HC Deb 24 May 1990 vol 173 cc309-10W
Mr. Anthony Coombs

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the progress of the compact scheme.

Mr. Eggar

Excellent progress has been made since the launch of the initiative in 1988, when the Government announced funding for 15 inner-city compacts.

Local education/business partnerships have shown considerable interest in the initiative and as a result 40 compacts had been granted funding by the end of 1989. Given this success my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State announced in January 1990, that funding would be made available for compacts to be developed in all the remaining urban programme authority (UPA) inner-city areas from April this year.

There are now 29 operational compacts and 20 under development. A further eight are about to commence development. A full list is given in the table.

Information from the operational compacts show that the initiative is receiving a great deal of support: 4,000 employers and training organisations are actively involved in compact activities and committing some 20,000 jobs with training to those young people who meet their goals. 230 schools are participating and 40,000 young people have signed their compact agreement. In 1989 over £3 million was contributed by employers, education authorities and others to match Government funding.

The initiative has shown clearly what can be achieved by local compact partnership. This will be further enhanced by the advent of training and enterprise councils (TECs) which will progressively take over responsibility for compacts arrangements (where the education partners agree).

Operational Compacts

  • Birmingham
  • Blackburn
  • Bolton
  • Bristol
  • Cleveland
  • Coventry
  • Doncaster
  • Dudley
  • East London
  • Hull
    • 310
  • Kirklees
  • Leeds
  • Leicester
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester
  • Newham
  • North London
  • Rochdale
  • Salford
  • Sheffield
  • South East London
  • Walsall
  • West London
  • Wolverhampton
  • Wrekin

Scotland

  • Clydebank
  • Dundee
  • Edinburgh
  • Glasgow

Development Compacts

  • Barnsley
  • Bradford
  • Burnley
  • Halton
  • Haringey
  • Knowsley
  • Lambeth
  • Plymouth
  • Preston
  • Rotherham
  • Sefton (Bootle)
  • South London
  • Tyneside (Newcastle/Gateshead)
  • Wandsworth
  • Wigan

Wales

  • Clwyd
  • Mid Glamorgan
  • West Glamorgan
  • South Glamorgan

Scotland

  • UPAs/Priority area not covered by a compact
  • England
  • Brent
  • Derby
  • North Tyneside
  • Oldham
  • South Tyneside
  • St. Helens
  • Sunderland
  • Wirral

Scotland

  • Coatbridge
  • Inverclyde
  • Motherwell