[holding answer 5 June 2006]: Since 1997, claimant unemployment in Liverpool Riverside has fallen by 38 per cent. the number of lone parents on benefit has fallen by 24 per cent and the number of incapacity benefits recipients has begun to fall. The New Deal has helped nearly 5,000 into work. However we recognise that there is more to do, in Liverpool Riverside and the country as a whole.
Our recently published Green Paper ‘A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work’ sets out our Cities Strategy proposals for piloting new initiatives to help local organisations work together to improve economic regeneration through skills, employment and health. From 2007, the ‘Cities’ pathfinders will be charged with increasing employment and reducing social exclusion in our most deprived communities. Each area will be asked to develop a consortium with a shared interest in working together to raise employment rates and improve the economy. This may include local authorities, employers, learning and skills councils, regional development agencies, primary care trusts and Jobcentre Plus. The key aim of this initiative will be to provide solutions that offer the maximum degree of flexibility, so that local areas can provide local solutions to local problems.
This approach will provide a real focus for local efforts to help people move back into work, so that the current patchwork of programmes and support, provided by a number of organisations can be delivered in a more integrated, individually-focused and locally responsive way.