Written question asked by Harry Cohen (Labour) on Tuesday, 16 May 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 18 May 2006. It was answered by Jim Murphy (Labour) on Monday, 5 June 2006 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Action Team for Jobs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what results were achieved by the action team for jobs based in Leytonstone; what the cost was of the action team’s work; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: Since its inception in October 2000, the Waltham Forest action team, which is based in Leytonstone, has engaged with 12,592 disadvantaged customers and has helped 3,424 people into work. The total cost, for the period April 2002 to March 2006, was £2,034,306.Many of the practices and ideas developed by action teams have been integrated into Jobcentre Plus mainstream programmes and services. Examples include outreach work in local communities and the greater discretionary funding that is available to advisers.Our future strategy will build on the success of action teams, and other community-based initiatives; including the introduction of a Deprived Areas Fund (DAF) from October 2006 and the Cities strategy proposed in our recent Green Paper.

Secondary information