HC Deb 21 March 1994 vol 240 cc48-51W
Ms Short

To ask the Secretary of state for Employment (1) if he will show for each region and for Great Britain as a whole, for the latest available period, for all leavers and separately for male and female, for each ethnic group, and for those with a disability or health problem, the number and proportion of employment training trainees who three months after leaving were(a) in a full-time job with their work experience employer, (b) in a full-time job with another employer, (c) employed in their own business, (d) in a part-time job, (e) in voluntary work, (f) on another Government training programme, (g) on a full-time education or training course, (h) unemployed and claiming benefit, (i) unemployed and not claiming benefit, (j) in a job club and (k) doing something else;

(2) what proportion of respondents to the youth training leavers survey were early leavers showing the reasons for early leaving by percentage; for each region; and for Great Britain as a whole, giving information separately for males, females and in total;

(3) how many people have participated in (i) training for work—employment training/employment action—(ii) the business start-up allowance and (iii) youth training in each year since 1987–88; and how many people are expected to participate in those programmes and (a) community action and (b) learning for work in 1993–94 and 1994–95 in (1) London, (2) each standard region and (3) Great Britain;

(4) if he will give the latest available results from the employment training leavers survey for each training and enterprise council area in respect of employment training leavers who (a) had been entered for a vocational qualification, (b) had obtained a vocational qualification, (c) had failed to obtain a vocational qualification and (d) were awaiting their results; and how many of the employment training leavers in the relevant period had completed the training agreed in their initial action plan;

(5) if he will show (a) for London, (b) for each standard region and (c) for Great Britain, the latest information he has on the characteristics of those who have entered training for work in respect of (i) the number of entrants covered, (ii) whether male or female, (iii) duration of unemployment, (iv) ethnic origin and (v) whether they have a disability;

(6) if he will give for each region and for Great Britain as a whole, the latest information he has on the number and level of national vocational qualifications and Scottish vocational qualifications gained by people leaving youth training in the past year, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) disability and (c) gender; and if he will make a statement;

(7) what (a) number and (b) proportion of employment training leavers had (a) been entered for a vocational qualification, (b) obtained a vocational qualification, (c) had failed to obtain a vocational qualification and (d) were awaiting their results; and how many of the employment training leavers in the relevant period had completed the training agreed in their initial action plan in the latest period for which figures are available, giving a breakdown between male and female, by ethnic group and for those with a disability

(8) what number and proportion of respondents to the employment training/training for work leavers survey were early leavers showing the reasons for early leaving by percentage, and showing the figures separately for male, female and in total

(9) if he will publish tables showing the latest available results from the youth training leavers survey for each training and enterprise council area broken down to show the number and proportion of youth training leavers who were (a) in full-time work with the same employer, (b) in full-time work with a different employer, (c) in part-time work, (d) on a full-time course at a college or training centre, (e) on another youth training scheme, (f) doing something else, (g) who were unemployed, (h) who had obtained a vocational qualification; and if he will also indicate (i) the number of questionnaires issued, (ii) the usable percentage response rate and (iii) the percentage of respondents who were early leavers;

(10) if he will give the latest available results from the employment training leavers survey for each training and enterprise council area in England and Wales broken down to show the number and proportion of employment training leavers who were (a) in a full-time job with their work experience employer, (b) in a full-time job with another employer, (c) employed in their own business, (d) in a part-time job, (e) in voluntary work, (f) on another Government training programme, (g) on a full-time education or training course, (h) unemployed and claiming benefit, (i) unemployed and not claiming benefit, (j) in a job club and (k) doing something else;

(11) if he will show for each region and for Great Britain as a whole, for all trainees and separately for male and female, for the latest available period, the wages earned by employment training trainees who three months after leaving were (a) in a full-time job, (b) in a part-time job and (c) self-employed;

(12) if he will give for each region and for Great Britain as a whole the latest information he has on the characteristics of those who have entered employment training showing (a) the number of entrants covered, (b) whether male or female, (c) duration of unemployment, (d) ethnic origins and (e) whether they have a disability;

(13) what is the latest information he has on the number and level of national vocational qualifications and Scottish vocational qualifications gained by people leaving training for work in the past year in each region and for Great Britain as a whole, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) disabilty and (c) gender; and if he will make a statement;

(14) if he will give for each region and for Great Britain as a whole, the latest results of the youth training scheme/youth training leavers survey, to show for all trainees, for male and female trainees and for each separate ethnic group and for those with a disability, (a) those in full-time work with the same employer, (b) those in full-time work with a different employer, (c) those in part-time work, (d) those on a full time course at a college or training centre, (e) those on another youth training scheme, (f) those doing something else, (g) those who were unemployed and (h) those who had obtained a vocational qualification; and if he will also show (i) the number of questionnaires issued, (ii) the usable percentage response rate and (iii) the percentage of respondents who were early leavers.

Miss Widdecombe

As the information is contained in a large number of tables, I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy in the Library.

Ms Short

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if he will list separately for each region and for London the contractors who have been approved to deliver places in respect of(a)job clubs, (b) restart courses, (c) job plan workshops, (d) community action, (e) employment rehabilitation courses and (f) sheltered workshops and sheltered placements in 1993–94 and the number of places they have been contracted for;

(2) if he will outline for (a) job clubs, (b) restart courses, (c) job plan workshops, (d) community action, (e) employment rehabilitation courses and (f) sheltered workshops and sheltered placements, the process which is followed in inviting tenders to operate the scheme, the criteria by which successful bids are chosen, the length of contracts awarded and the element of contract funding which is determined by successful outcomes; how that performance element is assessed; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for the subject of the questions 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 Ms Clare Short, dated 21 March 1994: As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Questions about the tendering process which apply to:

  1. (a) Jobclub
  2. (b) Restart Course
  3. (c) Jobplan Workshops
    4. 51
  4. (d) Community Action
  5. (e) Employment Rehabilitation Course
  6. (f) Sheltered Workshops and Sheltered Placements
This is something which falls within the responsibilities he has delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. It is Employment Service policy that tenders are evaluated to ascertain the economically most advantageous tender taking into account quality, skills, experience, resources and price. The arrangements which apply to (a)-(c) and (e) are set out in the Employment Service Programmes Contract and Tendering Guide and a copy is enclosed for your information. In addition, for Employment Rehabilitation, a copy of the information pack "Employment Rehabilitation—Information for Contractors" is enclosed. Of these four programmes, only Jobclub relates funding to successful outcomes and the arrangements are outlined in Part Two of the Contracts Guide. One recent change has been made which does not appear in the Guide. The maximum length of a contract has been increased from two to three years to bring programmes in line with contracting arrangements which operate elsewhere in the Employment Service. For Community Action the contracting process differs from our other programmes in that contracts are for one year and providers are paid a fixed rate of £40 per filled place per week. The contracting process is described in the Community Action Specification and standard contract (copy enclosed). This also lists the criteria used to select successful bids. The primary aim of Community Action is to help long-term unemployed people back into work. No extra funding is available to providers for successful outcomes, though each contract is monitored and we expect a reasonable proportion of participants to leave the programme for jobs, training or other positive outcomes, e.g. education or self-employment. Turning to Sheltered Employment, the Secretary of State for Employment, approved on 10 March new arrangements which will come into force on 1 April for the funding of Supported Employment (formerly Sheltered Employment). ES officials are in the process of negotiating formal contracts with SE providers for the provision of places in sheltered workshops and in sheltered placements with host employers. This change will be the first occasion that formal contracts operate within this programme and the contracts are being placed with existing providers of the service. The contracts will formalise existing arrangements and will not be subject to competitive tendering. Formal contracts will clearly spell out the respective responsibilities of the Employment Service and the contractors who provide this service and will enable the ES to negotiate several qualitative and quantitative targets which will form part of the contract. In your second question about the same programmes and services, you asked for lists of contractors and numbers of places contracted for. The responsibility for contracting in the ES is decentralised and records are not held centrally at the moment. However, a contracts data base is currently being set up which will provide information on Restart Courses, Jobplan Workshops and Community Action providers. This information will be ready in the summer. Formal contracts do not exist for Supported Employment in 1993–94. I hope this is helpful.