Connexions (Hansard, 22 March 2004)

§ Charles Hendry
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the progress central Government has made in supporting Connexions Partnerships by(a) linking its policies together at national level, (b) sending consistent messages to all Connexions partner agencies and (c) reducing bureaucracy, as set out in Youth Support Services for 13 to 19-year-olds: A Vision for 2006. [161033]

§ Margaret Hodge
From the outset of Connexions, Government departments have worked together in partnership with external groups such as the police, social services, health services, schools and local communities to implement coherent policies for young people. Through joint working, central Government have developed guidance and targets to support consistent approaches by Connexions Partnerships and other agencies in tackling a wide range of challenging objectives, including reducing the number of young people not in education training or employment; halving the number of teenage conceptions and raising the participation of teenage mothers in learning; improving outcomes for disabled children and looked after children; supporting runaways; tackling drugs misuse; preventing offending by young people and building community cohesion.
Bureaucracy has been reduced through a range of approaches initiated by central Government including, a Supporting Better Delivery Action Plan in which central Government has reduced administrative burdens on Connexions Partnerships; 'reality testing' with 'twinned' Government Offices and Connexions Partnerships; controlling the volume of paperwork distributed from the centre; structured communication channels; and the setting up of a bureaucracy log on the Connexions website.

§ Charles Hendry
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance his Department has issued to Connexions partnership Chief Executives concerning partnerships'VAT liability. [161075]

§ Margaret Hodge
Connexions Partnerships were advised in November 2002 that HM Customs and Excise had ruled that the Connexions grant would fall616W outside the scope of VAT from 1 April 2004. This means they will be unable to recover any VAT they incur on Connexions business from that date. We are asking Partnerships to look at improving their tax efficiency by moving to different structures where they feel this is appropriate.

§ Charles Hendry
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what initiatives have developed from the Achieving Together conference for Connexions partnerships and the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and other youth service providers to ensure that Connexions works better with the VCS. [161091]

§ Margaret Hodge
The "Achieving Together for Young People" conference, which was held in Solihull in June 2003, was the first national event bringing together representatives from Connexions Partnerships, Connexions teams in Government Offices for the Regions, voluntary and community organisations and Neighbourhood Support Fund (NSF) Projects, The event was designed and delivered in partnership with the VCS. It used NSF as a case study of how voluntary and community organisations could deliver services to young people. The conference was attended by 300 delegates.
Feedback from the event suggests that the conference was largely successful in meeting its aims, in particular, in helping to facilitate the further development of partnership working between Connexions Partnerships and the Voluntary and Community Sector in providing better services for young people and in sharing good practice on joint working. The conference was also a showcase for Connexions to demonstrate its commitment to involving young people who were actively involved in running workshops and in producing the conference report.
The conference confirmed earlier evidence that some Connexions partnerships were further ahead in terms of involving the VCS in their work than others, and that newer partnerships in particular could benefit from the help of others. This led to the establishment of a small informal advisory group of six VCS Co-ordinators from partnerships who were leading the field in terms of their involvement with the Sector. Members of the advisory group are contacted by other Partnerships for advice on building their engagement. In addition, a smaller follow-up national event was held in February 2004 for Connexions VCS Co-ordinators that enabled the exchange of ideas and good practice.