HC Deb 27 March 1998 vol 309 cc338-41W
Mr. Wigley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many businesses in each parliamentary constituency have signed up to the New Deal; [35577]

what measures he will take to ensure a consistent geographical spread of businesses signed up to the New Deal; [35578]

what steps the Government will take to encourage businesses in areas of high unemployment to sign up for the New Deal. [35587]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Our strategy for marketing New Deal is designed to ensure that every local New Deal partnership, including those in areas of high unemployment, has the job vacancies it requires to meet the needs of its unemployed clients. The measures we are taking to achieve this include requiring local partnerships to cover marketing in their plans, (which have been approved by assessment panels, including private sector members) local marketing guides and toolkits, marketing training and planning support, and local radio and press advertising, as well as the national TV and press campaign. Additional measures for areas of particularly high unemployment include the establishment of employer coalitions by the New Deal Task Force and special workshops on marketing.

We are making encouraging progress in implementing our marketing strategy, with over 2,300 employer agreements signed across the country, with many more to come as marketing efforts are now underway in all local partnerships. 44 of these agreements are with leading national employers, offering jobs in a range of geographical locations. A breakdown of these figures by constituency is not available.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is his estimate of the(a) number and (b) percentage of persons on the New Deal who will require special attention at the Gateway, the (i) number and (ii) percentage who will require mentoring and the basis on which these estimates are made; from where he expects to recruit the mentors; and what estimate he has made of the amounts individual mentors will be paid and the total cost. [36155]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Every young person who enters the Gateway of the New Deal for 18–24 year olds will receive individually tailored help. In his Budget statement on 17 March 1998,Official Report, columns 1097–112, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £50 million boost to the help available in the Gateway.

In each unit of delivery a New Deal mentoring service will seek to recruit and train mentors who can offer the kind of independent, individual support some young people will need as they progress through the New Deal programme. We expect that suitable mentors will be drawn from all sections of local communities. Mentors will be unpaid trained volunteers, but will typically receive expenses under arrangements to be determined locally.

Each New Deal mentoring service will aim to provide a mentor for those young people identified as most likely to benefit from this extra support. Our planning assumption is that up to 100,000 young people will benefit over the life of this Parliament. On the basis of overall planning assumptions for New Deal, which are consistent with the Government's current unemployment assumptions, that would mean that about 10 per cent. of all Gateway entrants would benefit from New Deal mentoring. Units of delivery will be contracting for mentoring services over the coming months, and accurate estimates of total costs cannot be made in advance of the contracting process and some operational experience of New Deal mentoring. At this stage, our planning assumption is that mentoring might cost up to £40 million during this Parliament.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assistance those unemployed and aged over 25 years of age who are partners of unemployed people will receive through the New Deal; and if he will make a statement. [36503]

Mr. Andrew Smith

We announced in the Budget that the Government have set aside £60 million from the Windfall Tax Receipts to ensure that partners of the unemployed who are aged over 25 and are themselves out of work will have the option to receive the help they need to get back to work. Details of the New Deal for Partners and the type of assistance which partners over 25 might receive through this New Deal will be set out in due course.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the timescale for expenditure of the extra £50 million allocated to the Gateway period of the New Deal for the young unemployed in the Budget; and if he will make a statement. [36504]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Like all other allocations from the windfall tax to the New Deal for 18–24 year olds, the extra £50 million for the Gateway will help young people over the life of this Parliament.

The extra £50 million will fund a New Deal mentoring service, offering the support of trained volunteer mentors to up to 100,000 young people over the life of this Parliament. The extra money will also fund a significant enhancement of Gateway help to some of the more disadvantaged young people. There will be short basic skills courses available to every young person who could benefit; and we will also increase access to help from specialist agencies during the Gateway, to tackle such problems as homelessness, drug or alcohol dependency, or debt, at the same time as the young people are working to improve their employment prospects.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment by what criteria an unemployed individual aged over 25 years who is a partner of an unemployed person and is not in receipt of jobseeker's allowance will qualify for the New Deal; and if he will make a statement. [36506]

Mr. Andrew Smith

We announced in the Budget that the Government have set aside £60 million from the Windfall Tax Receipts to ensure that partners of the unemployed who are aged over 25 and are themselves out of work will have the option to receive the help they need to get back to work. Details of the New Deal for Partners and the criteria by which partners will be eligible for help will be set out in due course.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many individuals have given a commitment to provide mentoring support to young people through the New Deal to date; and if he will make a statement. [36507]

Mr. Andrew Smith

We have asked local New Deal partnerships to develop their mentoring services during 1998 and to make sure they are fully operational by December at the latest. Some partnerships have already made significant progress in planning and contracting for mentoring and should have provision in place shortly after the New Deal's national launch on 6 April. The first task for providers will be to recruit and train suitable volunteer mentors from all sections of the local community to offer independent, individual support to those young people entering the New Deal Gateway who are most likely to benefit from this extra help. Information about the numbers of New Deal mentors will start to be collected once mentoring services are in place.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assistance towards the needs of those aged over 50 years will be available through the New Deal; and if he will make a statement. [36508]

Mr. Andrew Smith

Two extensions of the New Deal over the coming year will include people aged 50 and over. From June, we will introduce the New Deal for all people aged 25 or over who have been unemployed for over 2 years. This will honour our manifesto pledge to introduce a £75 employer subsidy for employers who recruit people from this group. We will also provide new opportunities to train or study full time on JSA. Participants will also be eligible for help from existing provision, which includes training, help towards self-employment, and trial periods with employers. All participants will receive advisory help, to enable them to identify the best route into sustained employment.

Second, we will introduce, in November, pilots providing up to 70,000 places which will help those unemployed for at least 18 months, and, in some areas, those unemployed for 12 months. We will be consulting on the design of those pilots and, in particular, on the way in which they can best help those aged 50 and over. Our initial thinking is that they should contain key features of the New Deal approach: a gateway period to identify barriers to work; individually tailored provision which takes into account the special circumstances of each participant; and follow through support to help people stay in work.

Mr. Keetch

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment where the pilot schemes for the extension of the New Deal for those over 25 years of age will be located; and if he will make a statement. [36509]

Mr. Andrew Smith

The locations for the pilots that were announced in the Budget are yet to be decided. We will select areas which provide the best basis for reliable evaluation of the approach.