§ Ms KellyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much was spent in each year on the New Deal for Lone Parents; and how many lone parents have benefited from this scheme in each year. [122602]
§ Ms Hodge[holding answer 18 May 2000]: The full national New Deal for Lone Parents (Phase 3) was implemented on 26 October 1998. It had already been operating in eight prototype areas from July 1997 (Phase 1), and nationally for new and repeat claimants from 6 April 1998 (Phase 2).
The cost of implementing the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) prototype phase 1 areas was £7.9 million. The cost of implementing the national programme has been £58.6 million—broken down as £0.311 million in 1997–98, £22.3 million in 1998–99 and £36 million in 1999–2000. The figure for 1999–2000 is provisional.
Both sums include the cost of project management, the development and provision of IT support, publicity, the cost of evaluation and the costs of NDLP Innovative Pilots.
The numbers of lone parents who have benefited from the scheme are set out in the following table.
450W
Prototype phase 11 Phase 22 National programme3 Initial interviews attended 8,107 15,193 132,880 Number agreeing to participate 7,302 12,889 118,420 Number entering education/training 375 2,569 12,160 Jobs obtained 3,393 2,878 40,270 1July 1997 to October 1998 2April 1998 to October 1998 3October 1998 to February 2000