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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he plans to adopt the definition of New Deal achievement proposed by the Select Committee on Work and Pensions at paragraph 55 of its Third Report of 2001-02; and if he will make a statement. [91614] Mr. Nicholas Brown: The sustainability of jobs is one of a number of key measures we already use to analyse the success of the New Deal programmes. Up to September 2002, 313,700 New Deal clients had moved into jobs lasting 13 weeks or more. The programme is continuing to help significant numbers of disadvantaged young people into work. Many of these have moved into jobs more quickly and have stayed there longer than they would have done without the New Deal. We are building on this success, developing further measures to help even more young people to move into sustained jobs. We have introduced initiatives such as progress2work and StepUP to provide more assistance for those who face the greatest barriers to work. We are piloting post employment mentoring support to increase job retention and we are testing tailored pathways to help young people use the New Deal Options more flexibly and move into sustained jobs.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

91614; 400 c22W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Employment Standards Take-up New deal schemes New deal for young people Progress2work initiative StepUP programme

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk