New Deal (Hansard, 10 July 1997)

§ Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the funding methodology for young people on New Deal who are participating in the employment option. [7690]

§ Mr. Andrew Smith
Employers will be offered a subsidy equivalent to £60 a week for 26 weeks, if they recruit a young person who is eligible for the New Deal. They will be required to provide training, or to release the young person for training, for one day a week. Funding of £750 per person will be made available. The young people recruited in this way will be full employees, in regular work, and will be remunerated accordingly.

§ Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what targets he is setting for the outputs of the New Deal. [7686]

§ Mr. Smith
In due course, we will be setting and publishing targets through the Employment Service's 1998–99 Annual Performance Agreement.

§ Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action will be taken against young people who consistently refuse to participate in New Deal. [7687]

§ Mr. Smith
All four options under the New Deal will be designed to provide opportunities of genuine quality to help young people improve their employability and get into work. As rights and responsibilities go together, there will be no fifth option on full benefit. Benefit sanctions will be applied to those young people who are assessed by an Adjudication Officer to have unreasonably refused to take up a place on an option notified to them by an employment officer. Persistent refusal could result in a succession of sanctions.

§ Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how the New Deal for young people will be linked to modern apprenticeships; and what is his policy towards the development of national traineeships. [7688]

§ Mr. Smith
Progression to a modern apprenticeship may be an appropriate next step for some of the young people aged 18–24 who achieve NVQ level 2 qualifications as part of their participation in the New Deal.
Our view is that national traineeships, which focus chiefly on 16 and 17-year-olds and build on the design principles of the successful modern apprenticeships, will play an important part in achieving the objectives of Target 2000. It is vital that we improve substantially on current levels of participation and achievement to NVQ level 2 post 16 if we are to ensure that young people are qualified for the jobs of the next century. Target 2000 provides the broad policy framework for that, and the work based route has a vital role to play.