I am pleased to announce today my plans for implementing the flexible New Deal. The new employment programme will build on the success of the various existing New Deals for jobseekers it replaces, helping to underpin our objectives for full employment and eradicating child poverty.
I want to make these opportunities available to jobseekers everywhere as soon as possible. Based on our previous experience in successfully implementing Pathways to Work in just two phases, we will adopt a similar approach for the flexible New Deal, with phase 1 being delivered from October 2009 and phase 2 from October 2010.
The flexible New Deal is a key part of implementing the vision set out in David Freud’s report, “Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity” published last year. It will be the first programme commissioned under the new DWP Commissioning Strategy that I announced on 28 February, and through which we will engage specialist back to work providers in the public, private and third sectors to offer more creative and innovative ways of helping jobseekers to overcome their specific problems with the clear aim of getting into sustainable employment.
Providers will be paid by results, focused on helping long-term unemployed people into jobs that last, and focusing on every individual and not just the well motivated.
Providers will match the type and length of activity to each participant’s needs resulting in an individually tailored support package. Our vision is that everyone who can work should do so. I have made it clear that all jobseekers joining this programme will be required to do at least four weeks of work or work-related activity if they fail to find work within 12 months of support from their provider, and we will be looking for bidders who can offer even more for those who will benefit.
Advertisements for organisations interested in bidding for phase 1 contracts will be published in the press from next week.
The Jobcentre Plus districts to be included in each phase are:
Phase 1 Phase 2 Birmingham and Solihull Merseyside North and East Yorkshire and Humber Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside Tees Valley Glasgow South Yorkshire West London Derbyshire City and East London Surrey and Sussex North and North East London Kent Essex Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Nottinghamshire Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Central London Cumbria and Lancashire Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth South London Devon and Cornwall Dorset and Somerset South Wales Valleys West of England South East Wales Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon South West Wales Hampshire and the Isle of Wight North and Mid Wales Highland, Islands, Clyde Coast and Grampian Cheshire, Halton and Warrington West Yorkshire Black Country Northumbria Greater Manchester Central South Tyne and Wear Valley Greater Manchester East and West Coventry and Warwickshire The Marches Staffordshire Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Ayrshire, Dumfries, Galloway and Inverclyde Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Norfolk Lincolnshire and Rutland
Transforming Britain’s labour market: “Ten Years of the New Deal” is available at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform/docs/PMNewDeal2-01-08.pdf.
DWP “Commissioning Strategy” is available at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2008/com-strategy/cs-rep-08.pdf.