The Government see a vital role for the voluntary sector in tackling poverty. In 2006, more than a quarter of new deal main contracts were awarded to voluntary sector organisations and more than a third of subcontractors are from the sector. Next week, the Department will publish its commissioning strategy. Throughout the consultation on the strategy, we have made it clear that the voluntary sector will play a growing role.
Volunteering provides a much-needed road into employment for many of the long-term unemployed. Brighton and Hove volunteer centre in my constituency has worked with more than 400 voluntary organisations this year, providing the unemployed with much-needed skills, necessary references and some confidence. What does my right hon. Friend hope to do to help provide that service?
I wish to start by paying tribute to my predecessor and the radical programme of welfare reform that he established. I am honoured to be building on the work that he achieved.
I congratulate the centre that my hon. Friend mentioned and reassure her that volunteering and the voluntary sector are at the heart of our programmes to get people back into work. Volunteering can teach people important skills that bring them closer to the labour market, and the voluntary sector plays a growing role in getting people who are on incapacity benefit and those in the new deal back into work.
I welcome the Secretary of State to his position and look forward to debating with him in the months ahead. I also welcome the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform to his new Front-Bench job. He and I have had debates in the past and it is a pleasure to see him there.
Are the Government on track for achieving their target of halving child poverty by 2010?
The Government are committed to the goal of reducing child poverty. We continue to keep the strategy under review and we will make announcements at the appropriate time. However, it is surprising that the hon. Gentleman raises the issue when I do not believe that the Conservative party is committed to even an aspiration, let alone a pledge, to reduce child poverty. Perhaps he would like to answer that point.
I look forward to our changing jobs in the near future. From the lack of an answer to my question, I judge that the Government will not achieve their target of halving child poverty by 2010. Will the Secretary of State give the House a sense of when the Government hope to achieve that target?
As I said, the Government are committed to the target. The House will notice that the hon. Gentleman ducked the question on whether the Conservative party is committed to the goal. Under his predecessor, it was at least an aspiration, but it is not even that now. He is not prepared to say that he shares the aspiration of getting children out of poverty in this country, which is shameful.