Welfare to Work (West Midlands) (Hansard, 11 November 1997)

§ Mr. Alan Howarth

Responsibility 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 Leigh Lewis to Ms Jennifer Jones, dated 11 November 1997: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the arrangements that have been made to involve the voluntary sector in the Welfare to Work programme in the West Midlands. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. A great deal of activity has been undertaken, both at a regional level and locally, to ensure that voluntary sector organisations in the West Midlands are fully involved with the development of New Deal and the plans to implement it. In particular, over 100 representatives from 73 voluntary organisations attended a series of regional consultation events over the summer. They represented a range of voluntary sectors including women's groups; those with concern for issues of crime, race, homelessness, age; more general volunteer bureaux; and those representing local churches. In more recent months the Employment Service Regional Director, Scott McIntyre, has personally met a number of voluntary organisations including the Princes Trust, Birmingham Voluntary Sector Council, Groundwork Trust, Business in the Community, Rathbone Community Industry, West Midlands Low Pay Unit, Foyer for Birmingham, the Irish Community Forum, British Trust for conservation Volunteers and is due to meet shortly the Young Offender Consortium. Employment Service District Managers in the region have also been working with voluntary sector networks, through District events and meetings. For instance, in the Black Country Pathfinder area 89 organisations attended two District Voluntary Sector conferences from the full range of voluntary organisations in the area. In the same Pathfinder area Dudley Council for Voluntary Services, Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations, Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council and Walsall Voluntary Sector Council are all involved in a Joint Venture Partnership to take forward the Voluntary sector option in the Pathfinder. A similar level of activity can be found throughout the rest of the region and is set to continue as New Deal is developed further over the next few months. Assessment panels which are taking place over the next few weeks will consider in detail the plans for each New Deal partnership in the region. Three members of these panels, Allison Millward (Groundwork Trust and a member of the National Task Force), Ian Morrison (Birmingham Voluntary Services Council) and Sue Nicholls (Hereford and Worcester Community Council) will be from the voluntary sector. I hope this is helpful.