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Action Teams (Middlesbrough)

I record my sincere thanks to Mr. Speaker for granting me this debate. I have been trying to secure a debate for three or four months, and I am glad finally to have done so. I want to speak on an issue that is important to the estates that make up half of my Middlesbrough constituency. The actions plans are important to delivering the Government's programme of getting people off welfare and into work. A key part of such a programme, which has to be based on specialist work, is building confidence and giving self-esteem back to the families and communities that have suffered a history of unemployment. That approach has a particular relevance to communities such as those that I represent in Middlesbrough. I remember in the 1980s and 1990s knocking on doors in south Middlesbrough, a part of my constituency that suffered massive unemployment. It was a shock to the system to knock on every other door and find that no one was working, that everyone was unemployed. Whole families were jobless. We waited for a Labour Government. I am happy to say that, thanks to the present Government, we are now in a much better situation—it has completely changed. In my constituency, unemployment has dropped by 50 per cent. since 1997, and employment on Teesside is very different from what it was. Youth joblessness has more or less gone. Once upon a time, many left school on the Friday and signed on at the labour exchange on the Monday. I am happy to say that those days have gone. The policies that my colleagues and I in the Labour party championed have finally been implemented, and we are now seeing success, but the sheer impact of the dark years of the past still linger among those who lost valuable work skills during that time. As a result, intensive work is still needed in particular areas and social groups. Middlesbrough council has always been active in developing welfare for work and intermediate labour market schemes. Many of them are targeted on particular communities and estates in the town. One initiative was the setting up of the action team for jobs project. The programme is now five years old, and it is managed locally by Working Links. It was originally offered a contract by the Department for Work and Pensions worth some £1.4 million a year. The contract is now in its third which runs from April 2004 to an extended expiry date of October 2006. The action team targets most of Middlesbrough's wards, including Coulby Newham, Hemlington, Marton, Ladgate, Nunthorpe, Park End, Stainton and Thornton, all of which I represent. Resident participation in the scheme is voluntary, and the majority of clients are accessed through outreach in a range of community venues such as shops, post offices, libraries and Sure Start centres. An estimated 30 per cent. of clients are incapacity benefit claimants, and more than 40 per cent. are ex-offenders. Project support is tailor-made to individual needs, and there is no limit on the length of time that the action team may support an individual. The longest time an individual has been with the action team is 20 months. Consultants work with clients to alleviate barriers to employment by paying for site safety passports, driving lessons, specialist training, new clothing for interviews and travel costs. The Working Links action team for jobs currently employs in Middlesbrough eight case consultants, who recruit participants on to the programme and work one to one with clients, and a job search consultant, who works intensively with job-ready clients to place them into their desired appointments. Of the 1,214 clients involved with the action team across Middlesbrough, 554 were placed into employment—the target was 380 for the year—of whom 62 per cent. sustained full-time employment. That is an incredible record. I want to focus on a project in my constituency: Hemlington Works. As the name suggests, the project is geared towards helping jobless people in Hemlington, south Middlesbrough. The project helps people who face barriers such as economic and social isolation, low-skill levels, lack of work experience and low self-esteem and confidence. I had the honour of opening the Hemlington Works centre in April 2004. The project is a multi-agency partnership, funded by Jobcentre Plus and Middlesbrough council, which provides support through a range of providers to people seeking work in the Hemlington, Coulby Newham, and Stainton and Thornton areas. The main partners are Middlesbrough council, which provides the management; Working Links, which engages with incapacity benefit and income support claimants; and Jobcentre Plus, which provides advisors on disability and for lone parents. Other agencies that offer support include Connexions, the Shaw Trust, Pertemps, the Prince's Trust, Reed in Partnership and Community Campus. The project helps local residents to improve their chances of gaining employment. It is a working partnership that provides specialist knowledge to people of the estate, and offers a consistent and high-quality service to local men and women. So far, 150 of the 525 clients involved with the project have found sustainable employment beyond 13 weeks. That is a credible performance considering that the area bore the brunt of the devastation of the '80s and early '90s, and has high indices of illness and incapacity benefit claims. Hemlington Works is funded until March 2008. If the action team for jobs element goes in October, the project will carry on with the support of the council and other providers, but the Working Links action team is the key provider of work with income support clients and, crucially, incapacity benefit claimants. That is a key factor, given the new drive for people claiming that benefit to be diverted back into work, which is a priority for the Department for Work and Pensions and the Government. The loss of that service would be detrimental to employment and training provision as a whole, as only intensive, localised, personal and flexible support can work with such hard to reach and often alienated groups.