§ Ms. Armstrongasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will detail the proportion, broken down by regions of Great Britain, of those members of the community programme who are successful in obtaining employment on leaving the scheme.
§ Mr. LeeThere is no up-to-date regional information, but information for Great Britain is available from the latest (4th) survey of former community programme participants undertaken from November 1986:
- —29 per cent. of respondents obtained a job immediately on leaving the programme.
- —36 per cent. of respondents were in employment at the time of the survey, an average 11 months later.
- —59 per cent. of respondents had had at least one job during the 11 month period.
Regional information will be available in due course, and, when completed, a copy of the report of the survey will be placed in the Library.
§ Ms. Armstrongasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will outline his plans for the community programme.
§ Mr. LeeWe are planning to improve the community programme in a variety of ways. We intend to make it full-time and to pay participants a premium over and above474W their social security entitlements. This will make the programme much more attractive to long-term unemployed people with families. We also propose to enhance significantly the training and job search content of the programme.