§ 47. Mrs Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment what financial and manpower resources the Manpower Services Commission now has to help unemployed school leavers.
§ Mr. Jim LesterHelp for unemployed school leavers is available under the youth opportunities programme. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that £183 million has been allocated to this programme for 1980–81. It is not possible to say what proportion of this amount will be spent on school leavers, but the current undertaking to school leavers has been retained; all those school leavers who have not found a job by Easter 1981 will be offered a suitable place in YOP. There are approximately 1,200 staff involved in the special programmes division of the Manpower Services Commission, which runs the youth opportunities programme together with the special temporary employment programme in those areas where it operates. The employment service division of the MSC has a general responsibility for placing in employment those unemployed school leavers who are registered with them, and in addition recruits appropriate young people to special programmes.