---

Lone Parent Employment

: I am so tempted that I cannot resist saying that, as long as we have a Labour Government, I am completely confident that we will continue to have good stewardship of the economy and a growing number of jobs with which to increase the employment rate. We will ensure in the prioritisation of our resources, in what will undoubtedly be a tight fiscal environment for public spending, that we focus on what we know will make a lasting difference to children and their families. Nothing is more important than providing the opportunity for work. The hon. Gentleman raised the role of the private and voluntary sectors. He has probably heard all the Department for Work and Pensions team concur with him that many support services that we want delivered for people—particularly those most disadvantaged in the labour market, be they lone parents, incapacity benefit claimants or others—are often best delivered by voluntary and private providers. However, we do not have an ideological commitment to one sector as always the most appropriate to intervene above another. We will always use the sector that works most effectively to provide our objectives. In some instances, that might well be the state, working through the Government, Government agencies or local authorities; in other instances, the private sector, the voluntary sector or both might have a key role to play.