§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing for each region and for Great Britain as a whole during 1993(a) the number of job clubs in operation, (b) the number participating in job clubs and (c) the destinations of those participating, broken down by (i) full-time employment, (ii) part-time employment, (iii) self-employment, (iv) further participation in job club, (v) full-time education or training course, (vi) unemployment and (vii) other options; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Alex Carlile, dated 14 February 1994:
653WThe Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about Jobclubs.The attached table shows the number of Jobclubs open in December 1993, the number of people who joined Jobclub from 1 January to 31 December 1993 and the number who left during the same period to go into jobs, other positive outcomes and for other reasons.Details of the number who joined Jobclub during the year have been given on the table as records of the number participating on the programe at any one time are not kept.As the primary focus of Jobclub is on getting people into work we do not keep detailed statistics on the different destinations of Jobclub leavers. Included in the "other positive outcomes" category are those leaving to go into full-time education, training (including Training for Work), self-employment, or to join a temporary work programme. The "other leavers" category includes people who are still unemployed on leaving the Jobclub and those leaving for other reasons such as health problems, or taking up part-time education. There are no figures available to show how many people subsequently re-join a Jobclub.A more detailed examination of the destination of Jobclub leavers was carried out in January 1991. This was based on a postal survey of individuals who joined in Autumn 1989. At that time 43 per cent. of respondents went into full-time employment, 10 per cent. into part-time employment, 2 per cent. into self employment, 14 per cent. joined Employment Training, 2 per cent. went into full-time education or training and the remaining 29 per cent. left for other reasons.The Employment Service is planning a wide ranging evaluation of its programmes and services which lead to jobs. This should begin in spring 1994 and will, amongst other things, allow us to update our information abut the destination of leavers.Jobclubs continue to be an effective and popular programme. We are now helping more people than ever before and almost half of those who join leave with a job to go to.I hope this is helpful.
Jobclub information 1993 Number of Jobclubs Number of entrants Number into jobs Number into other positive outcomes Number of other leavers Northern 99 14,316 5,739 7,134 1,258 Yorkshire and Humberside 120 20,509 9,154 2,724 7,811 East Midlands and Eastern 125 20,945 9,603 2,660 7,670 London and South East 429 80,354 32,003 10,086 32,302 South West 121 17,646 7,905 2,246 6,078 Wales 84 13,555 7,129 1,790 4,002 West Midlands 156 20,870 9,606 3,275 7,504 North West 184 32,593 14,312 3,595 14,429 Scotland 138 21,718 10,222 2,727 8,133 Great Britain 1,456 242,506 105,673 36,237 89,187