 5: The skills hierarchy

Box 6: "Unlocking Cornish Potential"

Additionality

How is additionality assured?

Publicising the ESF

Technical Assistance (TA)

The future: ESF transitional arrangements for termination of the Learning and Skills Council

Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 3: Measuring the effectiveness of the ESF

How is effectiveness measured?

How easy is it to assess effectiveness?

Soft and hard outcomes

Box 7: Soft and hard outcomes

Box 8: Longitudinal Cohort Surveys

Administrative requirements

Possible improvements

Auditing problems

Conclusions and recommendations

Chapter 4: Flexibility of the ESF

Overall flexibility of the Fund

Policy flexibility

Box 9: Commission's proposed changes in response to economic challenges

Box 10: Response to Redundancy

Regional variation

Speed of response

The financial crisis and the flexibility of the ESF

Conclusions and recommendations

Chapter 5: Future of the ESF

The policy landscape

Future policy orientation

Future financing of the ESF

Box 11: The Budget Review and the UK Rebate

Future alignment of the Structural Funds

Box 12: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and alignment with the ESF

Conclusions and recommendations

Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations

Appendix 1: Sub-Committee G (Social Policy and Consumer Affairs)

Appendix 2: List of Witnesses

Appendix 3: Site Visits

Appendix 4: Call for Evidence

Oral and Written Evidence

5 November 2009

19 November 2009

26 November 2009

10 December 2009

7 January 2010

14 January 2010

21 January 2010

28 January 2010

2 February 2010

Written Evidence

NOTE: References in the text of the report are as follows:

(Q) refers to a question in oral evidence

(p) refers to a page of written evidence

The Report of the Committee is published in Volume I, HL Paper No 92-I

The Evidence of the Committee is published in Volume II, HL Paper No 92-II

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