YTS FUNDING 1987–88 (Hansard, 3 December 1986)

§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Lord Young of Graffham)

I received last week the Manpower Services Commission's recommendations on the funding arrangements to apply in YTS in 1987–88, and I have today approved all the Commission's recommendations.

There will be no change in the management fee of £110 per place per year or in the basic grant of £160 per filled place per month. Special grants payable in addition to the basic grant will increase as follows (all the rates below are per filled place per month):

	1986–87	1987–88
Premium grant	£110	£116.75
Information Technology Centres grant	£110	£116.75
Permanent additional funding for disabled young peoplet	£75	£76.90

Ex-Mode B1 schemes which provide training for disadvantaged young people and Information Technology Centres receive transitional funding to help cope with the move to two-year YTS funding, and this will continue for a second year. The transitional funding arrangements in 1987–88 will be on the basis of detailed recommendations made by the commission, and take account of experience in two-year YTS so far.

The first year allowance for trainees will increase from £27.30 a week to £28.50 per week; the second year allowance will remain unchanged at £35 per week; and trainees who spend more than £3 a week on travel will continue to have the excess reimbursed by the commission.

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Since 1983, YTS has provided over a million young people with work-related training, and has opened up new prospects for jobs and qualifications. About 360,000 young people are expected to enter YTS next year and the MSC will be making available over 500,000 places in all. This latest settlement will bring the cost of YTS next year to around £1.1 billion—a major investment in training our future workforce. I believe the funding arrangements for 1987–88 represent a realistic balance which should encourage further the growth and development of a highly successful scheme.