§ Mr. CorbettTo ask the Prime Minister what progress the Social Exclusion Unit has made in its first year; and if he will announce the new membership of the Ministerial Network on Social Exclusion. [63135]
§ The Prime MinisterI established the Social Exclusion Unit in December 1997. I asked it to focus on the following priorities in its first phase of work to July 1998
Truancy and School Exclusion: to make a step change in the scale of truancy and exclusions from school, and to find better solutions for those who have to be excluded.Street Living: reducing to as near to zero as possible the numbers sleeping rough in towns and cities.Worst Estates: developing integrated and sustainable approaches to the problems of the worst housing estates, including crime, drugs, unemployment, community breakdown, bad schools etc.All of these are areas where action was long overdue. The Unit has reported to me on each, with a full analysis of the problem and concrete and imaginative recommendations for action, all of which I have accepted. Those recommendations are now being implemented. To take forward the work on deprived neighbourhoods, a major process of policy formulation has begun, which will contribute to a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal to be published in early 2000. This work is the biggest piece of joined up government ever attempted—eighteen policy teams, ten Ministers and departments 17W across Whitehall are working together to address some of the most intractable problems faced by deprived neighbourhoods.
These pieces of work have clearly shown the benefit of a central Unit which covers the policies of a number of Government departments, and which works at great speed with a membership of civil servants and outside experts. Other parts of Government are already learning the lessons of this method of working.
The Unit's main priorities are now:
the follow up work on poor neighbourhoods, and two new topics:
- 1. Teenage parents—to work with other Departments, building particularly on the work already undertaken by the Department of Health, to develop an integrated strategy to cut rates of teenage parenthood, particularly under age parenthood, towards the European average and propose better solutions to combat the risk of social exclusion for vulnerable teenage parents and their children. This work will report to Ministers early in the New Year.
- 2. 16 to 18 year olds—to work with other Departments to assess how many 16 to 18 year olds are not in education, work or training, analyse the reasons why and produce proposals to reduce the numbers significantly. To report to Ministers by Easter 1999.
The Unit was set up on a time limited experimental basis. Its current work programme will take it until Summer 2000 at least. Its success will be reviewed in Summer 1999, and a decision announced about its longer term future and work programme.
I have expanded the membership of the Ministerial Network on Social Exclusion to include Ministers from the Scottish Office, the Northern Ireland Office and the Welsh Office. This will help to ensure that the lessons of good practice are learned in each country. The Network is made up of Ministers from the Departments working most closely with the Unit, to act as its champions and to help guide and present its work. Its membership is:
Minister Department Stephen Byers HM Treasury (Chair) Hilary Armstrong Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Paul Boateng Home Office John Denham Department of Social Security Lord Falconer Cabinet Office Peter Hain Welsh Office Tessa Jowell Department of Health Geoffrey Robinson HM Treasury Barbara Roche Department of Trade and Industry Lord Sewel of Gilcomstoun Scottish Office John McFall Northern Ireland Office Andrew Smith Department for Education and Employment