Restart Programme (Hansard, 31 March 1987)

§ Lord Sandys
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Lord Young of Graffham)
My Lords, we have no means of knowing precisely what percentage of those people who attend a Restart counselling interview go into employment. Some are placed directly following their Restart interview, but others will have found jobs after 455 taking up one or more of the opportunities offered at the Restart interview, such as jobclubs or training courses.

§ Lord Sandys
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Does he agree that the considerable resources to assist people in this programme are deployed in such a way as to ensure that those who are out of employment for more than two years have the best possible chance to return to their field?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, we have recently extended the Restart programme so that from Easter it will give counselling interviews to those who have been unemployed for six months, and then at six monthly intervals. Restart is not an employment programme as such. In reality it is a gateway to the 30 or more programmes which my department runs as a means of getting people who have lost their motivation to look for work back looking for work and undertaking training.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, I recognise that Restart is only an introduction or discussion course. As this is the appropriate time to ask, can the Minister give a figure for those who train on government schemes and then find employment? I recognise that the Minister realises that, without a job at the end of the day, training is quite useless. Can he give a general figure?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, it has not been the practice of my department to keep detailed statistics of those who go through training programmes or jobclubs and then into employment. At the end of the day everyone in your Lordships' House can look at the programmes as a whole and at the progress that the figures show.

§ Baroness Lockwood
My Lords, can the Secretary of State tell us whether the area manpower boards keep the statistics to which the Question refers? If monitoring is undertaken at that level, is it not possible for the national figures to be made available?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, it is not a question of the area manpower boards, which have all the information that is available to the Manpower Services Commission. It is the very nature of Restart itself. People who have been out of work for six months or more now, but formerly for over a year, are interviewed and an attempt is made to persuade them that it would be sensible to go to a jobclub, to take a training programme or go on one of the variety of programmes which we have. It would be intensely bureaucratic to keep details of the progress of all these people. But let me say this. Next week I hope to be opening the 1,000th jobclub. So far, jobclubs are maintaining their record that over two-thirds of those leaving go to jobs.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, can the noble Lord say what is the next stage for someone who is unable to gain permanent employment? What advice would he give to that individual?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, it would be simply to keep trying. The one thing that we have 456 found as a result of Restart is that it is very easy to give up and that it is not impossible to find work even for those who have been out of work for a very long time. The market is changing. The entire jobclub experience has shown that thousands of people are going to fill vacancies not one of which has ever been notified to a jobcentre. There are opportunities available if people seek them.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, does the noble Lord recall that only last Thursday, in answer to a Question to me, he said: If the noble Lord wishes to ask me how many people go into employment as a result of Restart, he may put down a Question". [Official Report, 26/3/87; col. 291.] In making that comment was the noble Lord trying to waste the time of the House?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, the noble Lord is a very good judge as to who wastes the time of your Lordships' House.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, will the noble Lord answer my question? He invited me to put down a Question, which he has told the House this afternoon he is unable to answer and does not intend to answer. Why in that case did he invite me to put down the Question?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, it is not a case of being unwilling to answer. It is not a Question that is capable of an answer in the terms in which the noble Lord, Lord Hatch of Lusby, wishes me to do so. This is a gateway programme. It is a programme which is as much a part of marketing our programmes as television advertising. We have found but one simple fact: it is no good having an enormous range of programmes at considerable public expenditure without ensuring that those who are out of work are aware of them. We have tried advertising and it has worked, but by far the most successful method has been Restart which has brought the opportunities that are available directly to people's attention. I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Hatch of Lusby, did not have to put down this Question. He can listen to my answer today; it will save him the bother of tabling a Question.