§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give further information on the 100-place enterprise scheme under the action for community employment programme and its progress; and how it will be evaluated.
§ Mr. Viggers[holding answer 16 December 1987]: Since the ACE enterprise pilot scheme was launched in May 1987 60 applications have been received. To date 20 candidates have been selected to participate.
The scheme will be evaluated by departmental economists to assess the degree to which the ACE network can assist ACE workers move into self-employment.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if in relation to the action for community employment and community volunteering schemes, he will give the following information,(a) the annual budget for each of the schemes over the years since they started, (b) the current number of schemes, the places in each and their geographical distribution across Northern Ireland, (c) the number of managing agents in each scheme, the number of places in each managing agency and their location by name of sponsoring agent and address, (d) the categories of work undertaken under each scheme, (e) the criteria by which applications to be accepted on to the scheme as a sponsor are assessed and (f) the criteria by which schemes are evaluated by his Department and the training policy and training budget for each scheme.
§ Mr. Viggers[holding answer 16 December 1987]: The information is as follows:
(a) £ million ACE CVS £ £ 1981–82 1.67 — 1982–83 5.24 — 1983–84 10.6 0.3 1984–85 13.56 0.53 1985–86 17.84 0.5 1986–87 28.54 0.6 1987–88 28.84 0.63 (b) ACE 356 sponsors with 6,411 places approved.
CVS 21 sponsors (including 3 managing agents) with 2,024 volunteers.
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Geographical distribution ACE District council areas Places2 Antrim 112 Ards 59 Armagh 118 Ballymena 109 Ballymoney 2 Banbridge 54 Belfast1 2,529 Carrickfergus 141 Coleraine 96 Cookstown 111 Craigavon 242 Derry 638 Down 235 Dungannon 402 Fermanagh 135 Larne 110 Limavady 69 Lisburn 148 Magherafelt 102 Moyle 36 Newry and Mourne 541 North Down 111 Omagh 169 Strabane 122 1 Includes Castlereagh and Newtownabbey. 1 At 30 November 1987.
CVS Jobmarket areas1 Places2 Antrim 66 Armagh 16 Ballymena 16 Ballymoney — Ballynahinch — Banbridge 16 Bangor 108 Belfast 995 Carrickfergus 46 Coleraine 62 Cookstown 14 Downpatrick 7 Dungannon 1 Enniskillen 34 Kilkeel 57 Larne 33 Limavady 2 Lisburn 115 Londonderry 160 Lurgan 24 Magherafelt 4 Newcastle 6 Newry 152 Newtownards 37 Omagh 32 Portadown 3 Strabane 18 1 When the computerisation of records in Community Projects Branch has been completed all statistics will be provided on a District Council basis. 2 At 31 October 1987. (c) There are no managing agents in the ACE Scheme. The following managing agents operate within CVS.
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Volunteers Belfast Managing Agent, Bryson House, Bedford Street, Belfast 91 Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust, Murray House, Belfast 410 Waterside Churches for Community Needs, 6 Shipquay Street, Londonderry 113 (d) The following are the main categories for work undertaken by each scheme.
Environmental/Conservation
Community Care
Community Arts
Administration/Clerical
(e) Applications are accepted from sponsors who promote projects that satisfy the aims and objectives of the appropriate scheme and who demonstrate to the Department's satisfaction that they have the capability to manage an ACE/CVS project.
(f) Each scheme is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they are managed in an effective and efficient manner and that they meet their aims and objectives.
Sponsors in both ACE and CVS are encouraged to develop and implement comprehensive training and development programmes for workers and volunteers. Costs of ACE workers attending approved external training courses are funded at 100 per cent. Within CVS there is a training budget based on £30.00 per full time volunteer per year.
§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if in relation to action for community employment and community volunteering schemes, he will give(a) the criteria by which applications from the waiting list for each scheme are assessed, (b) the number of people with a registered disability with places on each scheme, (c) the breakdown of males and females on each scheme, (d) the breakdown by religious affiliation on each scheme, (e) whether the two schemes are subject to the rules of the Fair Employment Agency and (f) how he intends to apply the new policy guidelines on fair employment to sponsors of the two schemes and what monitoring arrangements are being set up; and if he will list the sponsoring agents of the community volunteering scheme by name, address and number of volunteer hours, as well as the budget for the community volunteering scheme, broken down into such local areas as is convenient.
§ Mr. Viggers[holding answer 16 December 1987]: The information is as follows:
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- (a) The following are the types of projects which are favoured in assessing applications from the waiting list:
- (i) Projects that promote the development of self sustaining employment.
- (ii) Projects from areas where the existing level of ACE provision is lower than the local incidence of long term unemployed.
- (iii) Projects that provide a service to disadvantaged groups in the community.
- (iv) Projects with an emphasis on unskilled work.
- (b) In September 1987 there were 32 disabled people in ACE. It is not known how many of these were registered disabled.
- Information in the form requested is not readily available for the community volunteering scheme.
- (c) ACE: Male 57 per cent. Female 43 per cent. Information in the form requested is not readily available for the CVS.
- (d) Information on the breakdown by religious affiliation of participants in ACE and CVS is not held by the Department.
- (e) Sponsors of both ACE and CVS are subject to the provision of the Fair Employment (NI) Act 1976.
- (f) Copies of the new policy guidelines have been issued to all sponsors. Although these guidelines are voluntary the Fair Employment Agency is under a statutory obligation to have regard to the guidelines in considering whether or not equality of opportunity has been provided.
The information about CVS sponsoring agents is as follows:
Name and address and volunteering target hours Budget £ Bryson House, Bedford street, Belfast Scheme 1 110,000 76,000 Scheme 2 98,000 45,000 (Managing Agency) Belfast Women's Aid, 46 Ulsterville avenue, Belfast 60,000 42,000 Confederation of Community Groups, 2 Bridge street. Newry 40,000 26,000 Extern, 46 University street, Belfast 51,000 36,882 The Flax Trust, Flax street, Belfast 40,000 27,923 Gingerbread, 171 University street, Belfast 30,000 21,793 North Down Volunteer Bureau, 91 High street, Bangor 38,000 25,500 NIACRO, 22 Adelaide street, Belfast 112,000 79,235 NI Women's Aid, 143A University street, Belfast 29,000 10,440 PHAB, 76 University street, Belfast 30,000 18,022 Praxis, 143 University street, Belfast 13,500 8,888 Society of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Patrick's Hall, Barrack street, Coalisland 30,000 21,975 Upper Springfield Family Support Group, 31 Ardonagh parade, Belfast 11 13,500 8,299 Voluntary Services Belfast, 72 Lisburn road, Belfast 155,000 85,000 Voluntary Services Lisburn, 50 Railway street, Lisburn 25,000 13,552 Waterside Churches Committee for Community Needs, 6 Shipquay street, Londonderry Scheme 157,000 33,500 Scheme 2 11,000 54,500 (Managing Agency) Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust, Murray House, Murray street, Belfast 100,000 64,000 (Managing Agency) Conservation Volunteers, The Pavilion, Ravenhill road, Belfast 12,000 9,125