§ Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has any further plans to develop his Department's services for the long-term unemployed; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HowardOver the last few months I have been reviewing the wide range of help my Department offers through training and employment service to long-term unemployed people. The number of those unemployed for over six months has fallen by 60 per cent. since April 1986. Our measures have played an important part in this very substantial fall, but there is always scope for further refinement, better targeting and the introduction of new approaches.
Already this year I have announced the introduction of new "back to work" plans for each unemployed person; the establishment of a unified advisory service within the Employment Service to enhance the effectiveness of the support it can provide; extra intensive counselling and advice for those who have been unemployed for two years or more; more systematic follow-up of those who do not take up places on our programmes even though they have agreed to do so; our intention to require those who have been out of work for two years or more and persistently refuse help in finding work to attend a restart course designed to build confidence and motivation by identifying capabilities and strengths.
I am also asking the chief executive of the Employment Service to develop further a number of its existing initiatives for the long-term unemployed, to increase the number of people helped by job clubs, in particular specialist job clubs for people with particular difficulties; extend the job interview guarantee programme which offers the long-term unemployed a range of help in competing better in the labour market and which has been successfully piloted in a number of inner city areas over the 631W last year; develop the work being done to provide support for one-off projects to help disadvantaged groups back to work.